Immobilise Phone Crime

This is a fantastic idea, and it’s good to see the Police using such innovative ideas to fight crime. I stronly urge you to go there NOW and register your phone details, so that your phone can be blocked if it is stolen, and then returned to you whether stolen or lost.

Gates brought down by Media Center bugs (Silicon)

This truly is one of the funniest things I’ve seen for a while – Bill Gates made to look reasonably stupid as a result of the flaws in his own products. Finally, divine retribution for all those times your PC has crashed at the most inconvenient of times.

[flashvideo filename=”http://sjhoward.co.uk/video/gates.flv” /]

I’ve been using the beta version of MSN Messenger 7 for a couple of days now, and I think it’s rather good. There are no particularly huge changes, but I do quite like the addition of Winks and Nudges (though the novelty may wear off soon).

Anyway, it’s definitely worth a click.

This is a good thing. Free AntiSpyware software from Microsoft. And, we are told, AntiVirus software is on its way too. Perhaps Microsoft are becoming more responsibly, cuddly, and caring.

If you choose to click the link above, please be aware that it might take a few tries to actually work – it seems Microsoft is somewhat overloaded with hits at the moment (unsurpisingly), so you might get a 404 error.

The new Beta version of MSN Search is, on several fronts, better than Google. The main one is a feature that I need all the time: Type a search such as “Capital of France” and you get a straight answer from Encarta. That blows Google out of the water. And it still has my favourite bits of the Google idea: Type “Define x” and it gives a dictionary definition, and it’ll do calculations to, and there’s an image search application. The Desktop Search application is better integrated with Outlook than windows, and will work from the Desktop Search Bar. There isn’t a UK biased version of the Toolbar Suite yet, but if this arrives before Google’s version, I’ll be switching allegiance.

The Newsbot has come out of nowhere to be (in my opinion) better than Google News.

Once these get out of beta and well integrated into the desktop, Google could be seriously threatened.

So MSN is my ‘big tip’ for 2005.

ABC News: People of the Year

Me? One of World News Tonight‘s People of the Year? Surely not…

Well, one of millions I suppose. Their People of the Year are Bloggers. Not that I’ve done anything myself spectacular on this blog, but some are of significant value in the Information World. There’s a blog for everything. And blogs like this, for nothing in particular. They’re everywhere. And there’s a new one every seven-and-a-half seconds. Quite scary, actually.

Messenger Plus!

I thought that everyone had heard of this and used it, but evidently not. If you use MSN Messenger, then this is very good and possibly one of the most useful free add-ins I’ve found in a long time. So download it now.

Capital Records are now giving their valued customers a virus.

Though if you listen to the Beastie Boys, you probably deserve a virus. Preferably fatal.

Originally posted on The LBSC

I find many aspects of Windows XP’s design very annoying, and I’ve long wanted to try something like Linux as an alternative – but then there are compatibility issues. And overall, I’ve never found stability problems with Windows XP, and I like the way it does lots of things – besides which, I couldn’t change OS and still be connected to the university network without great difficulty.

So instead of ditching Windows, I’ve just ditched the explorer.exe shell and replaced it with a new, self-penned shell (with more than a little help from Talisman 2). And now I’m happy – I’ve got programs and internet links in happy groups on a kind of task-bar extension to the left of the screen, the normal taskbar with a few changes (most notably it’s reduced size, and the addition of built in Winamp and Volume controls), and a nice circular Analog clock connecting the two at the bottom left. I also have a calendar and retractable desktop panel on the desktop, as well as a Desktop Toolbar complete with PC Power buttons running across the top. It’s very nice.

Changing topic completely… Car magazines. I was in WHSmith the other day, and there were fairly young teenagers deciding which one to buy. This seemed rather disturbing, given that none of them were old enough to drive, but when they selected one on the basis that it came with a free “Car Washing Kit”, things became grossly surreal. What were they planning on doing with it? Probably best not to ask.

Lots of fun in the Dissecting Room today, beginning with the introduction to the session. This is normally done by video, made by the anatomy tutor. Unfortunately, she realised that she’d got left and right the wrong way round throughout, and so instead decided to read the script out loud. A script which began “Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to this afternoon’s anatomy session”. I think I nearly wet myself. Which would have been appropriate, given that we were doing the urinary system. I was surprised at how small the kidneys are – I’d always imagined them to be quite big, but they’re only about 10cm or so. Quote of the day: Someone commented on how a particular dissected bladder resembled a deer-stalker hat, and somebody managed to come out with: “Don’t take the piss out of the poor thing”. If you are interested in the kidneys and urinary system – and I must warn you that my brother thought he was, until he saw this site and screamed (I can’t really understand why, but I suppose it’s pretty graphic) – visit the Newcastle university Anatom-e (Geddit?) page here .

And my hands smell of the nice Anatomy department soap now, so I’m happy.

Anyway, as usual I have lots of work to do (sympathy please) so I suppose I better do some. Looks like I better do some Ethics. Have a pleasant evening.

Originally posted on The LBSC

With all the fuss about governmental emails and letters highlighted by Hutton, I thought it’d be nice to take a look at our American counterparts.

The archives of the Bill Clinton Presidential library contain 40 million emails – mostly memos and notes exchanged between aides and cabinet members.

Take a guess at how many were sent by Bill Clinton in his eight years in the Oval office.

Two.

And one of them may not even count as it was sent as a test to see if the commander-in-chief understood how to send emails.

And the other? The former president sent the email to the space shuttle while in orbit around the earth (that’s the shuttle, not Bill) with the “help of Clinton staffers”.

The response to this display of technical inability? “I don’t think President (George W) Bush sends emails, either…”

That’s all better then. Because we all know that Shrub’s the best President ever. If he doesn’t understand it, it’s probably evil. In fact, it’s reasonably surprising he’s not launched a war on it.

And now for something completely different…and not a dead parrot.

I’ve put a load of my A-Level work on my website, so feel free to have a look if you think it might be helpful to you. How nice am I?

Originally posted on The LBSC