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Zune Bad, Babies Good

apparently the zune is really crappy. suntimes.com:

"Yes, Microsoft's new Zune digital music player is just plain dreadful. I've spent a week setting this thing up and using it, and the overall experience is about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face.

"Avoid," is my general message. The Zune is a square wheel, a product that's so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity."

In other exciting news, we had a baby. details here (with links to lots of pics).

Buy Nothing Day

Interesting idea for Christmas - stop buying stuff! It junks up the world causing major environmental issues, and we have 10 times as much stuff as other countries. We (the western world) consume 86% of the world's products! Found at http://blog.iamnotashamed.net/. Another interesting Christmas thought here: Chistmas is not your birthday.

boinc machines

At BOINCstats, they have lists and lists of information about which types of computers have contributed how many units in recent days. And part of my interest was actually seeing where my processor is relative to other processors, just to see what I can expect. One of the things that's interesting for me though is that the mac pro machines (which all get the same identity on the lists, whether they have 2ghz or 3ghz processor) are very near the top - as can be see in this list. (check that the list is sorted by average credit per cpu, and then look at the fourth item down) or have a look at this list where you can see a fair few machines which regularly average above 2000 credits per day! That's 10 times faster than my Intel P4 @ 2.8ghz.

A Big list of Essential PC Software

Matt said I should do a big list of all the software needed for a Windows PC in order to protect it from the internet, viruses, spyware, adware, malicious software, etc. Whilst it may seem slightly excessive, in my personal experience, it's pretty much essential!

here it is.

If anyone has any suggestions please let me know! (I thought I'd already done something similar, but not to the same extent)

PC World can't fix your PC

"Computing Which? magazine visited seven PC World outlets and 13 independent stores. The experts deliberately created faults. On half the computers they deleted a file that helps to start up the Windows operating system. On the other half they loosened a cable connecting the hard disk to the rest of the computer.

The research identified 'staggering' differences in the level of know-how and charges. Correcting the simple Windows software problem triggered price quotes from £20 to £260, while the bill for fixing a loose cable ranged from £10 to £139.

One London branch of PC World misdiagnosed the software problem as a corrupted hard disk and quoted £350 for repairs. A member of staff even advised buying a new PC which could have cost more than £500. Another PC World branch in Oxford misdiagnosed a computer with a loose cable as having a corrupted hard disk and quoted £300 for a repair. "

Obsessed with shreddies?

this site has some great info on shreddies, and many other great things.

Solid State Digital Speedometer

Coolest speedo ever? Austin Meastro Vardan Plas. Even has a "Convert" button. Am I the only one that has always wanted a digital speedo? If you own a ford fiesta there is a "trick mode" where you can get the car to display the speed digitally instead of showing you the mileage and the time. Instructions here.

Other cars with digital speedos:
Check out this Fiat Tipo bad boy here. (another pic here)
Citroen C4 central digital speedo.