why is that trying to install various well known bits of free software comes with extra clutter you dont want?

Install Adobe Acrobat 7 and it wants you to use Yahoo toolbar, plus some fancy download manager which seems pointles, Winzip was a good simple application which has annoying tip of the day, some wizard which is just playing annoying, an icon on your taskbar to supposedly make things easier.

Having too many items on your desktop taskbar slows down your computer, really the only apps ought to be there is your antivirus, app, VNC (or other remote tool) and sound volume, oh, and maybe icon the shows your wired or wireless network connection status.
So please software makers, just give us the raw nuts and bolts of our applications, cute toolbars,  download managers are just rubbish and make the training process for computer users and support process from the helpdesk more difficult.

yikes, lock up your children, the British National Party are on Myspace and they tried to look me up…

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=194715305

well I meant to be writing some stuff on a proper regular basis, but I havent.

the last couple of months have been a bit crazy, my contract at the hospital came to an end, not completely unexpected, but I was a sad at leaving there, my attempts to apply to be permanent were not successful before and it seems my career plans were meant to be some place else.  Two interviews came about at my last week, one for company making switch panels, one for a large utility company, the former was the I really set my heart on and the second just didnt feel right, I got accepted for the power company doing helpdesk there, but more of a regular call centre job, as the tasks I enjoy like building good relationships with users, problem solving and learning new skills were absent here, the large concrete building had a kind of oppressive feel to it, and just a bad feeling I couldnt put my finger on meant I struggled to learn the ancient command based helpdesk software to log the calls (which were mainly password resets) meant the days dragged on and I yearned to be back supporting the health workers in my previous role.  The interview for the other role that seems right at the time, I got turned down for which I was massively disappointed.  The power company got fed up with me and I got the boot, learning the training was hard when they were already shortstaffed and the guy who was sat with didnt seem like training people was really his thing.

This time has meant I have had to trust in God’s plan for me like never before, and has it been hard..

In late May, I got an interview for the company I work for now making security software, this seemed really consistent with what God has planned for me, after a lot of prayer, I was accepted, the relief and joy was immense.  I have been there for a month and enjoying support the users in our office, on site, and in the other offices in Europe gives plenty of variety and challenges.

I feel incredibly blessed by what God has provided me at late,  I am seeing surprising things with some friends at the moment, and feel continuously surprised God has been providing so many answers to prayers recently, I think there are more exciting times ahead…

I have seen the genius of Ben Heckendorm many times before, then this time he completely excelled himself at this Xbox 360 laptop, the quality and craftmanship of this thing is truly stunning, he is a something of a model to aspire to for anyone who hacks or builds their console related gadgets.

http://benheck.com/04-17-2007/xbox-360-laptop-the-second

a combination of reinstalling my computer and mislaying my password is meant no blogs for quite sometime now, I hope to get back in the swing of things…..

I found an interesting if slightly disturbing use for a Firefox extension that shows expired web pages.

Myspace page of Virginia Tech killer

http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fprofile.myspace.com%2Findex.cfm%3Ffuseaction%3Duser.viewprofile%26friendid%3D181135335

ok, you probably saw all the recent hype about Apple’s iPhone, and all the speculation on this much rumoured device.

Wondering what would start being hyped out next, some ideas I thought.

Apple Car stereo

Seriously, this would be a good idea.

Why is the iPod the best MP3 player? its not the most feature packed, but one thing Apple always does well as engineer software well. Someone really sat down and designed the user interface and tested it, and thats why a lot of multi-everything PDAs, smart phones, or MP3 players that do video normally suck. Working once at one of the UK’s biggest computer retailers has let me see some gadgets that are just awful as the user interface that strings all the parts together is just shoddy. How many electronics devices are released and then you have to get a firmware update later to make it work right?

Majority of car stereos I have seen suck. Normally lots of tiny buttons that are hard to see and operate whilst driving, too many flashing light patterns, a Vaccuum display which doesnt display the track or radio very clearly, a digital clock (why do you need one when all cars have a clock on the dash?) Sony car radios were some of the worst for user design, when they make a loud irritating beep when you wanted to press any of the controls.

The Apple iAuto

my thoughts would be the main head unit would have a minimal of electronic guts and a 80gb laptop hard disk mounted on some kind of rubber shockpads. Some proprietry connector on the back to interface your steering column controls (let Belkin, etc sell some after market adapter cables for your car) The removable faceplate would house all the main bits, and would only be a slim piece of plastic the size of an iPod Nano, of minimalistic design and have the colour screen with nice easy to read icons and would have touch controls to operate. The faceplate would snap on using some little magnets, not some stupid easily breakable latches. Apple’s attention to detail would be ideal for this kind of product, and if even if you couldnt afford the high price expected one, it would raise the standard for the rivals to do a better job of making something similar.

Copying the songs to your PC would be a SD card slot on the back of the faceplate and come bundled with a 1GB card, this would require a few backward and forward trips from PC to car to get a large music collection on your ride, but dont think most people would mind.

Google branded Satnav kit

This would be cool. I dont have a satnav kit and dont often drive outside of my city, but get Google’s well known Contextual ads flashing on the unit discretely to advertise hotels and restaurants would be good. To keep your satnav upto date, you would need to plug it into your PC once a month to keep the service working. This would mean the units would be more affordable and mean map updates be free.

I also think for safety reasons the more advanced features should be locked out whilst the vehicle is moving. The motion sensors in the Nintendo Wii console’s controller will now doubt be available in other devices at some point soon, this could do the job well.

A maker of high quality food mixers was advertising their products on some new site the other day as Christmas gifts not long ago, as these devices are surprising good at what they do, as videos of putting items in like mobile phones, credit cards, whole cans of coke and a broken iPod get mashed up into tiny little bits.

http://www.willitblend.com/

Whilst on the subject of destroying things in a fun way, check out these industrial shredder machines at http://www.ssiworld.com/watch/watch-en.htm

Myspace, breaks every rule in terms of good web design and taste, I always wonder why people thinks its great to have orange text on pink background or migrane inducing scheme,

today I did some fun experimenting with search engine:

found the phrase “your gay” = about 276,000 times!

and found the word “loser” = about 1,340,000 times!

Its a great way to encourage and build up your friends!!

cant remember who told me this, but thought it was good…

Paper sat nav system for car!!!

1/ get a map of somewhere you need to go to off t’internet,

2/ make a screen shot and use photo editing software to turn it back to front.

3/ Print it out

4/ sellotape it to dashboard of car

5/ see maps right-way-up in reflection of windscreen – Genius!!