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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.

greenmyapple.org

"We love Apple. Apple knows more about "clean" design than anybody, right? So why do Macs, iPods, iBooks and the rest of their product range contain hazardous substances that other companies have abandoned? A cutting edge company shouldn't be cutting lives short by exposing children in China and India to dangerous chemicals. That's why we Apple fans need to demand a new, cool product: a greener Apple." watch their ad here.

Portable Atari Jaguar

Ben Heck has taken apart an Atari Jaguar, and made it into a portable console with built in joypad, screen, and stereo speakers. He says the 64bit console has a 32-bit bus, and is not a 64-bit machine as Atari were claiming at the time...

I escaped from the Dungeon of Stinkygoat! - I killed Stickofjoy the cockatrice, Cannonstar the leprechaun, Fuseball the nymph, Aureo1e the leprechaun, Dudewhoisrandom the leprechaun, Quinling the leprechaun, Duke Otterland the leprechaun, Stereotypist the orc, Hirosama the goblin and Alarm Fil the floating eye. - I looted a Figurine of Hukkax, a Figurine of Matt303, the Dagger of Postcardstohell, a Figurine of Dhau, the Sword of Nicolyrezk, the Crown of the Stony 1, the Crown of Lezek, the Shield of Deanoc, the Sceptre of Sack , the Armour of Zagreb2, the Sceptre of Nerfboy, the Sword of 4zumanga and 194 gold pieces.

Play it here - my score was 544.

Scott Adams has his voice back...

If you read the Dilbert blog, then you might know that Scott Adams lost his voice 18 months ago and hasn't been able to speak since (except in a public speaking context), well he's got his voice back through ryhme!

More links: NZ Herald. Boing Boing.

AMD and ATI become one. Germany requires Internet License!

AMD and ATI are now one, and if you go to ati.com you end up at ati.amd.com.

Some worrying news from Germany: Germany brings in TV license fees for the internet -

"And, just to really rub salt into the wound, the follow up of shock troops comes with the realisation that you’ll be charged this license fee no matter what you use your internet device for! Yep, that means you business users, who never surf the net, have net access for information and email only, you get charged. Likewise, home users in the ex-Eastern Germany, who are just unwrapping the latest 486DX2, are going to be hit with the charge too." more details at the inquirer.

Firefox 2

Download here. It seems good so far.

Does it remember your open windows like Opera?
Yes it can pick up where you left off just change it in tools>options>main and change "when firefox starts" from "show my homepage" to "show my windows and tabs from last..."

Apple iPod 5 years old...

Engadget has it in pictures showing every model except the latest 5.5G Photo/Video iPod, and Gizmodo list 10 reasons why they hate the ipod. Hoorah!

If you like Darkplace, and IT Crowd

then you might like Man to Man with Dean Learner (played by Moss from the IT Crowd), and the makers of Darkplace. The spoof chat show (sounds like 'Knowing me, knowing you, with Alan Partridge') is hosted by a millionaire playboy, and guests are played by co-creator Matthew Holness. It's on tonight at 11.05pm on C4.

Rover History in Video Form

1959 (to 2000) - Mini (Montage?), Mini (Spike Milligan), Advert (1988)
1977 - (Leyland) Rover 3500
1980 - Austin Rover Mini Metro (Batman Spoof)
1984? - Austin Rover (Metro, Maestro etc) Feat. Noel Edmunds.
1986 - Rover 800
1995 - Rover 400
2000 - Rover 25
2001 - Rover MG ZR (MG version of 25)
2003? - MG Rover internal press video (includes two TV ads, one for MG Rover, one for MG ZR (25) and MG ZS (45), also features MG ZT (75), City Rover, SV-R etc).

Other stuff:
Rover 200 / 25 / Streetwise / MG ZR Story.
MG Z Cars on Top Gear (25 ZR, 45 ZS 180, 75 ZT).
Top Gear reviews the new City Rover.

Link

The iPod's genesis.

History of Computers

in the form of TV adverts. link.

google buy youtube

Link - Google have bought youtube.com for $1.65 billion in stock!