Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Isn't it great that some criminals are stupid.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/the_p_word/newsid_7852000/7852248.stm
The Police are surfing the web and social networking sites looking for pictures of people posing with offensive weapons.

 It's amazing the numbers of people, young and old, who photograph or film themselves doing illegal things and then posting the results up on the internet.
It's bravado I suppose. "Look at me Ma, I'm on top of the world."
Knobs.
They deserve to be caught. I suppose we can be thankful their stupidity is making that easy.

Government unveils UK net report.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7848028.stm

 "Lord Carter is expected to publish his full report later in the year. Communications Minister Lord Carter is expected to publish his interim findings on the UK's digital economy."

 I always get worried about Government meddling in technology things. They have a habit of getting it all spectacularly wrong.
And here we have Government talking about regulating the Internet. How we're not all being treated equally in the broadband speed stakes. It even suggests the people who don't get the fastest connections are the socially deprived.

 "areas of digital exclusion are likely to mirror those of social deprivation."

 Yes I guess if you can't afford a computer or a fast internet connection then you may be considered deprived socially. But you could be living in central London, or central any city where it's available if you can pay for it.
Me, I live out in the sticks where we're lucky to get a cellphone signal and broadband speed is about average, which is way below the published maximum available. But I don't consider myself socially deprived. I just live too far away from the exchange.

 There are some areas of the internet where Governments could get usefully active. Some action on spam would be a good place to start.
Most internet users will agree spam is the number one pain the arse, and a significant cause of PC infections.
Governments worldwide need to get together and act against this. Not against the spammers, they just get paid to spew out the stuff. Follow the money back to the peddlers of dodgy porn and pills. Close the websites, shut down their ability to process online payments.
Kick the bastards in the wallet where it hurts

British Gas Homecare - Update

Fixed.
Tame plumber who lives opposite came in last night. My wife (always blame the wife chaps, it's our way of getting back for always being wrong) dislodged a plug into the controller while washing down the kitchen walls.

 Reminds me of an old joke.
Definition of Central Heating?
A bonfire in the middle of the room.

 Very nearly came to that last night having first checked the house insurance covered total destruction by fire.
The gas man doth no longer cometh on the morrow morn.

Missing girl seen on a ferry to France

This has to be worth spreading about the internet just in case someone sees them

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/7839502.stm
BBC NEWS | England | Humber | Missing girl and man 'on ferry'

 A missing 15-year-old girl has been seen travelling on a ferry to France with a man she is believed to have met through an internet chat room.
CCTV shows Laura Stainforth, who has been missing from Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire since Wednesday, with 49-year-old Robert Andrew Williams.
Police said Mr Williams, also known as Dave Ingram, was on bail after he was questioned over the rape of a teenager.

  
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Do I keep the Blackberry or go back to the iPhone?

My Vodafone business contract is coming to an end soon and I'm seriously looking at reducing my monthly spend on mobile phone bills. I have a .Mac (MobileMe) account which currently pushes all my email to the Vodafone Blackberry service and thence onto my Curve. As MobileMe is an IMAP push email service, to the iPhone only at the moment, I really don't need a Blackberry service. The trouble is I like my Blackberry. I also like the iPhone, I have a JailBroken 2G model with a PAYG Orange sim for backup purposes. My BB Curve is unlocked to any GSM network.

 So where to go next?
After some research it would seem to o2 and a sim only Simplicity Online 20 with a free "Unlimited" web bolt on, for £20 a month give or take a few pence, and it's only a 30 day contract.
This gives me 600 minutes of calls and 1000 text messages plus enough bandwidth a month to cover my data usage.
This represents a significant saving over my current contract, does not tie me in to a 12 or 18 month contract and puts me on to what is at the moment the only network supporting the iPhone. Plus it gives me EDGE coverage which Vodafone has never managed.
But I like my Blackberry Curve and a Blackberry only works with a Blackberry email service.
Well actually no it doesn't. Some Googling found at least 2 alternative email clients for the Blackberry that will access POP and IMAP mail servers.
http://www.logicprobe.org/proj/logicmail LogicMail
http://www.tiggit.com/tiggitmail/index.html Tiggit

 I'm going to give these a try. Hopefully they will give me my .mac email over the o2 data network and allow me to continue using the Curve until Apple release iPhone 3 or the Palm Pre goes on sale and is actually as good as it looks.

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So why is porridge porridge and not boiled oats

I became interested in this today for no real sane reason other than a bit of sillyness on Twitter.
Why is it called Porridge when it is just boiled oats?
In case you're not sure, this is what oats look like before they are boiled.

300px-porridge_oats

You can boil the oats in water or boil them in milk, it's up to you and down to taste. You can add salt if you're a tough wind blown kilt wearing Scotsman. Or sugar if you're just plain sane. You make the consistency thick or thin, but too thin and the result is called Gruel with all the images of poverty that name conjures up in the mind.
 
"More. You want more, boy?"
 
Too thick and you can hang wallpaper, mend car bodies, plug holes in the hulls of ships or use as an eco friendly replacement for cement to build a brick wall. Ultra thick and it becomes a weapon of mass destruction, and no amount of washing up liquid will remove it from the bowl.
It's not new of course and porridge has been found in the stomachs of 5,000 year old Neolithic bog bodies in central Europe and Scandinavia. It's unclear if the porridge was the cause of death.
 
Porridge is known all over the world by different names.
In Greece it's call Atheroma (meaning a lump of porridge from Athera, porridge in Greek).
The Russians call it Kasha and probably flavour it with spiced vodka to keep out the cold.
In Italy it's Polenta and in Scandinavian countries it's called a variety of unpronounceable names.
 
In England we call it Ready Brek.
 
In Scotland the art of porridge-making is competitive, and the World Porridge Making Championships are held annually in Carrbridge, Inverness-shire. The event is also known as the Golden Spurtle due to the winner receiving a gold-coloured trophy of a spurtle, which is a utensil used for stirring porridge.
The rest of the world calls that a spoon.
 
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We're all doomed

Research results are flowing out from various think tanks to reinforce the dire state of the economy.
House prices are plummeting faster than a loose womans knickers,
 business leaders say we are now in a "frightening decline".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7825213.stm
Anti litter campaigners blame McDonalds for everything instead of the morons that drop the stuff, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7825339.stm. I don't know about you but when I was at school I was taught that dropping litter was a no no.
And to top it all we're now buying more baked beans than ever because they're a cheap meal.
This does not bode well for the ozone layer.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7824072.stm
 
But the good news is. A bunch of celebs have found sufficient funds to buy half a football pitch in an effort to stop Heathrow's third runway expansion.
It's nice to know who our rich saviours are. Perhaps they would care to fund the unemployment packages of all the workers who would actually benefit from that expansion. Misguided nitwits should stick to what they know best and not mess with stuff that's way above their heads. Your politics are of no concern to me, entertain me or shut up.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7825169.stm
 
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Flying car from London to Timbuktu

"Just popping out for a drive in the old Motor dear, back in time for tea."
 
You have to love us eccentric Brits. Forget Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, this car is real. Well actually it's a sand buggy with a few cunning modifications and a couple of parachutes.

_45366069_skaycar_226

Ex SAS officer Neil Laughton plans to fly drive from Central London, over the Pyranees, the Straights of Gibraltar, The Atlas Mountains and the Sahara, and on to Timbuktu in the African country of Mali.
We shall watch with interest and wish him all the luck in the world, we hope he makes it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7821979.stm
 
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The Palm Pre

I've always been a fan of Palm products, I like the user interface and some of the applications are very good indeed. I still have a Palm Lifedrive and despite the usual criticisms of this product mine has always behaved itself. It's now used solely for TomTom satnav, my PDA requirements are now taken care of by Blackberry and iPhone.

But I do like the look of the new Palm Pre. It seems to do everything the iPhone does and more, including some things that the iPhone really should be doing, like copy and paste. It's got one, or more, over on the Blackberry Storm by having WiFi and probably a better touch screen. And the currently available Google phones are just plain ugly.

I really hope the Pre pulls Palm back from the brink. I'm interested but it depends on which UK network gets it first and whether they hobble it in any way.

Read the Engadget review of the Palm Pre here

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