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Random stuff, randomly updated.
Archive for May, 2005
A Tribute
Saturday, May 7th, 2005Got the blues, man
Friday, May 6th, 2005Ever the eclectic music lover that I am, I quite like the blues – proper blues that is. I suppose I got my first main introduction through The Blues Brothers some years ago when I first saw it. Its a great film, and the music is just fantastic. I bought the soundtrack album, and I’ve been dabbling with other blues tracks on and off, and a few Clapton albums too (a bit of Slowhand himself can’t hurt). I recently bought a blues box set thing – Blues Blues Blues. I’m just flicking through a few tracks now, and there’s some good stuff on here. I’m gunna like this one a lot. I just hope it can help me out with my soloing. I think blues soloing is much more interesting than just blasting out a string of notes. There’s feeling in a good blues solo.
I think I just need to wear my shades a bit more maybe.
Slash, dot and a cross
Thursday, May 5th, 2005I submitted a story to Slashdot.org last night. It was about IBM making 13,000 workers redundant. It was late, the article had only just popped up on BBC News, but I thought I’d submit it anyway. It was pretty important (I mean, its IBM for christ sakes!) so off I toddled to Slashdot and posted. The trouble is, my grammar at that time of the night seemed to already be asleep and the result is this garbled post:
The BBC is reporting that IBM is losing 13,000 jobs. This comes after disappointing financial results. Most jobs will be going in europe.
Its short, its simple, its straight to the point. Its also served to make me look like a bit of a grammatical dunce. No more late night posting for me then.
Also, today is Election Day, so I was there, at the polling station with my card – 7:30am.
It better make a difference!
Imitation the Best Form of Flattery?
Wednesday, May 4th, 2005Snap happy
Monday, May 2nd, 2005I went out for a wander today with my Mum just for something to do. We thought we’d go pop to a shop quite some way away. We’d not been there before, and it was a lovely day, so just ripe for a nice walk. I decided to take my camera with me and got a bit snap happy along the way. I like taking pictures of random things, especially on nice days. If you can get something framed with some nice blue sky or bright green foliage, then all the better. As it was, the conditions were great. A lot of the pictures came out a lot brighter and more colourful that I thought – mainly due to the fact I was wearing sunglasses. My sunglasses are good in that you often forget you are wearing them – they take the glare off things nicely, so it seems like normal light, not piercing sunlight.
Anyway, I’ve bunged a few photos up in my gallery here. Its nothing special, but some nicities there. 
Calm down dear, its just a mouse
Sunday, May 1st, 2005My trusty old Microsoft Intellimouse was starting to get a bit ropey lately. The right button wasn’t working properly, and quite often wouldn’t work, and even when it did it would often flick on and off whilst copying files. Obviously, this isn’t much use for me, so I had to look into a new mouse.
I went into PC World and had a look at the mice they had. Although I use Logitech keyboards, I’m not a fan of their mice, so I went straight for the Microsoft mice. People often forget that they interact with the mouse and keyboard for a long time when using a PC, so you have to be comfortable and happy with it. If not, you can quite quickly end up with Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) or Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I had a look at the Microsoft mice and settled on a Wireless IntelliMouse Optical (version 2.0 no less!) in ‘Periwinkle’. I’d used a wireless mouse at work for some time until the batteries died, and I got on fairly well with it. I’d been having problems with dragging cables a lot too, so I thought wireless would be a good idea.
So I bought it, and installed it all this afternoon. Its a good mouse, but I’ve had some reservations. Firstly, its pretty heavy, due to having two batteries in it. I think they could have been placed more in the centre to balance the whole unit. Secondly, the shape is a little bit odd, but nothing I can’t get used to. The most annoying aspect for me is the middle click – I use that a lot in Firefox, and its a slightly odd pull back/press combo to do it. I don’t think its a faulty unit, I think its just something to do with the tilt mechanism. I daresay I’ll get used to it, I just need to play about with it a bit more.
On the whole its not a bad mouse, but just different enough to take some getting used to I think.
