Wednesday, May 28, 2003

And here www.fleetonline.net is a new application that tracks previously registered mobile phones on the internet, at 21p a time. Guess its a bit big brotherish but its obviously what MI5 is using (without our permission or maybe its buried deep in our contracts) to keep tabs on us all.
Guess it would be useful if you lost your phone or if you were a delivery driver and obviously it is what those guys at ZingoTaxi arecould use (see blog of 29 April). So a system can be implemented by one guy and 21p per call rather than 50 people and 8million! such is progress!
Here is an interesting blog on care issues with the wondrous masteracre at dixons. Most interesting idea that Marie had was using google adwords to publicise her cause. Apparently google banned them after a while - will bring them the issue up at the Google University in London when I visit the Adword course.

Friday, May 23, 2003

and here is a shockingly good present for the woman in your life. A jacket that can charge up to 80KV when its owner presses a button. Just the job to keep unwanted hands of you!
Philip and his new friend Don came around last night and introduced me to Shazam.

This is a pretty revolutionary new service here in the UK. If you hear a tune on the radio that you really like and want to know what its called etc (Yep, its really frustrating!) then you just dial 2580 (pretty cool number actually its the four centre keys on your mobile going in the direction of the microphone!) point the phone at the loudspeaker. Then bingo 30 secs later you get a SMS (Text message) with singer, track etc. Apparently has a database of 1.6million songs it searches. Incredibly it works! you can then go to their site at Shazam.com to order the song from Amazon. (Captain Marvel fans should go here for SHAZAM history)

You can then register at the site (maximum age on their form is 40 years, so I guess I'm not in target market!). Where you can access all tunes you have tagged and order from Amazon in boring old way. Now wouldnt it be cool to link it to your ipod and download the mp3. Yes the future is exciting

Thursday, May 22, 2003

The virus that pretends its from support@microsoft.com came from IP address 217.57.140.195, message Subject: Re: Movie All information is in the attached file.
name="screen_doc.pif"

Full header

Received: from host195-140.pool21757.interbusiness.it (217.57.140.195)
by mail15c.boca15-verio.com (RS ver 1.0.80vs) with SMTP id 4-033685454
for ; Thu, 22 May 2003 06:47:35 -0400 (EDT)

Wednesday, May 21, 2003

A great story about the security holes in Microsoft products, remember the previous blog where they are offering classes in writing security software? is here. Their solution, buy another companies products!

Monday, May 19, 2003

An awesome site here for learning the way of the world according to google. Here is a guide to the "google dance" or how the index is maintained. All very disconcerting especially since google is so secretive about its use of easily identifable cookies for EVERY search term that you have ever used. Here is the google test domains www2.google.com if you want to see the index.

Thursday, May 15, 2003

Just added the Atomz search engine to site. will it search thisblog and its archive?
Todays workout hour at the gym with Gill I did:-
Start weight 79Kg
Cross trainer warm up 5mins
Rowing 2000 metres 8min 6 sec (previous best (8min 24sec)
15 press ups
15 lunges
3 sets of 12 by 26kg on chest press
Ran 2000 metres in 10min 20 sec (Heart rate 133 at end)
15 press ups
10 lunges with 5Kg weights
Crosstrainer 10 minutes 1505 strides
stretches
A good workout and not to knackering although very sweaty!
A great site here where you can post nominations for the most stupid security related issue you know of. My favourite is Geneva airport where you are still allowed to buy swiss army knifes, which no doubt get confiscated a few minutes later at the metal detector. The site also contains request forms you can send to your isp, so you can find out what information they are keeping on you. (as if they would ever tell you the real truth in Blair's secret state)
On the morning trawl of the news. It is interesting to see the differences between the google.com and google.co.uk news. The story catching my eye in the uk is taken from here with research comparing Eastenders to real life "But the serial's characters are far more likely to come to a sticky end than the rest of the public, with 0.22 percent of the cast murdered per year compared to a national level of 0.0016 percent".

Wherehas the big international story (not featured at all in google.co.uk) is here which is a profoundly depressing tale of how we have virtually wiped out the oceans in the last 50 years (my lifetime!) reminds me that the whole world is going the same way as the Easter Islanders, they destroyed all their wood so they could no longer make boats to fish in - so starved to death! We are doing one better - destroy the ocean itself!

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

New low cost airline flying from stansted to amsterdam here starting on 26th May 2003

Monday, May 12, 2003

A nice bit of satire here. But make sure you have the proximitron installed and enabled to cut out the crap (well done Scott for excellent program). If you use the prox. its dead easier to put bypasses in for sites like www.blogger.com.
Another site to test your personality www.outofservice.com whicj I discovered from this article here. Not as good as www.emode.com. Here are my results for my musical personality test - not that accurate imho

Saturday, May 10, 2003

Just republished my website and now I notice the blogger has failed to appear - now republish the blog...

Friday, May 09, 2003

Tonight Suzanne and I were entertained by the renowed trichotillomania treatment therapist in London, Anne, a very pleasant evening with good vegan food.
Oh dear the Original Pozzi GymnastikBall made here which I have been using all day in the office for past year or so, blew up today depositing me on the office floor very quickly. It had developed a large fault this morning photo here. Previously it had developed three pinholes all of which I had fixed with super glue. Alas its beyond redemption now. Here is a picture in happier times

Thursday, May 08, 2003

And the latest news from Baghdad "Let me tell you one thing first. War sucks big time. Don’t let yourself ever be talked into having one waged in the name of your freedom. Somehow when the bombs start dropping or you hear the sound of machine guns at the end of your street you don’t think about your “imminent liberation” anymore" Taken from the dear_rael blog who has just started posting again. After a short break for war!

Thursday, May 01, 2003

Just tried adding my blog to Blogster. Just cannot get to paste their link into my site properly so heres a botch job.
Click here to visit Blogster.Net - Top Blogs
Just had an SMS from Chris warning me not call back 08718717123 if you see a missed call. Apparently its a scam from an outfit called Global Direct. Checked the number on google and came up with this blog someone else who was caught out. Cunning SCAM, if very annoying idea anyway.

This follows on fromanother new scam. I received on fax yesterday (number withheld) from "Janet Brown Holdings" asking me to call 07984935756 as they were very interested in my companies services! Checked on google using the post code given on fax and came up with this so obviously Janet is aka Julie Hansen Holdings! Interestingly 07984 is a regular one2one mobile number - wonder if it pops you through to a premium rate number? Don't think I will try!
Listed on BlogShares