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Happy 2008, lets hope this year can be a decent one and maybe the world can start to seriously address the issues of global warming, each year forward takes us closer to the brink. On a lighter side if you keep wanting to waste carbon, check this out

the co-founder of the Hotmail webmail service has released a web based software clone of Microsoft Office 2007 to compete with the Vole.

Microsoft bought Hotmail for $400 million ten years ago. At the time, it probably didn't anticipate that the acquisition would help fund the design of a rival to its crown jewels, the Office suite cash cow that generates $20 billion annually, a third of Microsoft's revenue.

Sabeer Bhatia calls his web based office applications suite Live Documents. He believes it can challenge Microsoft's dominant Office suite by being significantly less expensive, with a subscription business model that allows customers to avoid the high initial cost of Office.

The software suite will be given away to individuals along with 100MB of free online data storage space. Companies can subscribe to use the software, hosted either remotely or in-house, for less than the cost of Microsoft Office. Its first customer has 6,700 employees.

Live Documents was developed over four years by just 32 software engineers at Bhatia's company InstaColl in Bangalore, India. The company is backed by SoftBank's Bodhi Fund.

Google Docs is another web based group of software as a service office applications like Live Documents. Released in February, Google's office suite already has major corporate customers, including CapGemini, General Motors and Proctor & Gamble, who see it as a lower cost alternative that handles both Volish and Open Document Format (ODF) files.

Other free, local client based alternatives to Microsoft Office are the several ODF based offerings including open sauce Open Office, Sun's StarOffice and IBM's Lotus Symphony, all compatible with Microsoft Office, though that might not continue in the future as the Vole changes its formats.

Live Documents is better than Google Docs and the other alternatives, Bhatia contends, because it closely imitates Microsoft's latest Office 2007.

He believes office applications delivered as a service over the Internet is the wave of the future, due to lower up front and later upgrade costs. He said, "This will do for documents what Hotmail did for e-mail. Why spend $400 on an upgrade when you can get it for free?"

"We are just a few years away from the end of the shrink-wrapped software business. By 2010, people will not be buying software," Bhatia said.

Mr. Bhatia might be onto something with his Live Documents office suite, delivered as a service, but we're not convinced. The overwhelming majority of users of Microsoft Office haven't yet upgraded to Office 2007, and many might not for quite a while yet. There is significant resistance among Office users to the many user interface changes Microsoft made in Office 2007, and that will limit the appeal of Live Documents as an alternative for office applications.

Then there's its dependence on Microsoft file formats, which the Vole changes regularly in order to disadvantage competitors and slowly force users through network effects to pay for expensive Office upgrades. Bhatia's potential customers can't be confident that Live Documents will keep up with Microsoft's future changes to its Office file formats, and since it doesn't support ODF files, they can't use it to migrate away from the Microsoft vendor lock-in of Office to ensure that their files will always be accessible.

Google Docs has the first mover advantage and has already attracted recognition and the respect that comes with an impressively large early customer base. It has the advantage of being compatible with both Microsoft Office and ODF file formats, too. And Google certainly has the financial resources to persevere in an extended contest with Microsoft.

We somewhat like the idea of office software as a service, but Google was there first and Live Documents is chained to the Vole, so we think it's going to have an uphill road to go.

But then, maybe Microsoft might eventually just buy Live Documents, like it did Hotmail.

For illustration, we'll use the Six Nations match between Wales and Scotland in Cardiff on 14 February 2004, to describe the process.

Step One: Check pre match ratings

• The top 10 countries in the IRB World Rankings, immediately before the match, are shown below. Wales were on a rating of 76.92 and Scotland slightly lower on 76.36.

Step Two: Allow for home advantage

• To 'handicap' the home side, we treat them as though they are three points stronger than their current rating, which means that they will tend to pick up fewer points for winning, and give away more points for losing
• This gives Wales a rating of 76.92 +3 = 79.92, against Scotland's rating of 76.36.

Step Three: Calculate the Rating Gap

• The Rating Gap is the difference between the ratings of the two sides
• Allowing for home advantage it is 79.92 - 76.36 = 3.56 (in favour of Wales).

Step Four: Check the possible Core Rating Changes

• Core Rating Changes are based on the match result and the Rating Gap
• As illustrated in the diagram below, with a Rating Gap of 3.56, if Wales won their Core Rating Change would be up, and Scotland's down, by 0.64

• Again as illustrated below, if the game was drawn, Wales Core Rating Change would be down, and Scotland's up, by 0.36

• And finally if Scotland won their Core Rating Change would be up, and Wales's down, by 1.36.

So Wales, as the higher rated side (especially allowing for home advantage) would pick up fewer points than Scotland if they won the match, and would give away more points if they lost.

Step Five: Apply weighting factors

• If one side has won by more than 15 points, we multiply the Core Rating Change by 1.5. So if Wales won 30-10 the points exchange would be 0.64 x 1.5 = 0.96.
• If the match was part of the World Cup Finals, we would then double the Rating Change.

What happened?

• Wales won the match 23-10, so the sides exchanged 0.64 rating points, with Wales going up to 77.57 and Scotland going down to 75.72.

Halo developer Bungie Studios has announced plans to break away from Microsoft just one week after delivering the biggest video game launch in history.

Bungie will once again begin the process of becoming an independent company after operating as a subsidiary of Microsoft since being acquired in June 2000.

The move comes just days after the official launch of Halo 3 which smashed sales records and logged more than $300m in global sales in the first week alone.

As part of the deal, Microsoft will retain the rights to the Halo franchise. The hugely successful first-person shooter series has been widely credited with helping to establish the Xbox 360 as a major games console.

In explaining the move, Bungie founder Jason Jones likened the company's position to that of a shark.

"We have to keep moving to survive," he said. "We have to continually test ourselves, or we might as well be dolphins. Or manatees."

Both companies vowed to continue a publishing agreement which will include development of future Halo titles, as well as what was termed a " primary focus" on Microsoft's platforms.

Neither company would elaborate on the agreement, but reports suggest that Microsoft will retain rights of first refusal to all future Bungie titles, allowing for early or exclusive release of games on the Xbox 360 platform.

Intel announced USB 3.0 specification could push throughput beyond 4Gbps (300MBps) at the application level while introducing Quality of Service in support of HD video streams. Besides supplanting Firewire once and for all, a clear goal of the new "SuperSpeed USB" is to keep up with the transfer speeds of flash chips. "We don't want to be the bottleneck in the system," says Intel's Jeff Ravencraft who is overseeing the 3.0 initiative. Intel, HP, Microsoft, NEC, NXP, and TI will present the initial spec for a design review in November with first silicon to be stamped in "early 2009." While the new interconnect (pictured) will remain backward compatible with USB 2.0 and prior devices, new cables laced with an optical link and a max length of 2-meters will be required to take advantage of those high speeds according to a senior engineering manager with NEC. Meanwhile, a 1Gbps throughput is being targeted with Ravencraft's other baby: Wireless USB 1.1. Sounds great, but with existing 480Mbps Wireless USB silicon only achieving about 40Mbps in practice, Intel would be wise to focus on efficiency, not theory. Of course, it's all just a lot of smack-talk 'til they deliver, but with Apple running Intel inside now, Sony putting USB in their camcorders, and eSATA proliferating for external disks... well, Firewire's days sure seem numbered

At one time the only mortals on the earth were men. Prometheus had made them, Athene had breathed life into them. The chief god Zeus did not like them.

One day Prometheus was trying to solve a quarrel that was raging between the gods and the men. At a festival the men were going to sacrifice a bull for the first time. They asked him which parts of the bull should be offered to the gods and which should be eaten by men. Prometheus decided to play a trick on Zeus. He killed the bull, skinned it and butchered it. He split it into two portions, in one he put the best, lean meat. In the second he put bones followed by a thick layer of fat. Prometheus offered both to Zeus to take his choice. Zeus looked at both portions, one looked good but was rather on the small side, the other was much larger and covered in a layer of fat which Zeus felt must cover the best, tastiest portion of meat. He chose that one. When Zeus realised that he had been tricked he was furious. He took fire away from man so that they could never cook their meat or feel warm again.

Prometheus reacted immediately flying to the Isle of Lemnos where he knew the smith Hephaestus had fire. He carried a burning torch back to man. Zeus was enraged. He swore vengeance and started making an evil plan.

Zeus, set Hephaestos the task of creating a clay woman with a human voice. Hephaestos worked and worked and created a masterpiece. Athene, goddess of wisdom and Zeus' daughter liked the clay figure and she breathed life into it. She taught the woman how to weave and clothed her. Aphrodite the goddess of love made her beautiful. The god Hermes taught her to charm and deceive.

Zeus was pleased with what he saw, but he had made her as a trap. He named the woman Pandora and sent her as a gift to Epimetheus. Epimetheus had been warned by his brother Prometheus that he should never accept gifts from Zeus because there would always be a catch. Epimetheus ignored his brother's warning, fell in love with Pandora and married her. Zeus, pleased that his trap was working gave Pandora a wedding gift of a beautiful box. There was one condition however...that was that she never opened the box.

For a while they were very happy. Pandora often wondered what was in the box but she was never left alone so she never opened it. Gradually over a while she began to wonder more and more what was in the box. She could not understand why someone would send her a box if she could not see what was in it. It got very important to find out what was hidden there.

Finally she could stand it no longer. One day when everyone was out she crept up to the box, took the huge key, fitted it carefully into the lock and turned it. She lifted the lid to peep in but before she realised it the room was filled with terrible things: disease, despair, malice, greed, old age, death, hatred, violence, cruelty and war. She slammed the lid down and turned the key again...keeping only the spirit of hope inside.

Hotblack Desiato is the ajuitar keyboard player of the rock group Disaster Area, claimed to be the loudest band in the universe, and in fact the loudest sound of any kind, anywhere. So loud is this band that the audience usually listens from the safe distance of thirty seven miles away in a well-built concrete bunker. Disaster Area's lavish performances went so far as to crash a space ship into the sun to create a solar flare

A smudge of driveway sealant resembling the face of Jesus Christ has fetched more than $1,500 in an online auction.

The family that found the image on its garage floor sold it for $1,525.69 on eBay Wednesday, more than a week after the slab of concrete was put on sale.

"I really never thought I'd get any, to be honest," said Deb Serio, a high school teacher.

"It's fun to see what people say and think about it," said Serio, who has gotten hundreds of messages from around the world.

The family has hired a contractor to remove the section of concrete. The chunk will be turned over to the winner, identified only as "islandoffthecoast."

An active Lutheran, Serio considers the smudge just an odd occurrence ? not a sign or miracle.

"There are some people who need this kind of thing to sort of start them on their faith journey. I don't," she said. "That's why I don't mind parting with it."

A double, an identical replica of a person. The idea behind this is that everyone has a Doppleganger, an identical copy of themselves somewhere in the world. If the person is good, then the Doppleganger will be evil and vice versa. It is even said that if the two should meet, then they will both perish.

Although there is no evidence that Dopplegangers exist, some people have actually reported claims of witnessing what they believe to be their Doppleganger. In all likelihood however, Dopplegangers are an aspect of myth only.

Do you have one?

Now why am I not suprised?

There is a huge gap between the broadband speeds providers are advertising and those that users are able to achieve at home, research by Which? showed today.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has previously said it is acceptable for broadband providers to use the words "up to" in their adverts, as long as most customers can get close to the advertised speeds.

However, Which? claims that while many companies advertise speeds of up to 8Mbps (megabits per second) or faster, consumers are achieving an average speed of just 2.7Mbps, while some have experienced speeds as low as 0.09Mbps.

The consumer group is calling on Ofcom and Trading Standards to investigate providers' claims, which it says are misleading consumers.
"It is shocking that internet service providers can advertise ever-increasing speeds that seem to bear little resemblance to what most people can achieve in reality," said Malcolm Coles, editor of which.co.uk.

"If it is unlikely you'll reach the advertised speed it should be made clear up front, so that you know with some certainty what you're buying."

There are many factors that affect the speed of a consumer's broadband, including how far they live from the telephone exchange and how many people are sharing the same connection to the exchange.

Speeds can also vary throughout the day, depending on how many other users are online.

The ASA has taken action against companies that have been found to advertise much faster speeds than are achievable by most customers.

Earlier this year, the ASA ruled that Be Unlimited had breached its codes on truthfulness and substantiation when it advertised broadband at speeds up to 24Mbps, which were unachievable for most consumers.

Last September, Bulldog was forced to withdraw adverts for broadband speeds of up to 8Mbps after a similar ruling by the ASA.

A spokeswoman for Ofcom said the regulator was working with the ASA to make sure advertising did not mislead consumers.

She said there were rules in place to ensure adverts made it clear that the advertised speeds were the maximum available, but that the situation was being monitored.

Remember these little beauties!

With its monochrome screen, strange-sized disk and off-grey/white plastic, the Amstrad PCW was not a machine built for aesthetic qualities.

The computer - with the motherboard and other innards in the same box as the monitor - occupied a strange era, the 1980s, when it was obvious to most that computers were going to take over the world, but were doing a fairly slow job of infiltrating the average home.

In this time before the internet, computers were mainly the preserve of the early adopter, the techie and the person with a lot of money to throw about.

But Alan Sugar's PCW, nicknamed Joyce after his secretary and featuring either 256k or 512k memory, plugged the gap between the obviously moribund electric typewriter and the impossibly sophisticated PC.

Everyone from small business owners to bedroom novelists fell in love with the PCW. Teachers wore baffled expressions and consulted the rulebooks as the children of PCW owners turned up with printed-out homework.

As well as a simple-to-operate word processing program, Locoscript, one of the best qualities of the PCW was an apparent inability to crash. There were no egg-timers, just a green (or orange/brown) rectangle, winking and waiting for you to type.

The public response was enthusiastic, with sales of the PCW range, comprising the 8256, 8512, the 9-series and others, estimated to have been as high as 1.5 million.

Although it was primarily a word processor, and one with limited capabilities at that, the PCW had desktop publishing, art and even games.

As well as the text adventure games of the "use the sword to kill the ogre" type, there were also valiant efforts at more graphical games. These included Bounder - guide a tennis ball over a landscape fraught with danger - and Head Over Heels, an isometric platform game featuring two dogs, one able to jump high and fire doughnuts out of a gun, the other able to run fast.

   

I was reading the Felowship of the Ring to my boy last night. I had forgotten how good the Troll poem was:

Troll sat alone on his seat of stone,
And munched and mumbled a bare old bone;
For many a year he had gnawed it near,
For meat was hard to come by.
Done by! Gum by!
In a cave in the hills he dwelt alone,
And meat was hard to come by.

Up came Tom with his big boots on.
Said he to Troll: 'Pray, what is yon?
For it looks like the shin o' my nuncle Tim.
As should be a-lyin' in the graveyard.
Caveyard! Paveyard!
This many a year has Tim been gone,
And I thought he were lyin' in the graveyard.'

'My lad,' said Troll, 'this bone I stole.
But what be bones that lie in a hole?
Thy nuncle was dead as a lump o' lead,
Afore I found his shinbone.
Tinbone! Skinbone!
He can spare a share for a poor old troll,
For he don't need his shinbone.'

Said Tom: 'I don't see why the likes o' thee
Without axin' leave should go makin' free
With the shank or the shin o' my father's kin;
So hand the old bone over!
Rover! Trover!
Though dead he be, it belongs to he;
So hand the old bone over!'

'For a couple o' pins,' says Troll, and grins,
'I'll eat thee too, and gnaw thy shins.
A bit o' fresh meat will go down sweet!
I'll try my teeth on thee now.
Hee now! See now!
I'm tired o' gnawing old bones and skins;
I've a mind to dine on thee now.'

But just as he thought his dinner was caught,
He found his hands had hold of naught.
Before he could mind, Tom slipped behind
And gave him the boot to larn him.
Warn him! Darn him!
A bump o' the boot on the seat, Tom thought,
Would be the way to larn him.

But harder than stone is the flesh and bone
Of a troll that sits in the hills alone.
As well set your boot to the mountain's root,
For the seat of a troll don't feel it.
Peel it! Heal it!
Old Troll laughed, when he heard Tom groan,
And he knew his toes could feel it.

Tom's leg is game, since home he came,
And his bootless foot is lasting lame;
But Troll don't care, and he's still there
With the bone he boned from its owner.
Doner! Boner!
Troll's old seat is still the same,
And the bone he boned from its owner!

This traditional Georgian story contains some very familiar motifs. It seems that Finn Macool or Jack the Giant Killer must have visited as well as Jason!

There came from far-off lands a strong man, a giant, who had nowhere met his match. He challenged anyone in the whole kingdom to wrestle with him. The king gathered his folk together but, to his chagrin, could not find anybody ready to face the strong man until, at last, there stood forth a weak insignificant-looking dwarf, who offered to wrestle with the giant. Haughtily looking down on his adversary the giant carelessly turned away, thinking that he was befooled. But the dwarf asked that his strength should be put to the proof before the struggle began.

The giant angrily seized a stone and, clasping it in his fingers, squeezed moisture out of it.

The dwarf cunningly replaced the stone by a sponge of the same appearance and squeezed still more moisture out of it.

The giant then took another stone and threw it so violently onto the ground that it became dust.

The dwarf took a stone, hid it under the grass, and threw onto the ground a handful of flour, to the great astonishment of the giant.

Stretching forth his hand to the dwarf the giant said: "I never expected to find so much strength in such a little man, I will not wrestle with you but, instead, give me your hand in token of friendship and brotherhood."

Afraid of the giant?s grip the dwarf refused. The giant was angry and asked the dwarf why he would not press his hand in a brotherly manner. The dwarf replied that he was unable to moderate the force of his grip and that more than one man had already died from the fearful force of his hand. After hearing this reply the giant invited the dwarf to go home with him.

The new brothers set out together. On their way to the giant's house they came to a stream which had to be forded. The dwarf, fearing to be carried away by the current, told the strong man that he was suffering from stomach-ache and did not wish to go into the cold water, so he asked to be carried over.

In the midst of the stream the strong man, with the dwarf on his shoulders, suddenly stopped and said: "I have always believed that strong people are heavy, but I cannot feel you on my shoulders. Tell me how this is, for God's sake."

"Since we have become brothers," replied the dwarf, "I have no right to press with all my weight upon you. If I did not support myself by holding onto the sky with one hand you could never carry me."

The strong man, wishing to test his strength, asked the dwarf to drop his hand for a moment, whereupon the dwarf took from his pocket two nails and stuck the sharp points of them into the shoulders of the giant. The giant could not endure the pain, and begged the dwarf to lighten his burden at once, i.e., to lay hold of heaven again with one hand.

When they had reached the other side the two friends soon came to the strong man's house. The giant, wishing to give a dinner to the dwarf, proposed that they should share the work of getting it ready and that one of them should take the bread out of the oven while the other went to the cellar for wine.

The dwarf saw in the oven an immense loaf which be could never have lifted so he chose to go to the cellar for wine. But when he had descended the steps he was unable even to lift the weights from the tops of the jars, so, thinking that by this time the giant would have taken the loaf out of the oven, he cried: "Shall I bring up all the jars?"

The giant, alarmed lest the dwarf should spoil his whole year's stock of wine by digging the jars out of the ground where they were buried, rushed into the cellar and the dwarf went upstairs. But great was the astonishment of the dwarf when he found that the bread was still in the oven and that he must take it out, willy-nilly. He succeeded with difficulty in dragging a loaf to the edge of the oven shelf but he could not support the weight and fell with the hot bread on top of him. Being unable to free himself he was almost smothered.

Just then the giant came in and asked what had happened. The dwarf replied:

"As I told you this morning, I am suffering from a stomach-ache so, in order to sooth the pain, I applied the hot loaf as a plaster." The giant said: "Poor fellow! How do you feel now, after your plaster?" "Better, thank God," replied the dwarf, " In fact I feel so much better that you can take the loaf off my stomach now"

The giant lifted the loaf and the two then sat down to dinner.

Suddenly the giant sneezed so hard that the dwarf was blown up to the roof and seized a beam so that he should not fall down again. The giant looked up with astonishment and asked: "What are you doing now?" The dwarf angrily replied: "If you do such a vulgar thing again I shall pull this beam out and break it over your stupid head." The giant made humble excuses and promised that he would never sneeze again during dinner time. Then he brought a ladder by which the dwarf came down and they finished their meal in peace.

I was doing a merry document for work and part of the requirement was for a list and desciption of the core Windows server services, services that the business would use, directly ot indirectly in daily business (not the under the under bonnect geek services). The web was short of Info so I'd knocked it up, then though... hmmmm I could use this content myself 


What is Computer Browser?
The browser service maintains a list of the domain name or workgroup name the computer is in, and the protocol being used for each computer on the network segment being served by the computer running the browser service. On each network segment, a master browser is elected from the group of computers located on the segment that are running the browser service

What is Distributed File System?    
DFS provides location transparency and redundancy to improve data availability in the face of failure or heavy load by allowing shares in multiple different locations to be logically grouped under one folder, or DFS root

What is the Event Log?   
Applications and operating system components can make use of this centralized log service to report events that have taken place, such as a failure to start a component or complete an action. The system defines three log sources, "System", "Application", and "Security"

What is W32Time service?
The Windows Time service (W32Time) is designed to maintain date and time synchronization for computers running Windows 2000XP/2003. The primary use for such time synchronization is to ensure the security of Kerberos authentication within an Active Directory environment

What is the World Wide Web Publishing Service?
The World Wide Web Publishing Service (WWW service) provides Web publishing for IIS, connecting client HTTP requests to Web sites running on an IIS-based Web server

What is the DHCP Server service?   
DHCP Server Contains IP addresses, lease duration, and associated TCP/IP configuration information. The DHCP server listens for client requests and processes them

What is DNS Server?   
DNS Server service. This is a fully fledged, , DNS server that provides all types of DNS service, including caching, Dynamic DNS Update, zone transfer, and DNS notification. DNS notification implements a push mechanism for notifying a select set of secondary servers for a zone when it is updated.

What is Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP)?)
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol: The Internet standard protocol for transferring electronic mail messages from one computer to another. SMTP specifies how two mail systems interact and the format of control messages they exchange to transfer mail.

What is the SNMP Service?
Simple Network Management Protocol. The network management protocol used almost exclusively in TCP/IP networks. SNMP provides a means to monitor and control network devices, and to manage configurations, statistics collection, performance, and security.

What is Terminal Services Licensing?   
Terminal Services provides the ability to host multiple, simultaneous client sessions on Microsoft Windows Server 200x. Terminal Server is capable of directly hosting compatible multi-user client desktops running on a variety of Windows-based and non Windows-based hardware. Standard Windows-based applications do not need modification to run on the Terminal Server

What is WINS Server service?   
The Windows Internet Naming Service supports name resolution, the automated conversion of computer names to network addresses, for Windows networks. Specifically, WINS converts NetBIOS names to IP addresses on a Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN).

What is the Server Service?   
The Microsoft Server Service allows for file sharing between other networked hosts.

What is the Spooler Service?   
This used to be called a print queue it Loads files to memory for later printing

What is RPC?   
Remote Procedure Call is used to establish communications between the client and server to call program functions on a remote computer

What is NetLogon?
The NetLogon service This service is responsible for communication between systems in response to a logon request or a domain synchronization request.

What is the Windows Installer?   
Windows Installer enables the efficient installation and configuration of your products and applications. The installer provides new capabilities to advertise features without installing them, to install products on demand, and to add user customizations.

Meaning

Two things that are might possibly be confused but which are in fact very different.

Origin

There are several phrases that suggest one thing is interchangeable with another, e.g. 'a change is as good as a rest', 'enough is as good as a feast'. I can't think of another that specifically draws a distinction between two things like 'as different as chalk and cheese'. Why the need to make the distinction? After all, chalk and cheese aren't similar enough for anyone to confuse them.

The earliest citation of the phrase, in John Gower's Confessio Amantis, 1390 does suggest some dodgy dealing, in which cheese is replaced with chalk:

Lo, how they feignen chalk for chese.

and

And thus ful ofte chalk for chese
He changeth with ful litel cost,
Wherof an other hath the lost
And he the profit schal receive.

The English language is packed full of phrases that contain pairs of rhyming or alliterating words - often for no better reason that whoever coined liked the sound of them. For example, hocus-pocus, the bee's knees riff-raff etc, It doesn't seem likely that the naming of chalk and cheese as items that are specifically different has any more behind it than the alliteration of the two words.

I has three or four domains registered with www.register.com and they have done a great job for three of four years, but I always found them quite expensive, anyway I finally got around to moving the domains to www.namecheap.com , pretty simple procedure, nothing to stop the heart.

Anyway you have to get an auth code to move a domain which entails phoning your vendor which I did,

the guy at register says, 'sure no problem - why are you moving your domains?'
I tell him 'cost mate'
he says "Who have you gone with and how much are thye charging you"
"namecheap and $8.99 a year"
"We can match that price" he says
"I say its a bit bloody late now, why not offer it to me instead of having to leave to get a better price"
"Company Policy, sir"
So I says "To late, I'm moving"

Moral of the story phone your provder and see if they will budge on thier price!

The question that every web master asks 'So come on, how do you do it? how do you get to the top of the search engine rankings?' - I'm no SEO guru but I have gotten to the top with a few and the things I think are relevant are

Competition - How many others are using your same key words?
USB - I will never get to the top. Trons - easy peasy

Consider - Think of the most logical search phrase that your clients will use to try and fnd you.
Once identified make sure its in your metatags and on your home page in no more than 4 places. DO no use hidden text!

Submit - Get off your bum and submit your site to the major search engines

Content - Make sure your sites content is relelvant and frequently updated, stale content is no good, get a fourm, have a blog, post up news stories etc

Generate site visits - A tricky one and a bit catch 22, how do you get traffic if no-one can find you? Ask friends and relatives to help you, if neccessary pay content writers or bloggers to help you.

Over 100,000,000 million domain names have been registered and only 18,000,000 have content and of those 99% have no significant traffic at all. It wont take much to get you up the ranking

Be Patient - Rome was not built in a day, it may take you months to get to where you are heading, stick withit and you will make it!

Sermon over   

Where does the time go? I believe I update these thoughts/observations every two days or so and so when I check I am horrified to see it have been a week. Where is my life going, each week is a beat of the heart, each month a blink of an eye, each year a bowel movement

Its going to be 'lights out' as quick as lightening!

A computer virus that claims to reveal the secrets of the latest Harry Potter book is being spread by fans desperate to find out the ending of the seven-book series.

Hackers have disguised the PC worm as a file called HarryPotter- TheDeathlyHallows.doc, the title of JK Rowling's latest book, which is released on July 21.

The virus, known as Hairy-A, claims the teenage wizard is dead and infects PCs when users plug in a USB memory stick.

This allows it to hop between different users every time the device is connected to a computer.

Among its effects are creating a bunch of new users on the PC using character names from the books including Harry, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

After logging in, users are shown a message saying: 'Read and repent, the end is near, repent from your evil ways O Ye folks, lest you burn in hell.'

The program then opens up a fake webpage of book-seller Amazon.com displaying a novel called Harry Putter and the Chamber of Cheesecakes.

Software company Sophos said thousands of fans keen to find out the finale to the series are helping feed the worm's spread.

Spokesman Graham Cutley said: 'The fact that this worm has been inspired by the tales of a fictional schoolboy wizard doesn't make it a harmless prank.

'Using such social engineering at this time is a trick dastardly enough for Lord Voldemort himself.'

O, I am totally against terrorism whatever its source and whomever the intended victims or the reasoning behind it, its just bad - fullstop.

It does always stike me though as to how little creative thinking these people must have, airports, night clubs in the captial are not hese highlt likely targets and very very obvious, surely if you want to get away with it you pick somewhere a little more subtle, like a town in Somerset or a bust station in Wales whatever, one you have a great bigger chance of sucess and two you can freak out the population at large.

Just hope MI5 are not reading this.. oh who is that at the doorbell.. wont be a second... arggghhh ...oofff

 

The UK's threat level have to moved to critical, yet again mainland Britain is under threat for extremists and terrorists. Look, I understand groups are pissed of with the UK's government but why try to kill you and me, who the fuck do these people think they are? Are you better than me, no of course you are not.

One hand in the till of the UK (claiming ALL of your benefits) while the other is making a bomb to kill people you do not know who have thier own lives, loves and ambitions - go to heaven you have got to be kidding no gods gonna advocate what you do. You will burn for eternity

How wierd must it be, yesterday you ran a country and today the removal men are in packing up your stuff, your out of a job and out of your home... Nothing will be th esame for you again.. Have to pay your own way, dial your own phone numbers, pay council tax.. stand up when others come into the room, queue at the doctors sugery, get your own groceries.

I'm sure I would be shedding a big tear or two

Its all over for Tony Blair huh. Gordon Brown has finally gotten into power. I'm not sure though when the removal vans turn up and goes and ditched Tony's stuff, lucky he has made a few quid and has a couple of other properties put by.

You reckon history will look favourably upon Tony Blairs reign or will he be marytered by the world at large ?

I personally think the boy did a pretty good job

I have listened relics by Pink Floyd for the first time today, it clould possibly be the most 1960's album I have ever heard in my life, what would you catagorize it as - Psychedelic rock ?

Down, down. Down, down. The star is screaming.
Beneath the lies. Lie, lie.
Careful, careful, careful with that axe, Eugene.
The stars are screaming loud.

I slept really badly last night, I wonder if it was a full moon as my sleep is always disturbed during a full moon I wonder if its something primordial in the mind of man that is stirred during the gravitational pull of the moon?

 What do you reckon my friends?
 

I went to the cinema and saw the new Fantasitc Four Movie and I went with my mind pretty closed after seeing the first one a couple of years back. But I must say I really enjoyed this one, the characters have all developed a great deal and I just love 'The Thing' and 'The Human Torch' - the silver surfer was the business as well... It looks like some critics did not rate it though   

"This movie is a mess. It's as if the script was cobbled together in a rush then changed during filming. The ending, in addition to being a letdown, is nonsensical. A lot of what happens in the film, including the re-introduction of Dr. Doom, feels completely arbitrary. What does it say about a major motion picture when the Stan Lee cameo is the highlight? (That was the only time when I smiled.) Rise of the Silver Surfer is only 90 minutes long but it seems as protracted and pointless as anything else this summer has had to offer. "

Wow, looks like the boffins have found a dinky little dinosaur that could run like Roadrunner out of the cartoons, I wonder if it went 'Meep Meep' as well when it starting its run - they will be looking to find Speedy Gonzales next!

A plant-eating dinosaur that may have been the "roadrunner" of its time has been discovered, plugging a key gap in the fossil record.
Eocursor parvus, which stood on two legs, was about the size of a fox and, weighing no more than two bags of sugar, was built for speed.
The early dinosaur would have dashed about on its long and agile hind legs to escape predators.
The diminutive dinosaur, whose name comes from the Greek eos meaning dawn or early, the Latin cursor meaning runner and parvus meaning little, was a primitive member of a large group of dinosaurs called the ornithischians.
The creature lived about 220 million years ago, when the group first made its appearance.
Later, at the height of the dinosaurs' reign during the Cretaceous period, ornithischians included some the best-known dinosaurs, the large and lumbering Triceratops, Iguanodon and Stegosaurus. Many of these dinosaurs lived in vast herds of up to 10,000 individuals.
Fossil remains of a single specimen of the little dinosaur were discovered in South Africa in 1993, but have only recently been studied.
Today's study sheds light on the origins of the plant-eating dinosaurs .
Scientists at London's Natural History Museum who examined the skull fragments and bones from the animal's backbone, pelvis and legs - the most complete find of its kind from this period - confirmed that it is a new species.

 

"A rush of blood to the head" certainly some top tunes on the album thats for sure, really like listening to it in the morning.

I wen tot he gym this morning and was doing a run (well just finisihing it) and one of the staff came over and asked if I fancied doing a circuits class - "Yeah Sure" I said.... well it well neear killed me, it was like nothing I had done beofre my head was pounding and I was gasping for breat and as we finished he said "Well done, this was the advanced class" - arrghhhhh. My legs and arms are like blooming lead now

Far to many sherberts yesterday, my good friend has sold his pub and yesterday was the last official day so we popped in for a couple - the drinks were cheap to clear stock so we oblidged and tried to help him, 12 pints of lager and a bottle of port later and a few rums we staggered of home having had a great but slightly sad day, now I have a king size hangover still and its gone mid-day thank god I have a dayt off work, I will learn my lesson one day - but when that one is, who knows!   

Friday bonny Friday, time to go out and have a few beers its a pity its of course pouring down with rain when its been so nice over the week, typical, becuse if its raining I ain't taking the board out thats for usre nothing more miserable than getting soaked?

Other than that I have no gotten to many plans, are you up to anything interesting or unusual?

Why has Paris Hilton been let out of jail - WTF is that all about, dshe shouls stay and complete here sentance, its makes a mocker of the law

 

The Andrews Sisters years before my time WWII vintage, I heard a couple of records by them yesterday  Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and Mr Sandman - brilliant, what great voices they had and fantastic timing, and the music to bugle boy was fab - I know its like 'out of date' and that but it rocks and if you get the opportunity give it a listen

Here is a bit about them

One source lists 113 singles chart entries by the trio between 1938-1951, an average of more than eight per year. They boasted an exuberant, close-harmony style well-suited to cheery novelty songs, and their intricate vocal arrangements and rhythmic ability mirrored the sound of the swing bands that constituted their chief competition in their heyday. But, in a sense, they had no competition. No other female vocal group, and very few male ones, came close to their success from the late '30s to the early '50s, an era when first big bands and then solo singers dominated popular music. Their reign is all the more remarkable given that they swam against the current of contemporary music trends while making it seem effortless. For the most part, the Andrews Sisters did not focus on romantic material, but rather sang upbeat songs, often borrowed from other cultures. Although they were well-established by the time the U.S. entered World War II, their optimistic tenor made them perfect boosters of the war effort, and in later years they remained closely identified with the war years, remembered as wearing military uniforms and singing their signature song, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy."

Well, got me a niced little issue today with an X-Windows emulator running through a citrix session, installed on four boxes but for some reason the path is different on one of the four and dumping users.... hmmmmmm.

Hummingbird Exceed 10.0 man I'm glad I'm alive LOL

After a pretty dismal May, looks like summer is back in the form of June, clear blue skies and a pretty good temperature should hold for some skating at the weekend. Just have to get work out of the way first!

The new iPhone goes on sale very shortly thinking of getting one? I'm not as I don't think I would make good adavantage of it!

England got battered again by the Boks over the weekend 55-22 in another painful viewing ordeal. The guys played hard though I thought and there was a definate improvement from the week before, a few names put thier head over the parapet for consideration for the World Cup squad, Mark Regan, Matt Stevens, Magnus Lund in the forwards and several of the backs especially that familair name Jonny Wilkinson.

Will England be downhearted by the two defeats, no  I don't think so this was at best a third string 15 (with a couple of exceptions) and come the world cup things will be a lot different

Round and round th egarden like a teddy bear one step, two step a poisoning over there..... The murky world of spies eye, round and round it goes and where it stops nobody knows!

THE man suspected of assassinating former KGB colonel Alexander Litvinenko blamed British spies for the killing yesterday.

Andrei Lugovoy, named last week as the man Scotland Yard want to arrest over the radiation poison plot, made his claim at a press conference in Moscow.

He said Litvinenko, who died after being slipped a cup of green tea laced with radioactive polonium at a London hotel, was working for M16.

The former KGB agent said British spy bosses may have murdered Litvinenko.

He said: "I cannot get away from the thought that Litvinenko was an agent who had gone out of control and they got rid of him.

"Even if the British security services didn't do it themselves, it was done under their control or connivance."

Litvinenko arrived in Britain in 2002 and lived with his wife and child in London.

Last November, he had a meeting with Lugovoy and another man at the Millennium hotel in London.

He then fell ill with symptoms of leukamia and tests showed he had been poisoned with polonium 210.

Litvinenko died a week after going into hospital.

Shortly before he died, he made a tape recording in which he claimed his death had been ordered by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Investigators found a cup at the hotel that had traces of polonium.

Last week, prosecutors told police they should arrest Lugavoy and charge him with murder.

Police have asked Moscow to arrest him and send him to London to face justice.

But under the Russian constitution, it is illegal for them to extradite one of their citizens. It means that as things stand, Lugovoy is "untouchable" by British authorities.

Yesterday, his claims were treated with scepticism by Scotland Yard.

A senior source said: "This looks like a classic manoeuvre to muddy the water. All the evidence we uncovered leads back to Lugovoy.

"If we could lay hands on him, he would be arrested and charged with murder but he knows that he is safe from us if he stays in Russia.

"The affair reads like a Cold War spy novel.

"Lugovoy appears to be getting his defence in early, by claiming Colonel Litvinenko was a secret agent who had been 'turned' by MI6 and then murdered by them because he was a maverick and too dangerous.

"We think what he is saying is preposterous. He was one of only two people with Alex Litvinenko when he was slipped the poison.

"Lugovoy was heavily contaminated by the poison, so was his hotel room, his bed and the seats he sat in on jets to and from Russia.

"We know that there is no realistic chance of getting him extradited to face trial.

"But we are hopeful the Foreign Office might persuade the Russians to arrest him themselves and put him on trial for murder in Russia using our evidence."

As well as naming MI6 as suspects for the murder, Lugovoy put forward two other possible "culprits" - a mysterious Russian "mafia" syndicate and the Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky.

Berezovsky lives in London since fleeing Russia after falling out with Putin.

Russia wants him extradited to face charges.

He was a close friend of Litvinenko and police say there's "no evidence at all" he was implicated in the killing.

Being out of office for a few weeks is a lot of fun and very cool, but getting back to work mega sucks, all your stuff has just been building up and no one has taken care of any of your stuff - head down and get on with it right?

 

Lets hope something comes of this right?

The United States yesterday described the two countries' most high-profile meeting in almost 30 years as positive but urged Iran to stop supporting militias in Iraq.

The meeting in Baghdad between the US and Iranian ambassadors to Iraq covered only sectarian violence in Iraq and did not touch on Iran's controversial nuclear program, the most contentious issue in bilateral relations.

The meeting, which began with a handshake, ended without any agreement on a date for further talks.

But it marked a shift in the US policy of shunning almost all contact with Iranian officials since Washington severed formal diplomatic ties with Teheran in 1980, 14 months after Iran's Islamic Revolution and five months after Americans were seized in a hostage crisis at the US embassy in Teheran.

 

I was listening to the news this morning and organic food stuffs that is gorwn in other countries, TGhailand for example and is them flown into the UK could lose its organic status due to the fact that its flown into the country and all the shit the flights chucks up into the air, this seems like a fair call to me - does it to you?

Every day is a day in Paradise - not for all thats for sure, its a great saying and thats about all.. I watched a very stark movie last night called Children of Man - a really heavy apocalyptical view of the downfall of mankind - it didn't look to far away from the truth to me

 

"Children of Men" envisages a world one generation from now that has fallen into chaos on the heels of an infertility defect in the population. The world's youngest citizen has just died at 18, and humankind is facing the likelihood of its own extinction. Set against a backdrop of London torn apart by violence and warring nationalistic sects, "Children of Men" follows an unlikely champion of Earth's survival: Theo (Owen), a disillusioned ex-activist turned bureaucrat, who is forced to face his own demons and protect the planet's last remaining hope.

Bad news the Cutty Sark up at grenwich has caught fire and been badly damaged, a lot of the timbers had been taken out for renovation but apparently the trust who look after the Cutty Sark are worried that it might be a write off....

"Fire today ravaged the Cutty Sark, turning the 19th century tea clipper, permanently moored in south London and one of Britain's most important maritime treasures, into a blackened wreck.

Despite the apparent damage, however, experts who have been leading a broad restoration project on the 138-year-old ship said an initial inspection indicated a section of its structure remained intact and it could perhaps be restored.

"Parts of it are completely unaffected," Ian Bell, technical manager of the Cutty Sark Trust, told reporters after being allowed to inspect the vessel."

You thought Werewolfs were mythical right? - Her is the proof they are not (sort of)

man who claimed he was a werewolf when he broke into a woman's apartment has been sentenced to six months in jail. Robert Marsh, 40, faced charge of criminal trespassing, criminal damage to property, disorderly conduct and possession of marijuana.

He pleaded no contest to criminal trespass as part of a plea deal and the other charges were dropped.

He was accused of breaking through the deadbolt of a woman's apartment around 3 a.m. March 1 and grabbed the woman's arm, according to the criminal complaint.

He frightened the woman when he told her he was a werewolf, had powers and was involved in a witch religion, the complaint said. When police arrested Marsh, he told them he was a werewolf who could change forms, the complaint said.

The woman said she had been letting Marsh stay with her since his release from prison several days earlier because he was homeless, the complaint said. While he was there he drank, did not sleep and was often incoherent, according to the criminal complaint.

Words just creep into your vocab, 2 years ago was I using the word blog, phishing, news feed? Yet now they are everyday words so my question is is the English language growing at an unprecidented rate or is this a common natural growth? or then again it could just be the IT niche that is growing so fast.

 

  I don't get it, you go to the airport and you get called to your plane, its delayed 15 minutes and so you wait to board and then on you go.... you sit down and then the pilot says he heard 5 minutes ago the traffic control has delayed your slot by 90 minutes ........ why the fuck do they allow you on the plane to get fed up and frustrated!!!!!

Yes bu the slot may be moved forward is the reason - in that case just board the plane quickly. very frustrating indeed - and there was aload of bloody turbulence so no grub or hot drinks

  

We had a team meeting yesterday in preperation for a meeting next week, so there we all are chewing the fat when my boss pipes up "Oh by the way Paul, can you do a presentation on Monday for us"

"Sure, no worries"

"Great, please prepare for a two hour slot"

WTF... He's having a laugh

Tony Blair the Prime Minister for the past 10 years is expected to stand down tommorrow.

I think the guy has done an OK job and had a genuine desire to make the UK a better place to live, I tihnk his hands have been tied far to often by the polically correct crowd.

I wish him well, but I would ditch Cherie - ouch!   

ANother big announcement - the end of cassette tapes

Cassette tapes were once at the cutting edge of personal music collections, offering portability and piracy.

The "mix tape" was a romantic rite of passage in the 1980s. Recording songs from the radio - or from another tape if you splashed out on a double-tape deck - to give to a loved one or a mate was a painstaking business. Fading out the music before the DJ butted in became an art form.

What shall I blog about today? - I know, in my weekly stats I see the blog has plenty of visitors but no one ever leaves comments, so are they actual visitors or are they ghosts in the machine?

Which leads to eh question I wonder how many blogs there are worldwide and of those how many actually get subscribed to or commented on?

We took the kids up to London on Saturday and went to the Science Museum up in South Kensington, to all you tourists out there its well worth a visit and like all of the major museums in the UK its free. It a huge massive building laid out into different sections of science with plenty of interaction points for the children. The whole thing is well laid out and so there is plenty of space. Its really pretty wild to able to look at really close the worlds first locomotive or the command module from Appollo 8 or a Luftwaffe Dornier jet from WW II.

Its really easy to get to and its right next to the National History Museum and the V&A Museum

Hmmm, eat a bit of humble pie time for me.... I spoke to American Express and they were very helpful and immediately contacted Equifax with an update, still knackered me for Barlcays but American Express said they would write a letter for me if required to give to Barclays..... grumble, grumble

Credit scoring and credit rating what an arse. I wanted to take a loan from Barclays, I have done so in the past and never had an issue, so I phone up talk to some garbled Indian lady and get a 'no' as an answer so I'm thinking WTF? - Barclays send me a letter that says its been refused because information recieved from the credit reference agency. SO I register with Equifax who are the credit refereence agency pay my ?16.00 to get the info and find out I have a great credit rating but two things are working against me,

1, I have only lived in my new house for one year

2, American Express are cocks. They mischarged me about something so I disputed it and they dropped the charge but have put me down as defaulting payment - wankers

 

The hottest April since records began 350 years ago, its at the same time great and the next 'whats it going to be like fo rmy childrens children?'

April 2007 was the warmest April ever - based on the Central England Temperature (CET) records, a series of observations dating back to 1659. Folklore suggests that at this time of year we often get 'April showers', but yet this April has been remarkably dry as well.

For the month of May, it looks like pressure will tend to be high. Below average rainfall quantities are likely to continue, whilst temperatures and sunshine amounts are likely to feel above normal for the time of year.

The dry, sunny and warm weather of April looks set to continue well into May.

There are a few different reasons for hypoglycemia in adults and here is a list of the main causes.

Causes and Treatment
Causes include certain medications, alcohol, critical illnesses, hormonal deficiencies, some kinds of tumors, and certain conditions occurring in infancy and childhood.

Medications
Medications, including some used to treat diabetes, are the most common cause of hypoglycemia. Other medications that can cause hypoglycemia include

• salicylates, including aspirin, when taken in large doses

• sulfa medicines, which are used to treat infections

• pentamidine, which treats a very serious kind of pneumonia

• quinine, which is used to treat malaria

If using any of these medications causes your blood glucose to drop, your doctor may advise you to stop using the drug or change the dosage.

Alcohol
Drinking, especially binge drinking, can cause hypoglycemia because your body's breakdown of alcohol interferes with your liver's efforts to raise blood glucose. Hypoglycemia caused by excessive drinking can be very serious and even fatal.

Critical Illnesses
Some illnesses that affect the liver, heart, or kidneys can cause hypoglycemia. Sepsis (overwhelming infection) and starvation are other causes of hypoglycemia. In these cases, treatment targets the underlying cause.

Hormonal Deficiencies
Hormonal deficiencies may cause hypoglycemia in very young children, but usually not in adults. Shortages of cortisol, growth hormone, glucagon, or epinephrine can lead to fasting hypoglycemia. Laboratory tests for hormone levels will determine a diagnosis and treatment. Hormone replacement therapy may be advised.

Tumors
Insulinomas, insulin-producing tumors, can cause hypoglycemia by raising your insulin levels too high in relation to your blood glucose level. These tumors are very rare and do not normally spread to other parts of the body. Laboratory tests can pinpoint the exact cause. Treatment involves both short-term steps to correct the hypoglycemia and medical or surgical measures to remove the tumor.

It was the opening meeting at the Brighton race course this weekend (29th April) and even though I have lived in Brighton for time beyond mind I have never attended a  race meeting, anyhow on SUnday we decided to go and have a look, its only a short ride on the 2 or the 2a and it stops right outside the race track. ?13.00 to get in I thought was a bit steep but once you are there you go in right? There were six races and we did pretty well missing the first and the last, 3 out of five is not bad   

2.40 1st  2 Proper (IRE)  11-8 JF  ?5.00 to win Atomic 3.50 1st  6 Night Wolf (IRE)  13-2  ?5.00 to Win Cyrmu Am Byth 4.25 1st  7 Bienheureux  13-2  ?5.00 to win Cymru Am Byth

Well, afer two blogs revolving around kids TV shows how about one that revolves around the day of the week. Today is Friday what is the origin of Friday, from my schooling its named after the Norse god Freya - So I will Google it and see if I'm right.

Friday
The day in honor of the Norse goddess Frigg.
In Old High German this day was called frigedag.
To the Romans this day was sacred to the goddess Venus, and was known as dies veneris.

Well I was nearly right   

Here comes the policeman,
The big friendly policeman,
PC McGarry number 452.
Lost dogs, thick fogs,
Don't know what to do.
Then get the policeman,
The big friendly policeman.
PC McGarry number 452.

Here comes the policeman,
The big friendly policeman,
PC McGarry number 452.
Lost a key, cat up a tree,
Baby lost a shoe.
Then get the policeman,
A big friendly policeman.
PC McGarry number 452.

Time flies by when I'm the driver of a train
And I ride on the footplate there and back again
Under bridges over bridges to our destination
Puffing through the countryside there's so much to be seen.
Passengers waving as we steam through a station.
Stoke up fireman for the signal is at green.

Time flies by when I'm the driver of a train
And I ride on the footplate there and back again
In the cutting, through the tunnel,
Rushing clanking on the track.
Wheezing pistons, smoking funnels,
Turning wheels go clickety clack.
Time flies by when I'm the driver of a train
And I ride on the footplate there and back again.

I see Kryptonite has been discovered in Serbia. Its pretty interesting that the scientists now the chemical composistion of a ficticious mineral, oh well, never mind makes a neat little story I guess..

Kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of fiction feared by caped superheroes.

A new mineral matching its unique chemistry - as described in the film Superman Returns - has been identified in a mine in Serbia.

According to movie and comic-book storylines, kryptonite is supposed to sap Superman's powers whenever he is exposed to its large green crystals.

The real mineral is white and harmless, says Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum.

"I'm afraid it's not green and it doesn't glow either - although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange," he told BBC News.

I don't know about you but I have alot of logins to use at work, for my banking, for forums, websites etc etc and keeping track of them is a nightmare, you don't want to write them down but you need to remeber somehow, so do you use the same password - ALERT compromize city , or do you keep a passworded spreadsheet? Great but if your on the road in a cyber cafe etc you are fucked. So what the answer hardware Tokens or Single Sign On, great in a corporate envoiroment but useless for hetrogenious systems around the world..

The company that comes up with a secure portal site that allows you to access the sites you access using Single Sign On will make an absolute fortune!

I wonder if at anytime in the future man will develop or invent a device that is capable of capturing dreams. I know I have great dreams but they are so elusive within seconds of waking they are gone like grains of sand through your hands.. I don't know how or if it will ever come to fruition but it would be ace if did..... But I guess its the sort thing you wouldn't like other people looking at.. the inner workings of your mind   

We all have an online name and rarely is it our reall name 'John Smith' or 'Helen Jones' its usually something a bit more dramatic like 'Eliminator'  or 'World Flower' it wouls be intersting to do a survey to find out what criteria people use when finding thier online name as it is rarely the first name that is thought of and it is a name that carries on with us on some occasions (like me) for decades. I have been Johnny-Atomic for well over the past 10 years all though now its just simply Atomic. All of the other Johnny Atomic's are just wannabee's - I wonder if its possible to copyright an online gaming name and then sue others caught using it   

Well, It was odd I had written the day before about feeling wierd and on Thursday - Boom, out drops the cold from hell a real corker achey limbs mega sneezing the full nine yards. Anyhow I had a doctors appointment for Friday so I went along to see him and the thing that had been worrying me was fine, my blood pressure was 116/84 - pretty pleased.

I stopped smoking on Monday so it five days in today or put another way 75 cigarettes I have not smoked. I have to just keep plugging away at it day on day, day on day. My main reason for quitting is it sucks and second on July 1st Smoking is banned from all public places in the UK.

Where will smoking be banned?

Smoking in all indoor public places will be banned. Many places - such as cinemas and public transport - have rarely permitted smoking in recent years, and so it will be places like pubs, restaurants, nightclubs and private members' clubs that feel the biggest impact of the ban.

Where will you be able to smoke?

You'll still be allowed to light up outdoors, in the home or places considered to be 'homes', such as prisons, care homes and hotels.

Smoking could still be banned at certain outdoor locations that are 'substantially enclosed', such as football grounds and railway platforms. No decision has yet been made on smoking inside cars carrying passengers.

What will happen if I'm caught fag-in-hand?

If you're caught smoking in a banned area you could be fined ?50.

But who's really going to care if I light up a sneaky one?

Those in charge of the premises would be fools to let you get away with it, especially considering that they could face a ?2,500 fine if they fail to stop you. They could also be charged on-the-spot fines of ?200 if they fail to display no-smoking signs, with the penalty increasing to ?1,000 if the issue goes to court.

 

I think I had better make an appointment to go and see the doctor as I have not been feeling quite right for the past 2 weeks or so. Its not something I can put my finger on by I have a thick headed feeling and my skin feels slightly 'tight' if thats the right word.

I just have to wait for them to open and make an appoinment and if I'm lucky it will be within the next few days   

The rampage at Virginia Tech university killed 33 including a suspected gunman.

There were two hours between the two separate attacks, the second of which saw 31 deaths, and students have asked why the campus was not locked down.

University officials defended their actions, saying they could not have foreseen the second incident.

I know the American gun lobby is a hugely powerful body but an occurance like the above seems to take place every few months or so in the US I wonder how many more rampages need to occur before the US attempts to tighten up gun control or has it all gone too far and they can never reverse the law of the gun?

Have you ever reset your phone battery? I did it last night as my Nokia was slowing down. Fine no problems the phone re-boots cool. That was that. This morning I get I get three or four texts and I can't find them and all of my texts are in the wrong order am I'm thinking WTF! (Have you realized what my problem was?) ANyhow I gave it some thought and of course resetting the battery has reset the phones BIOS and my date is now showing as 2004. I corrected my date and time and all of my messages were in the correct order.

Mega hot day in brighton today up in the mid 70's very strange for early April but no evidence of global warming my arse, you can bet that within the week Southern Water will have placed a hosepipe ban in Sussex and Kent, fix the bloody leaks you tools, you mak eenough cash profit every year plow more into fixing all of the leaks, I read that 200 million gallons are lost a day through leakage, totally unacceptable.

The 2007 Gran national takes place today very firm going so the irish horses may be struggling. I have had a flutter, fingers crossed and I might win a few bob   

seagulls are a total f*cking nightmare in Brighton, as soon as your rubbish bags are out the flying shithouses are ripping them open spreading rubbish everywhere, they start screeching at 4.00am until dark, the shit acid that burns the paint off from your car, they steal infants from prams and steal cans of Strongbow from your hand. There are hundreds and hundreds of them and there are more and more every year. Why do not Brighton council do something about the flying pests I'm sure if there were hundreds and thousands of rats running about they would be pretty quick to act and if they can't or won't act against the seagulls at least supply adequate bins to the areas around the streets of the Royal Sussex County Hospital for example so the residents can place thier waste in seagull proof bins instead of having to leave black bags out on the street.

Last year a pair of shithouses built a nest on next doors roof, everytime my kids went outside the seagulls dive bombed them and shat on them scaring them and the old lady next door to death. I phoned the council 'can you move them or can I?' What is Brighton Councils reply? 'No they are a protected species' Get a bloody grip there needs to be a cull   

How much sodding council tax do I pay?

Five days I've had five days chilling, chatting, beering, sleeping. I go to bed last night and can I sleep can I f*ck. SO after a five day break I feel more knackered then when I went away and all night the song below is going round and round in my head. Great song but only for the first 50 times   

Eclipse: Dark Side of the Moon

All that you touch
All that you see
All that you taste
All you feel.
All that you love
All that you hate
All you distrust
All you save.
All that you give
All that you deal
All that you buy,
beg, borrow or steal.
All you create
All you destroy
All that you do
All that you say.
All that you eat
And everyone you meet
All that you slight
And everyone you fight.
All that is now
All that is gone
All that's to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

Well, the easter break is over for 2007 its back to work tommorrow, all the chocolate is eaten and the gym is to be returned to to work off those extra few punds though in my case its more than a few   

We spent the break up in Hafan y M?r, Nr Pwllheli, North Wales its a holiday camp run by haven Holidays formerly it was run by Butlins in the dawn of time. We booked up a silver caravan which was ?320 for three nights which I did feel was steep in price, but it was a nice caravan away from the main hustle and bustle of the camp. We loved the go-carts they were a lot of fun and the competative edge was incredible 7 of us rattling around the track like madman trying to get the edge over the other drivers. James came in first on one race and Harry on the other, again not cheap at ?4 for four minutes but great non the less. The kids loved the water park as did I, it was a great hangover cure.   

The only thing that really got annoyed was how poor the arcades were, half of the machines were mal-functioning or just broken - but of course not swicthed off they rely on the British not to comlain and just move onto another machine without getting thier money back. In fact it pissed me off so much I'm going to write a letter of complaint to haven, not that I expect anything to come of it.

We enjoyed the night-time entertainment the music and acts were pretty good quality, there was a stone killer of an act though where they got five blokes up on stage to perfoem antics, it went on and on and on and the compare had such a shrill voice you could not hear a work she was saying, the place half emptied while this 'brilliant' act was on.

Pwllheli was full to busting it being bank holiday and all and while we were sat outside the Victoria Hotel drinking cider and wine (its on the corner of Morfa'r Garreg) in the spring sunshine we were all amazed at how many 4 x 4's there were all of them seemed to be the crew cab pickup type as well for even more envoiromental damage. I know Pwllheli has of course a great marina but they fair weather boaters don't need vehicles of this size! It was the same outside The Mitre as well one ofter the other 4 x4 by 4 x 4

And as for the traffic - bank holiday weekend and the nightmares it entails, no problem we did Pwllheli to Brighton in 5 hours fastest time by 30 minutes and on the way up Brighton to Pwllheli 5 hours 30 minutes - OK we did leave early but even so, well chuffled

The french broke the speed record for a train on wheels yesterday it came in at 574 kmh. Thats some speed for a trian I coudn't imagine it on the clacky clack old traind in the UK. Then again it was a specially prepared piece of train and the train was somewhat modified and they had boosted the power lines running overhead, but a great record non the less. When I was fortunate enough to be in Japan with work we went on the bullet train from Tokyo to Kobe and that fairly moved but was only just over half the speed of yesterdays record. The bullet train was very strange as it gave the xensation of harldy moving as the ride was so smooth. What impressed me most with the train was the onboard refreshments. A lady in traditional dress came into the carriage selling what seemed to me the most amazing fayre, non of your crappy sanwiches and a mars bar. It was all beautifully boxed and packed and prepared sushi and the sucklike. The best part that the sales lady backed out of each carriage and bowed to the commuters as she left the carriage. Brilliant   

Facts about yesterdays record

The electrical tension in the overhead cable was boosted from 25,000 volts to 31,000 for the record attempt
The train travelled almost as fast as a World War II Spitfire fighter at top speed
Power output: more than 25,000 horsepower

I was looking for a photo of Sean Connery from You only Live Twice where he was made up to look Chinese and didn't even look remotely oriental but unfortunately I failed. What bought it to mind wa sa film on TV over the weekend called 'Genghis Khan' which had some classic actors in it Omar Sharif, Lames Mason, Eli Wallach, Telly Sevalas, Michael Horden, Woody Strode and Robert Morely as the Chinese Emperor - One thing in comman non of them are Chinese or even of Chinese descent. Its an incredibly miscast movie with a terrible story line and plot.

Here is a review of the film that pretty much spot on

This 1965 so-called epic distorts the history of Genghis Khan, but then what bad historical epic doesn't? Instead, it rewrites the legend making Khan a more sympathetic figure. The main actors in the film are overall first rate, but watching James Mason speaking with obviously false buck teeth to show he's Chinese is embarassing - it's also his worse piece of acting. Robert Morley does try as the Chinese emperor, but only Eli Wallach seems to realize he's really involved in a bad epic that equals a high school production. Only Stephen Boyd stands out as Genghis Khan's longtime enemy. Boyd plays his role over the top, which is probably the only way to approach it for such a film. The production uses mostly European Caucasian actors even for the Chinese scenes(with the exception of the Egyptian Omar Sharif), something one watches with befuddlement and amusement going by today's more PC standards. Henry Levin is one of the more underrated directors from his era and he does try mightily with the material he's given.However, He does show a fine eye for spectacle as justified by Geoffrey Unsworth's photography.

Another step closer to 'Big Brother' has been announced a revolutionary way of idenifying people. Great way to help stop terrorists though who think a beard shave is the way to go

Bioscrypt, a Toronto-based company, has claimed an industry first with its 3D camera that doubles as a security check by scanning the users face with infrared and visible light.  The VisionAccess 3D DeskCam scans in three dimensions for authentication purposes. 

The security scanning works by using 40,000 identification points on specific portions of the face such the forehead, eye sockets, and nose bridge.  So far, tests have proved that the system can differentiate between identical twins, and Ryan Zlockie, director of product management, claimed that facial hair will no make no impact on the identification.  This means that if a person were registered with beard, they would not have to reregister if that person shaved.  But if that person were

The BBC has lost  the rights to the FA cup to ITV, I hope ITV do a better job with the FA Cup than they have done with the last two Rugby World Cups thier coverage stinks.

The BBC has reported that it has been outbid for the live rights to broadcast the FA Cup and England's home international football matches.

Reports claim that the FA is set to announce today that the BBC and British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) have lost out from 2008 to a rival bid from ITV and Setanta Sports.

The BBC and BSkyB have held the rights for the past seven years.

Winning the rights would be a coup for ITV executive chairman Michael Grade who left his role as BBC chairman to join ITV