3050. Incredibly irritating, yet extremely satisfying. Much like myself.

Update: As my sister has pointed out, it’s much easier if you watch the shadow.
Update 2: 4500. I’m going to go do something productive now. Perhaps.

• Stay Free! Daily: I put off blogging this for a very long time. - What a cute little man
• Wooden iPod Dock - I didn’t spend the extra

An iTunes email just popped into my inbox, with a subject line that said ‘New War of the Worlds’. I was very excited. I saw an advert last week for the re-release of Jeff Wayne’s album, and I’d wanted it then. If I could buy it over iTunes, even better! It would be

What the hell? In round one? He’s two sets down at the moment. Assuming he pulls back, he’s starting a little early this year, isn’t he?

Update: He did indeed win. Argh.

Woke up to this - I thought the remaining guinea-pig had made a break for freedom! The edge of the grass was being cut using a motorized strimmer, and in the process a small stone flew up, completely shattering the conservatory window. Quite impressive, really! The inside door still locks, so we’re not at risk from opportunistic robber squirrels Click on the photo for a flickr note on the pane in question.

I finally got around to ordering a stand-alone copy of Outlook 2003, which arrived today:

Not wasteful packaging at all, there.

I’m using it for Contacts and Calendar as I’m happy with Gmail for email. I’ve set up the free Plaxo.com toolbar to keep everything web-synchronized, backed-up and accessible from anywhere. I’m sure Google Calendar (if it even exists) will rock, but I really need a solution now.

• Top 10 Euro-cliches for journalists - "It is a rule of journalism that the pluck of a nation is in inverse proportion to its land mass and its population"
• allSnap: make all windows snap - Helps with keeping windows organised and accessible
• John Hemming’s Web Log: Saturday - With a pregnant mistress and numerous other affairs scattered all over the local tabloids, this councillor seems to think it’s all a big joke. I would suggest that he is a bit of an arse. But that’s just me.
• Google Map of Europe - I don’t think Belgium and the Netherlands would be too happy with that arrangement.
• NetNinjas: What language is best to start a career in programming? - Just generally interesting. Ruby on Rails sounds like it could be funky.
• BBC NEWS - Scan spots women faking orgasms - You’re thinking "how did they get the brain scans?". Yep, they really did.
• Jerry Springer does Philosophy - "Well, Jerry, my girlfriend Ursula and I have been going out for three years now. We did everything together. We were really inseparable. But then she discovered post-Marxist political and literary theory, and it’s been nothing but fighting ever since."
• Car Stereo Auxiliary Input - Did I link this already? Not sure. Anyway, it’s a method of connecting your iPod into your car’s stereo system even if you don’t have an auxiliary input.
• Real Simple | Surprising Expiration Dates - How long do ordinary products really last? Via Lifehacker
• TalkToAliens.com — The World’s First Intergalactic Communication System. - Send your email directly into space via their parabolic transmitter. I’m sure the aliens will be happy to know that E4rth r0×0rz!!! Ooh - it includes a "FREE Certificate of Interstellar Broadcast" too.
• The Anxiety of Getting Things Done - Combination of GTD with…something else I’ve forgotten after my initial scan of the article. Seems good though Must read this in more detail…
• Durex says

Me: What shall I get to replace the guinea-pig, then?
Mum: A girlfriend?

Any female cage-dwellers out there who’d be happy on a diet of carrots?

It could have been better, but it could have been worse too. This was the only exam where I could take in my graphics calculator, so that helped. For a couple of questions I had the calculator figure out the answer for me so I could work towards it. I had something of a mind-block on the binomial expansion, but hopefully that didn’t lose me too many marks. Just 2 left!

Mum and Dad waited until after the exam to tell me that one of my guinea-pigs died overnight. Am sad

• Eclipse - Full Half-Life 2 conversion that looks very impressive. Haven’t actually tried it myself, mind…Via waxy.org.
• Good!! - Every time I see this title & post it makes me giggle
• New Scientist - BBC to launch free online video system - The BBC are to release an open-source "Dirac" video codec of comparable quality to quicktime / real etc. Sounds great! Via hardocp.com

The Indianapolis Grand Prix currently being broadcast is pretty silly. Formula One tyres are supplied by Michelin and Bridgestone, with Michelin supplying the majority of teams. During yesterday’s qualifying two Michelin left rear tyres failed due to the pressure leading into one particular turn. Seven others were found to be severely damaged. After reviewing the data Michelin took the decision to inform every team that their tyres were not safe for the race. Michelin offered to have entirely new sets flown in overnight, but that would breach five separate F1 regulations so it wasn’t an option. Despite having a full day to sort out this problem, the combined might of the FIA governing body, Michelin, Bernie Eccleston and the many teams failed to come up with a solution. As a result only the Bridgestone teams are racing, which consists of six cars. One of these is Ferrari, so it’s stunningly dull. The crowd are leaving, and I imagine most viewers have, like me, turned it off.

I have a passing interest in F1, and this is something of a shame. Nobody benefits from this kind of situation. ITV are interviewing many of the team leaders, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard such unguarded comments. They’re not holding back at all, although there doesn’t seem to be any consensus on what should be done to stop it happening again. Ah well, hopefully they’ll learn something from it.

Something weird’s going on in my house. Last week we walked into the kitchen to find Megan spreading chewing gum all over the carpet and herself. That was odd in itself, as it’s not like we leave chewing gum lying around - we weren’t sure where she could have found it. Then two days later I put my boots on and found myself stuck inside one of them, with what turned out to be another blob of gum. The boots had been up in my room all week, out of Megan’s reach. So I don’t know what’s happening. Maybe it’s a goat. A Gum Goat, whose haunting technique is based around gum. Wrigley The Goat, I’ll call him. Hopefully he’ll invite along his friend Jooster The Goat, I’d happily be haunted by him.

Wimbledon starts tomorrow! I like Wimbledon, which is weird for me as I’m not normally very sporty. Is good, though. The first week’s great as there’s always something interesting going on, and the second week’s exciting! Tim Henman will undoubtedly try to kill me again - I support him through tradition rather than patriotism, and every year he does his best to make me pull all my hair out. “Sure I’m 2 sets up, but that’s boring! I shall lose the next 2 and win the final 12-10! That’ll be funny!”. The women’s competition was particularly exciting last year when Maria Sharapova took out big name after big name - I enjoyed that a lot I have Pure 2 tomorrow morning and Mechanics 2 on Friday morning, so there should be plenty of time for Wimbledon…Then it’s Physics 6 next Monday, and after that I can watch tennis for as long as I want, for it’s all over
I watched the first part of “5ive Minutes to Midnight” on C4 last night, and it was pretty good. The plot involved a physics professor who discovers a briefcase containing his own police murder file, 5 days before the supposed date of his death. The second and concluding part is tonight, and it’ll be interesting to see which way the plot heads.

Looking over the blog, you could be forgiven for thinking that I spend all my time watching TV…That’s not actually true Pretty much everything I watch gets mentioned on here, I think. My average week recently has consisted of The West Wing, Firefly, CSI, CSI: Miami, Doctor Who, Scrubs, Coronation Street and recently Carnivale. There might be the odd drama or film thrown in there too. West Wing, Firefly and Carnivale are all DVD box-sets, the rest is normal TV. Anything I’m missing out on? What shows do you schedule yourself around?

It’s way too hot in this office, so I’m off to crawl into the fridge.

• No true Scotsman fallacy - Trying to get my head around this one. I can understand it, but not well enough to spot it in action. Ignore the ‘up for deletion’ notice too - every vote so far is to keep it
• Mind Hacks: The cognitive basis of good and evil - Interesting read about the perception of ourselves relative to other people

Well, that was absolutely superb. Do not read any more if you haven’t seen it and would like to. I’d highly recommend you check out the DVD box-set if you’re a fan of great TV.

Continue reading ‘Doctor Who Finale’

The final episode of Doctor Who will be on soon. It’s so very exciting I’ve been avoiding the media for the last few days after hearing how tonight’s resolution is smeared across the tabloids, which naturally then gets reported by everybody else for reasons I don’t quite understand. Hell, the BBC themselves were showing 3 minute clips at 1930 every day this past week! They sent me scurrying for the remote at least twice. I know that they have to get the interest going, but it’s a little annoying for people like me who just want to watch without the story being spoiled. How I managed to avoid prior knowledge of last week’s d