2006 – Page 9 – Ian Dick

World cup – who to support?

There was a real kerfuffle this week over Jack McConnell’s comments regarding England at the World Cup. So he won’t be supporting them. No big deal unless your an MP at Westminster hoping to make some petty gain from the statement or Jack Straw still stinging from his demotion. This Stuart Cosgrove quote summed up my feelings.

By what weasel arrangement are England fans allowed to dislike Argentina, Germany and France, while we have to snuggle up to them as if history and rivalry meant nothing?

This was taken from a Daily Record article which stated his position and his annoyance at the anger around Scots not supporting England. I have much the same view – I won’t be supporting England and it’s not anti-English, racist or whatever anyone else wants to paint it – it’s football and I don’t support them. I support Scotland who are surprisingly missing from this years tournament and hence I want a team that plays good football to win – no great allegiance to anyone. I do know that I don’t want England to win or even do well – they are a rival. There’s also another reason.

The most grating aspect of England at the World Cup is the hype and propaganda that the whole country has to suffer in the run up to and during the World Cup, even after they have been kicked out at an early stage (fingers crossed). For me summed up by the re-release of Escape To Victory – since when was it England vs Germany – John Wark was playing for them – Pele too. A free England flag as well. Agggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh. Same with Mars now called Believe. This is across of the whole of the UK – not just England. The whole Rooney broken foot saga is also getting out of hand with Alex Ferguson now getting cast as the nasty Scots villain. Tragic.

Saying that it’s less than a fortnight until it all kicks off. Can’t wait. I’m hoping for a more open tournament and some real performances from the flair players.

Oops

Looks like the BBC were in a rush to update their website this lunchtime with the news on pensions. I won’t get a pension until I’m 2044…and secretly they raised the pension age in 2004. More haste less speed.

Office 2007

Beta 2 is out and can be downloaded here. Flickr set of screenshots highlights some of the new features. So far I’m impressed. This marks one of the biggest changes to Office in years. New is the ribbon at the top of the screen for easy access to features that are required for the currently selected task. In the brief play tonight it felt far more intuitive than Office 2003 – a real step forward. The ribbon will be a love it or hate it feature – those that are used to Office as it stands today may feel uncomfortable with the change.

Excel has had the 64000 row limit removed and the chart formatting options are quicker and slicker than before. Table handling has advanced and data can be more easily manipulated. Outlook has seen very little change although the searching (once you download a beta of Desktop Search) is now more integrated with the product. The rest of the apps see the ribbon applied and easier to use themes although Visio hasn’t had the same makeover as other apps – new functionality is available but no ribbon.

One snag is I haven’t been able to activate easily – hopefully this will be sorted over the coming days. Looking forward to seeing how open the new file formats are and if Access has changed much since I last used it in anger.

Windows Live Local

Microsoft have updated Live Local to include maps from the UK. My area can be seen here and they look to be more recent than Google’s as XScape is under construction. Worth checking if you couldn’t get hi res maps for your area with Google.

Art

First time I’ve bought an actual picture. Was getting bored with the bare walls that surround me so this was a first toe dip into buying art. Really pleased with the picture although I may go for something a bit brighter in future. The artist is Pete Rumney who sells loads of similar pictures on eBay.

Sky HD

Well…the verdict?

My installation was delayed until next Tuesday. Bar stewards. Feedback on AV Forums seems positive though so still looking forward to it. Can’t say much for Sky’s customer service though – told me one date over the phone and then changed it to another via written letter. I wonder just how confident they are of making next weeks date.

24 Series 5

Just watched the last two episodes and it’s a cracking end to one of the best series on TV. This series as a whole had some plot issues and pacing that I didn’t like but the series finale was one of the best I’ve seen. Roll on 2007 for 24 in hi-def.

Some other thought’s (spoilers ahead)
Continue reading “24 Series 5”

Recharge the batteries

So – this weekend will mostly be in Peterborough celebrating Shakeel’s 35th birthday. It’s a shame it’s a short trip but will be good to get away. Need a break. The little things are getting to me while the big important things are being ignored…this really has to stop. This is coupled with a sudden urge to travel.

Anyway…back in the real world Big Brother 7 has just started. Does Pete have tourette’s or is he just a complete tit. Lisa – shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Shahbaz – stop stroking people. I have delusions that not watching any of the first weekend will mean I don’t get hooked on it. Aye right.

Web Tools Update

Visit flickr – notice anything different? Some updates to the styling and some new functionality. It’s also officially moved out of beta…to gamma. It would be so wrong of any web app to officially move out of beta – just wouldn’t be web 2.0. I’m liking the changes to the search and organisation links. Organizing photo’s is a bit easier to – made the whole site easier to use.
Google Trends. Nice app for stat whores and info gatherers. Compare search patterns for up to five search terms and see some pretty graphs and also how that search term is used locally and across the world. For example, look at the increase in the term Edinburgh around festival time. Also links to related news items if available. Great app.
Google Notebook. Another Google app which has just been launched – this allows you to link and clip web sites. Online research tool basically. Download an extension for Firefox to allow easy access to your one or many notebooks from the browser (IE also). From what I’ve used it’s fine – no rss or xml sharing of list though so it’s not yet a del.ici.ous rival. Wasn’t there a Google Bookmarks app as well? There was – which has tagging of sorts but not much sharing. Combine the two and you’ve got a far better app.
Google Calendar. Has become my full time calendar replacing 30boxes and Outlook. Easy to use, search and is integrated nicely with Google Mail. There are other more feature rich apps on the web but this meets all my needs.
If Google integrates mail, calendar, notebook and some sort of to-do then it would be a perfect online organiser. Hopefully it’s only a matter of time. The apps (apart from to-do) are all there but have the feel of separate applications that are not well integrated. A wee bit of Ajax magic would soon sort that.

BBC HD

Someone has recorded Planet Earth from the new BBC HD trial service and uploaded it to the newsgroups. Quality of the broadcast is excellent – I’ve uploaded a few snaps (resolution not quite right of jpg – media player issue).

Can not wait for Sky HD which promises to be this years must have new technology. 13 days to go.