Some good news and a quick software review!

So my phone is back from repair! Well, actually a completely new phone is now mine, since the other one's touch screen was FUBAR. Which is nice, since it was a little scratched and dinted. But, this comes to the problem of transferring all one's contacts, messages and documents across. Thankfully there is a fab little bit of software called backup manager 4 from Czech company Sunnysoft. This backed all of the above to an SD card with minimal fuss (apart from needing active sync to install - thank god for housemates and their windows laptops), and then restored it to the new machine with no problems whatsoever (it even restored my desktop background, menu entries, shortcuts and custom hardware button assignments!!). All of the above was done under the 7 day trial period, but I'm seriously considering splashing out on the mere tenner it costs to buy!

Now to get the wifi card working and tomtom installed (if that gps ever bloofy turns up...)

Dodgy weed warning

From indimedia via dogbomb. There is increasing evidence of skunk being contaminated with small beads of silica or glass to give the impression of THC crystals and increased weight. Keep your eyes open, guys.

Intelligence Returns to Kansas...

...as their school board gives "intelligent" design the boot! From el reg . This is fantastic news and i'm sure everyone over at venganza will be delighted. Unfortunately this also means the campaign to get pastafarianism taught in schools has been put back a further step :(

mmmmm crusty!

So, after mad panics (the wine not being delivered) , rushing around like a mad man and worries about no-one showing up, the inaugural Bristol LDYS "drink liberally" wine tasting went ahead! In the end we had 13 people which was spot on for one case, a good mix of people as well. The whites were generally more interesting and showed a greater variation than the reds (which is a shame, since I love my red), and I ended up flogging the case at a (very) slight profit. Went out to po na na's afterwards which was belting but couldn't sustain the partyage too long due to copious volumes of wine consumed previously! Woke up at 9, still shit faced so went back to bed. Woke up again at 11 with conjunctivits! lovely!

Wine, whine and well... um wine!

Wine- as in wine is not an emulator. runs google sketchup very nicely (well, v 0.93 does, tis in the winhq repository, the one in universe is a little older)

Whine - me such a hypochondriac sometimes. only to myself, though. I thought I had some kind of degenerative muscle wasting disorder but turns out I'd just been cycling round in a really high gear all day - d'oh!

and Wine! I really hope tommorow goes well - firstly, I'll have a lot of egg on my face if it doesnt, secondly I'll have a very empty wallet if we don't get the numbers, and thirdly it will be great if we can pull of a well attended cool bristol ldys public event!

My take on a couple techy things of late

Firstly, a little Wii review. Firstly a little disclaimer - I'm not usually a console fan at all. I think PC gaming is where it's at - in fact, the last (and only) console I owned was a Nintendo 64 which I bought on the cheap from my cousin. Good now that that's out the way I can crack on - so, my housemate has disregarded all sound financial advice and has got himself one of these jobbies. First impressions were pretty good - the box itself looks reasonably sekshy in a sort of well... white way!! First fired up and initially was graphically disappointed but then I remembered I was watching interlaced video thru a composite cable on a standard CRT telly not the minimum 1280X1024 on an LCD i'm used to. To cut a long story short it's a great laugh - not the intense, graphically astonishing, mega-immersive experience of playing something like FEAR on a decent PC but just a bloody good laugh. The pendant in me occasionally bemoans the lack of realism in wiisports (e.g. boxing with no arms must be difficult and a greater choice of clubs in golf would be nice) but then again that's not really the point of it. A final note - drunken wii bowling is a great thing but drunken wii golf can induce fits of rage and do great damage to your overall skill points!

Secondly Windows Vista - not quite sure why I'm honouring this with my words but I'd be foolish to deny that is wasn't an event. As far as I can see the things people are really raving about (like aero and the gui refinements) have all been available (and have been improved on since) on mac or linux for many a long time. The touted security improvements have been debunked by various experts (OneCare getting a complete thrashing here) I really don't think Vista will be considered a crucial upgrade for most windows users for some time yet. We'll have to see what DX10 turns out to be like to see if there's anything really new on the gaming front! What really gets my goat is all the different versions and their associated licensing nuances - this stinks of an effort to confuse the customer and find ways of eeking extra money out of them for things the OS should do anyway. At first I never used to see why people care so much about Free software and the GPL but now I'm beginning to see why it's so important to have a license that makes sure the user's rights are looked after and your not going to get shafted.

iPhone - jeez, get over it. basically it's going to be pretty but technologically behind the times and there are already things out that will do what it does only better. It's overpriced, too. Bet it will sell by the shedload....

Steve Jobs & DRM - ok you seem to be saying the right thing, but what about fairplay?

Feisty Fawn - why can't it be april yet?!!! :excited:

An atheist's 10 commandments

Shamlessly snarfed from teh intarweb but seems right on the money to my eye....


1. Have no gods.
2. Don't worship stuff.
3. Be polite.
4. Take a day off once in a while.
5. Be nice to folks.
6. Don't kill people.
7. Don't fool around on your significant other.
8. Don't steal stuff.
9. Don't lie about stuff.
10. Don't be greedy.

Remember, theists may condemn you for living by this code because you are doing it of your own free will instead of because you're afraid that if you don't a supreme being will set you on fire.