Monday, May 30, 2005

iPod niggle #1427

I plug in my iPod at work and for once explorer doesn't crash, so when iPod updater offers the opportunity to upgrade my firmware revision I take the chance and load it. All seems to go well until I'm told to remove the iPod from the computer and plug it in to the mains; which is handy because the power adaptor is currently 2 miles away at home and even then is hidden in a box somewhere because I never use it. The iPod is now stuck on a screen telling me to plug it into the mains and is completely unusable until I do so.

Why was I not warned of this before I updated? What happens if I lose my firewire cable or the power block? The mind boggles...

Monday, May 23, 2005

One of the craziest things I've ever seen!

It's Sunday afternoon, I'm walking back from town with the intention of popping into KFC for some twister goodness when all of a sudden I hear a huge bang, looking the first thing I see is a big cloud of smoke, so in my shock I think Bomb! Then my common sense comes back and I see the cause of the noise was actually a car which had careered off the road, mounted the kerb and hit a bollard, completely trashing the front left wing and buckling the wheel backwards underneath the car.

So what do you do when you've just minced your nice shiny car? That's right, you drive off at speed with only 3 wheels. Sparks flying off the bare rim, clouds of burning rubber from the tyre which is being dragged along sideways through a busy street on a sunny Sunday afternoon. I half expected some kind of commentary from Sherrif John Bunnell. Having just witnessed something truly crazy, I decide that it's my civic duty to follow the car and see what unfolds, that and I'm really nosy.

At first, the trail wasn't too hard to follow; as I go along the street I see a trail of scratches in the road; a smell of burning rubber and a buzz in the air, everyone's talking about the mental 3 wheeled nightmare. Having lost sight of the car, I begin to wonder if I will catch it up, but that's when I notice a huge black skid mark turning right into a sidestreet, the trail was hot once again and the state the car was in, they couldn't have gotten far. I eventually track the car down to a busy junction where it's stopped in the outside lane with another car parked behind it.

Here we see the culprit of this 3 wheeled carnage, expecting teenagers on some kind of Joyride in a stolen car, imagine to my surprise when the driver is an oldish looking lady! She's there being harassed by two youths on bikes while her friend sits in the passenger seat covered in her own vomit. Apparently the two guys had seen her crash and followed her as she drove through red lights, eventually managing to stop her as she was turning right through a red light at a busy junction with oncoming traffic coming towards her. At that point, a couple had spotted what must have looked like a mugging by some kind of pedal cycle gang and had stepped in to help.

I hang around a bit to see what happens when the police arrive, using the mental excuse that as a witness I'm duty bound to give a statement on the events. The police do a breath test, as the driver appears to use some excuse such as "the wheel just fell off" or something, even though her front left wing is badly battered from a collision with a 3ft high metal bollard.

No wonder the youth of today have no respect when someone's Gran is likely to get tanked up at Sunday lunch and go on a 3 wheeled joyride through the centre of Edinburgh with her friend.

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Sudoku madness!

Having become addicted to the Sudoku puzzle after an introduction to it a couple of weeks ago, I've been playing quite a bit on Sudoku Fun, even managing to hit the fastest times scoreboards a couple of times.

Today's Independent introduced me to someone much more hardcore though; Hex-sudoku! The standard 9x9 puzzle is obviously deemed far to easy for Independent readers, so has been replaced with a turbo charged 16x16 version where every row/column/4x4 square must contain the digits 0-F.

Surely only some kind of sadistic Computer Scientist could have come up with this, can't wait for the 25x25 version which I'm sure someone somewhere will have created for those who can't get enough of the Sudoku phenomenon.

War on Hoodies continues!

The ridiculous media war on hoodies continues today in at least 2 of the UK's "Quality" papers, both the Independent and the Scotsman feature articles which paint the popular clothing item in a less than favourable light with the Scotsman going as far as labeling individuals who wear Hooded Tops as "Hoodies" and directly comparing us to Neds.

In a bizarre twist of common sense though, the Independent also ran an editorial suggesting maybe the Hooded top shouldn't be used as a source of blame for the perceived increase in bad behaviour amongst the youth of Britain.

Shock News! Saddam wears pants!

Nice to see that the Sun think there is nothing more important going on in the world other than the fact that Saddam wears pants. This news is so important that not only is it on their front page, but also on pages 2,3,4 and 5.

Now the fact that the pictures contravene the Geneva convention is bad enough, but they AREN'T INTERESTING! I could have guessed that under his trousers Saddam wears pants, I don't see the need for said pants to be displayed on the front of a newspaper. It's not news!

Next week, pictures of Saddam in a vest! Dun Dun Dun...

Hoodies, the new social menace?

Following everyone's favourite Kent super-mall's decision to ban hooded tops it seems like everyone has come to the conclusion that hoodies are the scourge of society and are to blame for all the problems in the world today. Even John Prescott has jumped on the anti-hoody bandwagon claiming that 'hoods are part of an "intimidating" uniform'.

Mirror journalist Tony Parsons chips in his two cents with inspired comments like "IS THE hooded top the dumbest teenage fashion of all time?" and "How can you act the hard man when you resemble one of Tolkien's hooded elves?" even going as far as describing the humble hoody as "a potent symbol of boorish, lawless youngsters". So Tony, you personally don't like hoodies, but I don't think it could be called the dumbest teenage fashion of all time, what about shellsuits for one? I think flat caps and tweed look stupid, but I don't write articles berating old men for their choice in fashion. And if as Tony says, "[the hoody] is designed to intimidate." then how come he thinks you can't act hard in it? Make up your bloody mind, you can't complain about something being intimidating and stupid looking in the same article.

Everyone needs to get a grip, hoodies have been around for years and the wearing of them is hardly limited to the gangs of unruly teenagers who roam the streets of Britain looking for trouble. The simple hoody has many features which make it preferable over a coat; they are lightweight, not as warm as a jacket; have a hood for when it rains and a pocket you can put your hands in when you are cold; they're cheap, comfy and come branded with pretty much any label/band you could mention.

Maybe if young criminals were dealt with properly by police and parents then the hysterical media wouldn't need to come up with these ridiculous reasons against anything they don't understand. What next? I know, lets blame Skate shoes for increasing lawlessness, after all, they're designed to intimidate and conceal the identity of your feet!