General - 2

I've joined the commuting crowd going from London to where I work. I take a train to get there, not a bad service I have to add, with a train every 12 mins there abouts. I tend to target on train, if I miss that one, I can catch the next one safely in the knowledge that I will still be on time at the office.

Anyway, being on these trains, one starts to notice odd and strange things, like signage, yes, signs that point you in the wrong direction. Not only is the signage out, but the toilets are in a rather odd place. In most trains I've been on, the toilets are located away from the seats at the end of the carriage. In these trains they are located amongst the seating, very odd indeed. Back to that confusing signage. Not only are the toilets amongst the but the signs telling you where they are are all wrong. Check out the image below...

 

There you go, I bet the right authorities have been notified but due to not having enough money, they can't be bothered to change it.

Yep, there are quite a few things that annoy me, but #1685 is an upgrade on #1364 which is loud people on mobile phones, there is nothing worse for an evesdropping person when you can only hear one side of a conversation.

It's people with mobile phones anywhere. People who maybe deaf, or more likely haven't found the volume button on their new phone. It's likely to be that one that has a big + and - on it, it may have the added Vol text over it. Yep, that one, you have you finger on it.... Anyway, it's those people who tend to have to yell down the phone in an over excitable way.

Your asking, so what's new for #1685 that #1364 doesn't have? It's when the user of the phone decides to use the 'activate loudspeaker' function, not only do you now have to put up with the loud and exiteble user, you now have to put up with the person at the other end...

Had to put up with this while I was in the supermarket queue this afternoon waiting for the cashier to speed up. The thing was, I would hear the whole conversation even above my MP3 player. Now I really feel sorry for all those who can hear correctly and will not be using an MP3 player to muffle the sound. It was awfull.

Some people should just not be allowed a mobile phone, if they do, then they should have to go through some mobilephone etiquette.

There that's my rant of the day over...

For many years it was a yellow triangle, with a sort of, what looked like a fan in the middle. This was/is of course your usual radiation sign. The one you wee when you go to get an X-ray. It's not very optrusive. It kind of frendly in a, you know, I'm dangerous, but just be careful when you see me around kind of way. The folks at the International Atomic Energy Authority seem to think that the old yellow triangle is getting a but too friendly and need to change it.

The new symbol is being launched today by the IAEA and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to help reduce needless deaths and serious injuries from accidental exposure to large radioactive sources. It will serve as a supplementary warning to the trefoil, which has no intuitive meaning and little recognition beyond those educated in its significance.

Source

Oh you want to see the new sign? you really do? I mean, it's not going to go down well in Hopitals is it? The way it's now coloured, It's red you see, and we all know what red mean? yes, Danger Danger Danger! Woop Woop (goes some alarm somewhere) Ok. here it is.

Ok, that was the old one, the new one is below....

Are you going to be happy seeing that in your local Hospital? you know, for nuclear examinations... ya, right Doc, you inject me with that stuff and I'll run a mile! My hair will drop out and I'll Diiieee? Well, I see some explaining will need to be done...

These photos where taken the other day, when the sun was beaming down over London. Yes, it was cold, but the sky was as clear as anything, but the again, if I was further away, I might have seen all the smog.

So, here's the pictures, slightly modified, but the colours are all there.

So it's the rugby 6 nations time again. For the english Johnny Wilkinson is finally back in the team. He was/is their key player and can do no wrong, so it appears according the to the BBC. In fact I would hazard a guess in think that most sport pundits think he is a rugby God or something. Not that I can complain, he plays well, but lets not forget, past results are not a good predictor of what will happen with future matches.

Ireland are out to win the 6 nations, I do hope that they do, they haven't had a grand slam win since, well, a loooong time ago, longer than England winning the world cup, infact it was in 1948 of all years.

Enough about the Rugby, What about the famous Johnny Wilkinson is the way in which he takes his kicks, he, you know has this thing with shaking his butt,  Kinda like this, see pic.

 

So what's this about the Wilkinson effect then, I hear you ask? Look no further than the image below...

There you go, say no more!

Well, one can say, the weather is rather odd here in London. The last 2 days/nights we have been having, well, normal winter type temperatures for once, you know, when it's very cold, and hitting the sub-zeros. So, what can one say to this poor rose? there all by it's self, no other roses to keep it company. But it did make a nice photo, so when it goes, either tonight when it freezes again, or naturally, either way, you have to say, it's a very nice one indeed.

That's all there is to say.. Fireworks over the London Eye where simply brilliant. as they say, Twas a Jolly good show, pity about a certain Kerplunkski!... Off to bed I goes....

Pity all the Gales wanted to be party poopers... never call your kids Gail... to many jokes for them tonight. So no show for the Scots.
Glasgow Hogmanay cancelled but we are all happy that Kylie gears up for gig and is back in town.

Night all.. Sleep well and take care!

Not being a fan of Tagging and have normally ignored many, but as it's Christmas The New Year and as it was Davide Simonetti's  Birthday, I thought well  Ok, this once, I'll do it. They will be brief as I'm not at home, am in Brussels and may have a few beers as I type....

"What are the seven best things you did this past year?"

Well, 7 of the best things? Not too hard then.. Here goes.

1: Finally getting of the steroids that I've been on for the past 29 years,  They were beginning to cause, well, not beginning, they had been for a few years, causing a lot of havoc with everything else but what they were been taken for. Good riddance to them!

2: Very recently, seeing England loose the Ashes so spectacularly that it but a full stop on all this cricket stuff  and that the English team of 2005 didn't actually win because they played well, but that they had had a pact with the weather.

3: Seeing Bush loose power in such a democratic way! Now too see him go back to his old job of Village idiot, hopefully he will bring along his pet dog with him.

4: Building up new commercial websites, and well, this is still ongoing, but hopefully to make something more with it.

[After a pause of a few days Internet techie problem, parties and evenings out]

5:Seeing Bush get a serious bashing in the US Mid-terms, Not that I think that much is going to change, at least it' gotten rid of that smog look of his face, oh and a certain Rummy has gone. Hoping to see him ride into the sunset with his poodle and a huge boot out the backside.

6: Seeing Blair the Magnificent start his slow, ( wish it was faster) decline, and seeing him dig his political grave live on TV. I don't think many people believe a word he says any more. Just wish the guy would not keep trying to save himself, but his party.

7: Well, it has been a long year, many events have happened, many people have gone, so good riddance, some, well you would have liked them to have stayed a little longer, but you know in yourself, that time moves on, and we are all left with the good memories of those. For me, as this is about me, I'm glad to have to have made it to the end of this year in one piece. Ok, I have plenty of spare parts, but that's different.

So now to tag a few other people to see what they have to say about their 2006 seven best moments, So, in no particular order.
Keith, Zoe at MBIAT,Karelian Blonde, Guyana Gyal, Anna at That's the way life is, and anyone who would like to share

So reader(s) as 2006 comes to a close, how was it for you? I hope that you like the new theme, it's still being worked on, but I'm sure you will agree with me, that it is a lot faster.
Happy New year, Bonne année, ? ????? ?????, Feliz Año Nuevo, Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar, Nuovo anno felice Lyckligt nytt år and for everyone have a great Hogmanay!! Drink lots and be safe.( I can't vouch for the correctness of the translations)

As quite a few of you may know, the education system in the UK isn't the best in the world. You can basically get through all the way till your 16 and get your GCSC, and not have the ability to Read, Write or do your Arithmetic (yep that's the 3 R's!). This is becoming rather worrisome for the people responsible for educating the country. What do they do instead, they go and do some research on where the problem could show it's self up. Yep, they found that it can show it's self up in the karaoke bars!

So, if you're one of those souls who goes to the Karaoke bars and can't read the prompts, it could be that you can't read?!

The lyrics of the 10 most popular karaoke songs have been assessed and rated by government literacy experts.

Those tackling Robbie Williams' Angels needed the reading skills required to pass five good GCSEs (Level 2).

Experts from the Get On literacy campaign said 17.8 million adults would not be able to follow the song.

Ok, Angels (Lyrics here) is a hard song to get right, I don't mean in the lyrics area, but in getting it to sound right. Most folk who do tend to 'try' and sing it tend to have had a few pints to many? Or did these experts test the folks make sure they didn't have a drop to drink or a splif to smoke?
Some other notable songs that suffer the same fate are:

• Gloria Gaynor: I will survive
• Queen: Don't Stop Me Now
• The Commitments: Mustang Sally
• Grease: Summer nights
• Elvis Presley: Suspicious Minds
• Abba: Dancing Queen (not only is that hard, but like Angels, hard to get right!)

So, as the report says, get yer readin' up ta scratch before ya embarrass yerself on the Karaoke!
I'm not saying that you would ever, ever find me on a Karaoke Stage, Drunk or Sober! This was just a comment on that BBC news report...

More info on English GSCS here.

Well, I've been rebuilding my PC yet again. It's a chore that I don't enjoy as I have hundreds of programs to re-install, some need configuring and well, some just don't get put back on. So it's a chance to do some early spring cleaning of a PC.
During this task, and over the years, I have found methods of making this chore a tad easier, being a computer 'geek' to some people, to me, I just like the things, and am constantly amazed at the speed of change. I used to be able to keep up, but I can't now, the turnaround cycle of upgrades and new technologies has gone from 18 months down to almost 3 months. I can't see any sane mortal keeping apace of that, unless they are Ubergeeks. Not me then

So, those tips?
Well, having a good backup is always a good idea, when I say backup, I don't just mean your e-mails, programs files and the likes, I mean total backup nothing less. My tool of choice for this is Acronis True Image. What True Image does, is take a snapshot of your harddrive, so that you have a full copy of all the contents of what you had safely stored away.
So, with that, I rebuild windows XP, the true image comes in use only to recover all the documents & settings files, these hold all the setting of all the files I have to re-install... (I'm going geeky aren't I?)
Anyway, as I said, it helps, but you still need to re-install all the apps, so that windows knows that they are there.
If you are using Open Source apps, Firefox and the likes, these don't need to be re-installed !!

Anyway, I'm still at it, installing, rebooting, installing rebooting.... Hopefully I should be finished soon......

Well when you look at the planet Earth from afar, it's only then when you see that it's not all that big in the whole sphere of things. I do in a way envy all those who have managed to see this view of the earth an unique view and a privileged one at that, But folks, here are some in a flash file for your viewing pleasure.

Click the pick and you'll be taken to the movie, not a long one, but a nice one non the less.

Yes, how big is the universe? It's bloody big, I mean HUGE!, no that's too small a word, it gi-normous! I think that's still a too small a word, It's freaking bleeding huge and will take thousands of light years to get from one end to the other; but how would you have known you've reached the end? Maybe when you've seen the restaurant at the end of the universe? it may have moved, or you might not have gone straight across the universe? You might even have taken some diversions unbeknown to yourself, you know black holes and other gravitational issues that need to be taken into account. etc etc...

Have you ever thought or wondered, you know with the internet being so vast that someone somewhere might have thought the same thought as yourself, but done something about it? Yes, have you ever thought, the internet is so vast and full of interesting stuff, I wonder if some one somewhere has made a site that is as big as the universe? Well, dear readers, yes, someone has, and for your viewing pleasure and from your armchair, you, yes You and you, can visit the universe from the comfort of your computer screen see the whole universe on the internet from this site here, below.

yes, here's the link to the Universe for your viewing pleasure!

Just one note though, to be able to see the centre of the Universe, you will need Firefox!

I gets up at the normal time on a Monday, around 08:30 there abouts. I goes of and get a nice steaming hot black coffee with one sugar, you know, coffee that's stronger than pure coffee. Sitting down and relaxing, getting myself upto date on the world events. On the climate change we're all doomed! Unless we spend some £1trillian or something like that and all will be OK.
Then my mobile rings, at 8:45 (yes, coffee was quick),
Good morning says I,
Is this <my full name>
Yes, speaking,
This is <My bank> can I do a security check,
Sure ok says I,
What age are you going to be at your next birthday..
Oh, 41 says I,
Thanks, says nice person from my Bank, Can you confirm or not that you tried to spend £200 on a casino site?
Err Nope, says I, wondering what's going on..
Ok, are you the only person to use this card?
Yes, Only myself.
OK, it appears that your card has been compromised,
Oh! says I under my breath, thinking to myself, now where could it have happened?!
So, to cut a long story short, Some bastard has skimmed my card or has managed to get hold of the card number and security number at the back!
I'm a pretty cardwise, and make sure that I don't leave my card lying around, haven't used it recently to pay for something, except one place, When I had to phone to get my Eurostar ticket, I'm not saying anything, other than that's the last place where I gave the card details over the phone. The phone being the least secure place to give your details as your are relying on a human to:

• Not write the info down
• Not remember it
• Dispose of it correctly

Where as, over the internet, if your pretty sure, as long as the site is secure and is a regular one that  you use and not a fly-by-night site, that the security is very good and you don't have to worry about the info being destroyed correctly etc.

Nice way to start a week, sir, you've been robbed!  I think I'll go back to bed and wake up on Friday!

If you happen to be using Outlook or Microsoft or your office happens to be using Microsoft exchange as an e-mail server, And your based in the UK, Ok that can be quite a few of you. You may notice that your Calender is or has been set to GMT! But It's not GMT time just yet, that comes at the last week-end of October, that's next week.
The problem is caused by a small bug, just a very small on, and normally your wouldn't every see it, well yes, this very same problem will happen in 2010, 2011 and 2016, so what's the problem and what's the bug, I hear you ask?
Well, check October this year, yes, there are 5 Sundays, and you will see the same happening in 2010, 2011 and 2016. And the bug is? Yes, coming to that, It's how Microsoft has coded the change over from BST to GMT.
What they have done is hard coded a rule, that BST finishes on the 4th week-end of October without exception. So check and make sure you have the right times or you could say, your lost in a timewarp somewhere 1hr ago;

Off to Brussels I goes in the next 10 mins or so... Weather looks nice for travelling. Some sun, not hot, just nice. 

Ok... Other than that, not much going on... will chat later.... TTFN.