"Just get me to the church on time"...

That is one way to ensure everyone arrived for the wedding on time -
hire a Routemaster double decker bus as your wedding car!...

Breakfast Pizza

I have an urge for breakfast pizza.
Pizza for breakfast I hear you protest.

Don't knock it until you've tried it - if you can put pineapple and ham on a pizza base you sure as hell can put beaten egg, sausage, bacon, mushrooms and cheese!!!!






Now I think about breakfast a bit more - biscuits and sausage gravy...yum...

London 2012....

Now that the 2008 Olympics are over we can look forward to four years of being bombarded with the London 2012 logo...

Well, I'm not going to suffer it alone - in case you hadn't spotted the blooper...

Thanks Darling.....

... for opening your trap and sending the pound tumbling on the international money markets.
I decided to buy some now just in case there are any further drops in the pound against the dollar.
Today £1 bought me $1.70 compared to the $1.97 it got me just under a year ago...

God this coffee is strong...

...there are a couple dressed in fifties rockabilly style attire and they have just sat down across from me......

Intel iMac - #2

So, TNT have delivered my second replacement Intel iMac today.
Screen looks fine and no other issues appear to be obvious.
Now to find out if the Time Machine back up of my PowerPC G5 will install trouble free on the Intel iMac...

Great gadget but...

...I need one just to open the pack!!!

Today I unpacked my new iMac...

...then packed it back up again about 30 minutes later!

On starting it up I spotted a black mark on the lower left quarter of the screen. Not dead/stuck pixels as far as I could see but what appeared to be an upside down L shaped mark on the LCD screen.
After a few phone calls it is getting collected and replaced - so I guess another week to fortnight without a desktop machine.

LeRoi Moore - 1961-2008

http://www.davematthewsband.com/news/

Thursday - iMac Day?

Hopefully tomorrow will see the arrival of my 24" 3.06GHz Intel iMac.

IF TNT can find my house...

Bye bye iMac...

TNT are picking up my G5 iMac for return to Apple this afternoon.

Wonder how soon the shiny new iMac will take to arrive?....


Or maybe they are not. Just got a phone call to say that the driver could not find my address!
So, TNT employ people with no ability to ask for directions? There is a Post Office/Store about 500 yds from my home on the main road through the village. The driver didn't think to maybe stop and go and ask? UPS seem to manage to find me...
I asked if they had sat nav? Apparently the drivers tend to ignore the satnav in small villages as they aren't accurate. Well, MY satnav seems to work on the postcode for my home.
Do they have mobiles? They had my home phone number but apparently TNT use phones which don't work out here in the sticks!
So, I have stayed in all day - now, due to trips etc., I am not going to be around until next Wednesday.

Great........

Traffic tourette's...

The uncontrollable urge to scream obscenities at other drivers who infringe on your space (whether real or imagined).

Jay: Man that guy just cut you off.
Mark: That @#$% can't drive worth @#$%.
Jay: I see your traffic tourette's is getting worse.

Urban Dictionary

You don't say...

MobileMe was launched too early, Jobs concedes

"This accessory"...

...nag screen appears every time I plug my iPhone 3G into the Griffin AutoPilot in my car.
Pressing "No" dismisses it and allows me to play music.















It even connects to the integrated vehicle Bluetooth system allowing calls to be made/received (1) and charges the iPhone (2).
All this while still fitting into the Proclip mount that I originally got for my 4G iPod!


So, this accessory does work with iPhone......

MobileMe - perhaps, maybe...

Never had any real issues with .Mac but since they revamped it into MobileMe I have been having problems. As, no doubt, have other .Mac users...

One thing is the 'homepage' fails to load without some "unresponsive script" error message popping up two or three times - doesn't matter what I am trying to access, mail, gallery etc.

BSW

iStat Menus 1.3

I found the iStat Pro widget by iSlayer to be a useful tool during my recent iMac problems and they have a neat addition to the menu bar - iStat menus 1.3 - it even got a MacFormat "Choice" award and five stars.
I like the ability to view the calendar and time zones from just clicking on the time icon in the menu bar. Maybe other utilities have this but I hadn't found one...

Update...

Been a while since my last post so here goes...


iMac:
iMac has been back into Apple Store for the constantly running fan problem. Had a new fan fitted which failed to make any difference.
Eventually contacted Apple Support and, after another visit to the Apple Store with no fix, Apple have agreed to replace the G5 with a brand new Intel iMac. Thank the gods for Applecare...
As it was a straight like for like replacement I was offered the base model, a 20" 2.4GHz.
I decided to try for a paid upgrade to a 24" 3.06GHz and this has been accepted. So for the difference in price between the 20" and 24" I will hopefully be 'future proofing' my desktop Mac for the next few years.
The machine was becoming impossible to work on - the CPU fan was running at 4500rpm almost constantly. The ability to do any work was being affected by sitting 18-24" from the fan which was almost like sitting in front of a hair dryer. Even just using a browser would cause the fan to start speeding up. I even went back to Tiger to see if the extra load of Leopard was the cause but it still happened.

iPhone:
I finally gave in and bought a 16GB iPhone 3G in black - while the 3G cover is a bit sparse around where I live, if I travel 8-10 miles east, west or south I get into 3G-land.
One of the first things I did was apply InvisibleSHIELD to the back and Power Support Anti-Glare Film to the screen. The IS film was a bugger to apply and still has 'bubbled' areas around the corner cuts.
So far I am pretty happy with the device and wonder if the IS film will help prevent the rear case cracking that seems to be getting reported on various iPhone sites...

Highway robbery....

The local Dick Turpin has his prices 7p a litre higher than the Shell pumps 500m along the road.

That's £6.26 a gallon...

Just put a gun in my face and ask me to hand over my wallet...











BP - Blatant Profiteering...

Éire says FU to EU...

"Voters in Ireland have rejected the European Union's Lisbon reform treaty in a referendum by 53.4% to 46.6%.

The vote is a major blow to leaders in the 27-nation EU, which requires all its members to ratify the treaty. Only Ireland has held a public vote.

The European Commission says nations should continue to ratify the treaty, designed to streamline decision-making."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7453560.stm

Why won't the politicians get it into their thick heads the people don't trust the EU.

At least the Irish got the chance to tell the EU to feck off - something Brown and Nu Labour have denied the UK even though they promised a referendum in their manifesto.

http://www.libertas.org

http://lisbonvote.com/

BSW

Sagging...

The fashion trend known as sagging...

You look stupid wearing your jeans around your knees - I don't want to see your underwear as you walk down the street. This guy walked across the town carpark the other day and had to pull his jeans up every ten paces. WHAT IS THE POINT? You look stupid...

This trend was supposed to originate in US prison where inmates had no belts to hold their trousers up. It was then adopted by the hip hop culture.
Why not just wear orange prison jumpsuits or clothing with "Inmate" on it?

Who turned out the lights....

I have decided to stump up for a UPS for my iMac.
We had a power cut again the other day and of course the iMac was on at the time. Having had to go through the issues of the machine shutting down randomly and back and forth to Apple for repair I have had enough.
I am pretty certain that the whole problem started after several power outages in January had hit the area. That, and the problem finally being fixed after Apple fitted a new power supply to the machine, seem to point to something damaging the PS.
It's my theory and I'm sticking with it.

So I have just ordered an APC BACK-UPS RS 800 - I figure that will give me a bit of leeway for getting a bigger desktop machine at a later date.

On my iPod:

"Asleep At Heaven's Gate" by Rogue Wave...

Wake up and smell the caffeine...

Stumbled across this useful little application - Caffeine
I often watch TV on my iMac and get a little fed up with having to move the mouse every 15 minutes to keep the screensaver from kicking in.

I guess I could go into System Preferences and adjust the screensaver and power saving settings but this little app suspends all of these with a click of an icon in the menu bar.


Gets ★★★★★ from me...

BSW

UnBearable Pt II - just the bear fiction...

Turns out old Bear Grylls has been less than truthful. He apparently often stays in hotels while shooting his "survival" series. Guess you can survive anything with a hot shower, mini bar and room service...
Also situations are 'set up' by the crew to demonstrate some techniques for "survival".

Funnily enough Ray Mears was asked in an interview (Radio Times) about the Bear fiction (as opposed to the bare facts...)

D0 you watch Bear Grylls for tips?
Ha ha ha ha ha [laughs for about a minute]. Do I look for tips from Bear Grylls? Yes - on how not to make television programmes! As far as I am concerned, these people are just showmen. I think the viewer knows that if you want to really know how to take care of yourself in the wild, I'm the person to talk to.

Did you laugh out loud when you heard that Bear Grylls had been caught "surviving" in a motel?
Yeah. You can take short cuts if you want, but we never have. I've had many arguments with the directors, telling them, "We do it the right way or not at all". That caused a problem in the old days, but now directors see what happens if you cheat. It's a sad indictment of the world we live in that television wants that kind of hype. And it's crap television. When people break those rules and think it's Ok to dress the stage a little bit, that spoils the whole thing. I think that's an abuse of a powerful medium.

Mac is back...

UPDATE III
26 May 08

So my iMac has been back and forth like a fiddler's wrist - no fault could be found after the last time in. Got it home and within two days it was back in the Apple Store.
They replaced the logic board - #2 - and told me it was sorted.
Got it home and sure as eggs are eggs it died on me halfway through restoring from my Time Machine back up. Not once but twice. Then it died as I tried to get the install disc out.
So next day back to the Apple Store and thankfully it displayed the issue right there on the Genius Bar. As their computer system was down (Ehhh?) they could not check to se if they had a power supply in stock (next thing to check). So it was left and I came home.
Today I get call saying they had a PS in stock it had been fitted and the Mac ran all night with no issues. It apparently died several times while they were trying to install software/run the ASD tools.

Hopefully I will be back on iMac tomorrow and that will be the end of it....



UPDATE II
7 May 08
iMac is sick again - it has developed a tendency to turn off again. So it's off to the Apple Store this time...
Thankfully after reinstalling Leopard it is still switching itself off. Halfway through installing the updates to Leopard it decided to save electricity. Then I left it running overnight with just Safari open and this morning it was dead.
So at least I know that this is not linked to anything I have installed or any hardware I have attached to the iMac.



11 March 08
Seems like the logic board has been replaced.
Fingers crossed it is sorted...

UPDATE
A fan seems to be running which wasn't running before - have called the AARC to query this.
Watch this space...

BSW

Spot the product...

Been to see "Iron Man" with Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow. Not a bad film but product placement was obvious. From the Audi R8 he drove to the Burger King cheeseburger he requests on his return (won't say too much in case it spoils it).
Bulgari watch and LG phone and another couple of Audis (S5 [Paltrow's ride] & Q7 [family in peril]) along with F-22 Raptors and Apple displays. Dell get a look in too. Wonder if the income from product advertising actually balanced the production costs....

Add any I missed?...

"Sorry, this is the Funvee - the Humdrumvee is back there..."