New traveling companion...

So, today I picked up a new Macbook. The 2.4GHz version. I decided that with the exchange rate on the £ being so crappy right now there was no point holding off until I got to the US to pick up a new laptop.
I managed to get some educational discount on the purchase, as well as the reduction of 2.5% VAT, so the price came to £990.

If I had bought one on the other side of the pond then it would have cost the equivalent of £1199 (about $1730 with state tax).

My trusty 8 year old 600MHz iBook G3 is going to be wiped clean and handed over to my wife once I return from MWSF.

Macbook ✔

San Francisco Here I Come (2009)

Passport ✔
Hotel booked ✔
Flights booked ✔
Airport parking/hotel booked ✔
Macworld pass confirmed ✔
Dollars collected ✔


To Do
Pack....

Groany Excessmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Crime busters...

Police in Finland believe they have caught a car thief from a DNA sample taken from a mosquito they noticed inside an abandoned vehicle.

Finding the car in Seinaejoki, north of Helsinki, police saw that the mosquito had recently sucked blood and decided to send the insect for analysis.

The DNA found from laboratory tests matched a man on the police register.

The suspect denies stealing the car and says he was just hitch-hiking a lift with a man.

The car was stolen in June in the town of Lapua, some 380km (235 miles) north of the Finnish capital, the AFP news agency reports.

It was recovered several weeks later in Seinaejoki, about 25km from where it disappeared.

Sakari Palomaeki, the police inspector in charge of the case, said it was the first time Finnish police had used an insect to solve a crime.

"It is not usual to use mosquitoes. In training we were not told to keep an eye on mosquitoes at crime scenes," he said.

"It is not easy to find a small mosquito in a car, this just shows how thorough the crime scene investigation was," he added.

A prosecutor must now decide if the sample is strong enough for charges to be pressed.

SOURCE

Pointless iPhone apps

While having a look through the App Store I came across some totally useless and pointless apps. Worst thing about them is people are asking to be paid for this shite....



iFart - there are 19 other farting apps for god's sake!

Electric Smoke - what is the point? Come on tell me...
If you're so desperate to be seen smoking just go out an buy a pack of cigarettes. What next, the Nicotine Gum app?

What other 'gems' are lurking in the App Store?

I wonder what morons actually stump up money for these apps and exactly how genuine are the reviews?...

W00t......

Never thought I would get excited at the sight of a petrol station selling diesel for under £1 a litre!!!

My local Shell has it for 99.9p!

Guess what?

The BP station only half a mile away is selling it for 104.9p - still trying to rip us off!!!

How not to eat porridge...

...sitting in front of the computer while recovering from a bad cold - coughing fit while taking a spoonful of porridge. Result? Screen covered in oats and milk...

Storm in a teacup?...

Spend a bit of time hands on with the Blackberry Strom, err Stroll, ahh, Storm...

The keypad is not as easy to get to grips with as the Apple iPhone. In 'potrait mode' the keys are double lettered ones as opposed to a full QWERTY layout and trying to type with any speed in the landscape mode was frustrating. The 'keys' glow blue when you press them as opposed to actually presenting a pop up letter like the iPhone. Not as easy to see IMO.

Obviously it beats the iPhone hands down with it's 3.2 MP camera with a flash, ability to capture video. Having to buy extra memory is a bit of a bitch - wonder how long before Vodafone throws in a 16GB MicroSD card to the deal?

Physically pressing the screen is a bit weird - wonder how long before issues arise with this?

Think I'll stick with the iPhone for now - nice young woman served me though ;)

Find .co.uk

Found this tip elsewhere - if you hold down the .com key you will be presented with other country domain options if you have your keyboard preferences set to UK English.

Dry Starbucks...

Called into my local and looks like the message about water waste has
filtered down from on high....
...the 'dipper well' was dry. No taps were running at all behind the counter. Coffee tasted just the same and so far I have not keeled over with some horrendous form of food poisoning...

obama - Obama x

Seems that the iPhone has "Obama" in it's spell correction list - type "obama" and it suggests "Obama"...

EasyWriter app...

At last I can type on my iPhone with a bit more ease than I could
before. I have grabbed the EasyWriter app from the App Store which
allows typing in landscape mode. For a short time it is available for
free and while it is only really meant to be used for email there is
no reason why it can't be used for other writing tasks.
One aspect of the app is that anything being worked on is saved until
it is sent to the mail app. So if you have to take a call you can be
safe in the knowledge that it will still be there when your call is
finished.

Next to easyWriter in the screengrab is another free (for now) app from Griffin Technology - iTalk - I have tried this app out and the quality of the recordings seems to be pretty good. I also downloaded the iTalk Sync app for my desktop Mac and syncing witht he iPhone is quick with a drag and drop file transfer function.

Guess Obama won then?......

US 08 Election Results

Phone Phun...

...and phree at that - Maze Finger...

Phude...

Cornwall to Calzone....

Scary thought....

http://www.palinaspresident.us/

Weird cloud...

According to the weather girl this evening this 'hole' in the alto cumulus cloud is caused by ice crystals falling from above the cloud layer and through it. The ice then evaporates before hitting the ground. From the photos sent in by viewers I wasn't alone in snapping this phenomenom...

On My iPod:

"Some People Have Real Problems" by Sia

New MacBooks...

Just been able to view one in the flesh - very nice.
May have to splash out for one to replace my ageing, though still serviceable, iBook. That already has a new home if I happen to get a new laptop.

Bit disappointed that the backlit keyboard is only available on the 2.4GHz model - does that mean the lesser models aren't used in the same sort of conditions? C'mon Apple...

And the pricing of the new range is getting a few folk pissed off - the only thing I can say is maybe the new unibody process is a factor for the increase in price - not that I am excusing Apple for the price hike. I guess carving solid blocks of aluminium is a bit more expensive than clicking together parts made from moulded plastic.

That being said I am veering towards the 2.4GHz model anyway - just to give me a bit more 'oomph' for the future. The old iBook is a 600MHz model and while it is happy working with 10.4, it does start to show it's age when things get busy.

Water waste or Whatta Waste revisited!

Seems like my observation back in March of this year regarding the waste of water in my local Starbucks has also been noticed by others...

US coffee-shop chain Starbucks has defended itself against claims of a serious waste of water by leaving taps running in its stores all day.

A spokeswoman said the purpose was to clean utensils and the policy meant the company met health standards.

But environmental groups have criticised the practice, accusing Starbucks of wasting millions of litres of water every day.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7654691.stm

At least I am not alone...

My attempt at breakfast pizza...

My iPhone is an atheist...

The symbol for "Genius" option in iTunes 8 bears an uncanny resemblance to the symbol used by some atheists...

http://decoy.iki.fi/atheist/no-ghost-c-06.en.html

"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..."

Free WiFi? Fail...

Just back from my local garden centre and stopped for a quick coffee in their Starbucks franchise. I noticed Free Internet signs on every table so tried it out. It is provided by a company called Polkaspots - only problem is they charge £3 for 60 mins use amongst other 'tariffs'. So hardly free.
There is a link for "free internet" but that takes you to the garden centres own website with no ability to navigate away from it.

Lady on the 'information' desk didn't know what I was rambling on about - in fact I doubt if she knew what wi-fi referred to. Maybe a species of succulent?.....

UPDATE:
Called back there for a coffee/eats before going to see "Iron Man" and discovered that you have to ask for a voucher at the counter - they then give you a 30 minutes scratch card and you access the net that way. Looks like any unused minutes are retained in your 'account'.

Unbearable...

"Eat anything in the mangroves and you risk dancing with the Devil - anything from dysentery to liver failure..."

So, why the f**k are you eating that raw crab?

The new 'survival' series with Bear Grylls is taking the idea of 'TV bushcraft' first pioneered by Ray Mears to the extreme. But it's crap viewing...

Mears at least made interesting viewing but Grylls is just plain annoying...

Hic...

67%SOCIAL DRINKER

BSW

For my other wrist...

A Bell & Ross BR 03 94 Chronograph Carbon Finish, just because I like it.


The price, on the other hand wrist, I'm not so keen on - £3,300...

On my iPod:

Loud Louder Stop by The Neil Cowley Trio

Alpha is omega'd...

Seems like my Arcam Alpha 5 CD Player is giving up the ghost.
The sound is badly distorting while playing a CD and even though I have run a lens cleaner disc through it and used contact cleaner on the interconnects it is still distorting the audio.

I have rigged up a Sony CD Walkman to test the amplifier connections and it is working fine. So I can only assume that it is the end of the road for the Alpha 5.

I have had this for about 13 years and up until recently it was used almost every day. If I can't get a repair done cheaply, I wonder if I will just ditch the Alpha 5 in favour of one of my iPods as a source.

The Delta 290 amplifier has been exhibiting a 'dry' input selector switch for a while now. From reading various forums this 'pot' is sealed as it is motorised and so lubricating it is not an option (this is not the cause of the CD player problem).

Maybe it is time to just replace the whole system...

Demotivation...

BSW

April Fool...

Underwater...

While on the topic of water I spotted a rather unusual line of watches - U-Boat - and having trawled through their catalogue, my favourite is the one shown, the Thousands Of Feet AB - Y.

The watches are made by Italo Fontana and are based on those created for the pilots of the Italian Navy in WWII.

Maybe it is due to me recently sitting through Das Boot again (the film this time - I watched the 6 hour long, or so it felt like, TV series when it first aired in the UK).

They are not cheap timepieces but they look quite distinctive.

Whatta waste...

Stood in my local Starbucks the other day I couldn't help but notice the apparent waster of clean water going on behind the counter.
As well as the little rinse sink for the barista to rinse spoons next to the coffee making machine there was a tap continually running in the sink at the rear of the counter area.
I did a little experiment when I got home and figured out that the flow rate of water from the tap was about 4-6 litres a minute.
That works out at around 900,000 to 1,400,000 litres of water per year for one store.
For one tap.
This doesn't include the water used in the small rinsing sink.
Or for washing mugs and plates and other equipment.

Other coffee shops don't seem to follow this practice. As far as I have seen Costa do not.

If you take all the Starbucks stores worldwide then if they all follow this practice they must waste the equivalent of a medium sized ocean every year.

All this when some areas of the world don't have ANY water on tap.

I have written to Starbucks UK to see how they can claim to be socially and environmentally responsible with such a shocking waste of water.


2 April 08
Got a reply from Starbucks....
Thank you for taking the time to contact Starbucks Coffee Company.

We welcome feedback from our customers and I have shared your comments with the operations team for their attention.

It is not policy that the tap at the bar remain on constantly and should be turned off when not in use. As a company we are taking steps to endeavour to reduce water use in all our stores, including ensuring taps are turned off when no one is at the sink, using paper cups where appropriate to reduce the use of the dishwasher and continuing reminding partners of our commitment to the environment by minimizing water wastage.

Once again, thank you for sharing your feedback with us and for giving us an opportunity to improve our operations.

Yours sincerely
***** **********
Customer Care Specialist

BSW

Steve Sleeve...

I am not sure if this is good or bad....

Timbuk2 Steve Sleeve

A snails pace....

Humph, it is that time of the year when strange people exchange one large 'box' for a smaller 'box' on wheels, which they then drag across the country to some sodden piece of ground, through miles of tailbacks and gridlock, arriving just in time to turn around and drag their ambulatory abodes all the way back to where they started.

Just like the snail carrying its home around on its back and not getting anywhere really fast - apt that some of the caravanning world use a snail as their club logo...

Yep, it's a glorious British Easter Bank Holiday. It's lousy weather. It's miles of road works. It's trains cancelled or delayed.

It's time to stay at home...

Docktored dock...

The 3D look on the Leopard Dock bugged me.

Didn't like the fact there was no option in Preferences to turn it off but I never got around to fiddling in Terminal to kill the 3D effect.
I tried moving the Dock to one side, where the 3D effect is turned off, but I couldn't get my head around that at all.

Then I discovered that the utility tool Onyx has a setting under Parameters which disabled the 3D effect.
So now I have a 2D Dock where I want it.

Voila...

Modem to go...

In half a mind to pick one of these up - T-Mobile Web'n'walk USB modem (£99) - for those occasions when I find myself away from home and in need of internet access.

The cost of no more than £4 for any 24 hour period and no contract ticks the right boxes for me. I already use the contract free Web'n'walk on my mobile phone, which runs at £1 per 24 hour, so being able to use a similar set up on the laptop is appealing.

Claims that the modem can reach download speeds of up to 1.8Mbps certainly makes the current speeds I am getting at home look sloth like!

Bumper Sticker Wednesday

4-6-8...

Been trying to set up the Bluetooth system in my car today. It has a voice driven menu system and it has been driving me madder than a mad thing in Madtown.
Its inability to understand the basic commands had me scream "for fucks sake' in frustration as once again it failed to grasp the telephone number I was trying to store in the Contact List.
The ever so calm female voice piped up "4-6-8, say yes" - so there we have it ....

4-6-8!!!!!!

Macless...

I am now iMac-less. My G5 iMac has been taken in for "repair". I suspect that it is a PMU or motherboard problem. It had developed a tendency to just switch off with no warning. Longest it would run was about an hour before acting like the plug had been pulled. I did all the recommended checks and from checking Apple Discussion forums it seems like it is a PMU issue.
I had to fix up a mobile air con unit to blow cold air onto the Mac just in order to allow Time Machine to complete a back up. Then, after scrubbing all my data from the damn thing, it then ran the rest of the day and all night without shutting down...

So now it is in for repair - but I suspect that it will be a case of "No Fault Found" after they have had it for 10 days...

Meanwhile i am using my G3 iBook...