Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

HELLO, I'M ON THE PLANE. ON THE PLANE. HELLO?

Rory Cellan-Jones, he of the BBC, goes up in an old flying boat over Las Vegas and holds a Skype conversation via mobile broadband with BBC colleague Maggie Shiels. Although the noise in the old aeroplane was such that a conversation was almost impossible, the video bit worked well. Nice to see him using a Mac.
He also posted a number of tweets on Twitter while up there.
This is not unique as the system is already in place on some US airlines.
Stephen Fry sent a number of messages via Twitter on his recent flight from LA to Auckland, only to be met by a paparazzi snapper when he got there.
With the internet you are never alone. If you're a celeb be careful what you say.

See here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2009/01/surfing_over_vegas.html
and here
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VkSISc8APYs>

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Ron Aldo crashes his Ferrari

Some bloke called Ron Aldo who kicks a ball about for Manchester United, escaped unhurt after driving his Ferrari into a wall.

Which reinforces my notion that some people get behind the wheel of an exotic motor car and assume it somehow magically makes them the worlds best driver. I have noted this also happens to men with short hair and big ears when they climb into BMW's and young chavs with baseball caps in Vauxhall Corsas, which are of course far from exotic.

These dicks also get a kick out of driving around with their front fog lights on when there is no sign of any fog, let alone rain or snow. I believe such moronic activity is actually an offence which can lead to a significant fine from the feds if caught.

I suggest the good folks at Ferrari refuse to supply Ron with another motor. He's just not the right sort of chap to be driving one.

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UFO hits wind turbine? An Unidentified Flying Object, No.

An alien crashes in lincolnshire? I doubt it.

Damage to a wind turbine in rural Lincolnshire (clue there) is being attributed to a UFO. Ufologists in the area are looking into it after receiving many, several, well a few emails and phone calls reporting sightings on the night in question. Local councillor Robert Palmer said he had seen a hovering white light. Is he the right man for the job?

The wind turbine is at Conisholm near Louth and suffered damage in the early hours of Sunday 4th January. One blade was completely sheared off and another severely damaged. Speculation as to the cause is rife in the area and ranges from the aformentioned UFO through aeroplanes to a bloody big bird.
The lights in the sky reported in the area are almost certainly fireworks of the floating lantern variety. But what caused the damage is still a mystery. My guess is one of the blades just fell off, damaging the other one as it fell.

The Ministry of Defence, guardians of our safety, are not investigating the incident. As far as they are concerned there was no intrusion into UK airspace by anything hostile or alien.
So that's alright then.

In some parts of rural Lincolnshire they still point open mouthed at aeroplanes.

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iPhone Nano is a NoNo

You have to wonder at the mentality of some people who are willing to shell out some hard earned cash on something that is obviously too cheap to be true.

Just before Christmas we were warned of some fake and possibly dangerous Nintendo DS Lites on sale in the UK and elsewhere. If you bought one, tough, you should know better, I have no sympathy.

Now it has emerged that the far eastern fakers have been wrong footed by Apple.

It was speculated widely on the web by those who know nothing that Apple was about to introduce an iPhone Nano at this months MacWorld in San Francisco. The faking factories went into overdrive shipping out replica iPhone Nanos complete with authentic looking Apple logos. They started to appear in Thailand shops just after Christmas and some have reportedly been seen in European shops.

Since Apple did not introduce a new iPhone Nano this month, and is actually unlikely ever to do so, the retail value of these fakes has plummeted. No doubt they will soon start appearing alongside their full size iPhone Fake brothers on eBay. Goodness knows what's actually inside these things or if they even work as cellphones or media players. But if you were mug enough to buy one, serves you right.

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The spammers cat sat on the keyboard

Way back when I wore a much younger mans clothes, in fact I was in
shorts and long socks, our English teacher would insult our handwriting
by suggesting we had pet spiders to write our essays.
My handwriting wasn't all that great back then and a couple of decades
of keyboard use have ensured it's a lot worse now. But sometimes you
still see the efforts of the pet spider, or the cat, in text on the
internet.
It may be God awful spelling and grammar, or something like the example
below.

 This came in to my inbox this morning from the contact link in my usenet
sig file. I have some idea of why someone would apparently waste time
sending me a bunch of gobbeldegook (love that word) links that don't go
anywhere, and they don't so no worries about spreading the word.
Just testing the web form were you?

 ------------------------- COMMENTS -------------------------

 kI2db5 txsjvgiojcdx,
[url=http://weejmaggikxu.com/]weejmaggikxu[/url],
[link=http://kgrjisgbqnwj.com/]kgrjisgbqnwj[/link],
http://tuyffygvxfhn.com/

 ------------------------------------------------------------

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An embuggerance of Live(Hot)mail

A message from a friend in New Zealand via Facebook bemoaning the loss of his Hotmail address book and email address, prompted me to look at my own Hotmail. This isn't something I do very often as I only use it if a website asks for an email address in order to use any part of it. Apart from this and MSN the address is just a throw away pot of spam.
Anyway my friend said he had been forced to change his address to something@windowslive.com.
I have queried this as I believe it should actually be @live.com.

 Anyway back to the issue at hand, I logged into my hotmail account only to find it's all changed, there are no emails in my inbox, nothing in the spam box, and nothing in the address book (I don't think there ever was). In fact there isn't anything to suggest -----@hotmail.com ever existed. It's a new account.
Thanks a bunch Microsoft. Despite it being a throw away address there were a few emails in there I did want to keep.
My fault I suppose for not accessing the web interface for Gawd knows how long.

 A lesson there for anyone still using webmail as their primary email system. Unless you can download mail to your local machine for safe keeping it ain't safe.

 Anyway with nothing better to do I decided to look deeper and discovered I could set up another new account and still get my hotmail user name with the spanking new shiny @live.co.uk, so I did.
I am now @hotmail.com and @live.co.uk.
But whereas in days gone by you could email me @hotmail.com or @hotmail.co.uk, with the new shiny Live system only @live.co.uk works.
Maybe someone else has datasmog@live.com, if they do they got a couple of odd test emails from a dead TV personality with a gmail address.

  
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How high is the Burj Dubai. Is it the world's tallest building?

How high is the Burj Dubai. Is it the world's tallest building?

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We don't know for sure yet, it's not finished and they're not saying.
But William Baker, the chief structural engineer of Skidmore Owings Merrill the company in charge of building the Burj Dubai has this to say:
 
"The structure is almost finished and is expected it will be unveiled in a few weeks' time. But no one is saying how tall it will be.
"We're not allowed to say. The client hasn't announced what it is and I don't think they will," says Mr Baker. "It'll turn into urban folklore, you'll have people measuring the shadows on Google Earth and trying to figure it out.""
 
Really? Has Mr Baker not heard of 'Triangulation'?
It's a very simple formula involving angles and it's a bit worrying if the man in charge of building the worlds tallest structures isn't familiar with it.
It was known to the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese and the Arabs.
Measure a distance to the base of an object, measure the angle from that point to the top and a bit of simple maths will give you the height.
A very long tape measure and a head for heights is not required.
I doubt the height of the Burj Dubai, when finished, will remain an Urban Myth for long.
Measuring shadows on Google Earth indeed? It makes you wonder if he is the right man for the job.
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7798943.stm
 
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Get rid of those stupid sunglasses Karl.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7786000/7786527.stm
Karl Lagerfeld, international designer and Max Headroom lookalike
looks like a knob in sunglasses and bling.

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Dressed in his trademark black and white, his fingers weighed down with rings, Karl Lagerfeld sits in his Chanel studio and is in expansive mood.
Those rings clink noisily. 'Today I counted 19. Sometimes I go up to 23. I have only 10 fingers like everybody else, hm?' he says."
So what is it with these people and sunglasses? It's like Country and Western singers and cowboy hats indoors. Why for God's sake, does the roof leak? Is the light too bright for you Karl?
Or are you really a silly knob? I suspect the later.
 
 
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Bugatti Type 57S Atalante found in a garage.

Reclusive Newcastle doctor Harold Carr stashed away the classic Bugatti in his lock up garage in 1960 after using it for around 5 years.
Originally built for Earl Howe, first president of the British Racing Drivers Club, in 1937 the car is one of only seventeen produced by Bugatti and was bought by Doctor Carr in 1955 from Lord Ridley.
The car is in original condition in need of restoration and has a remarkably low mileage.
 
Doctor Carr died in 2007 and left the contents of his garage to his family. A classic Aston Martin and an E Type Jaguar were also in the garage.
 
The Bugatti Atalante was a two door coupe body style built on both the Type 57 and 57S, but with a single piece windscreen and no fin. Only 17 Atalante cars were made, four of which reside in the Cité de l'Automobile Museum in Mulhouse, France (formerly known as the Musee Nationale de L'Automobile de Mulhouse).
 
The name Atalante was derived from a heroine of Greek mythology, Atalanta.
She was the daughter of Schoeneus (or Lasius), who really wanted a son so badly that when Atalanta was born he left her in the middle of the forest in the mountain tops to die. She was raised by a hunter and became a fierce huntress capable of running very fast.
Reunited with her father she agreed with him to marry anyone who could outrun her in a foot race. Anyone who tried to beat her and failed would be executed. Atalanta features in several Greek legends including some versions of the Quest for the Golden Fleece.
 
Doctor Carr's Bugatti Atalante is due to be auctioned by Bonhams in Paris in February 2009 and is expected to fetch up to £3m
 
 
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One million viruses and counting. How the bad guys attack your PC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7797280.stm

If you ever wonder why your PC is a bit sluggish at times, it"s probably your anti virus program sifting through it's database to make sure the incoming email from aunty Beryl isn't infected with a nefarious piece of crapware looking to take over your computer.

"Sophos said it was now seeing more than 20,000 new malicious programs every day. 2008 was also the year in which Symantec revealed that its anti-virus software now protected against more than one million viruses.
The vast majority of these malicious programs are aimed at Windows PCs. Viruses made their debut more than 20 years ago but the vast majority of that million plus total have been created in the last two-three years."

The bad guys are turning to new ways to attack your PC. That social networking site you spend so much time on could well be infected, and that great little application you tried out that found all that spyware and offered to clean it up for a small fee, probably put it all on there in the first place.

On the plus side, the common or garden spam email is on the decline.