Monthly Archives: April 2008

Austria cares about who?

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Describing the “abominable events” as linked to one individual case, Austria’s Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer said he planned to launch an image campaign to restore the country’s reputation abroad. BBC

So a guy does a terrible thing, there is a lot of news and they plan to spend a stack of cash to make us think Austria is wonderful place.

a government-appointed international commission of six historians investigating his wartime service said that it found no proof that Waldheim himself committed war crimes. But it also made clear that his record was far from unblemished. The panel declared that Waldheim was in “direct proximity to criminal actions”.
The report said that Waldheim knew about German army atrocities in the Balkans and never undertook any action to prevent or oppose them. Times.

So another guy does terrible things an order of magnitude greater than the one above. He actually runs Austria. Do they tell him to stand down? No. Do they force him out? No. Do they support him in getting the position on UN chief? Yes. Do they spend a single penny making us think Austria is a cuddly place? No.

So the lesson for Austrians who are keenly aware of global PR campaigns is this: kill thousands. Oh yes, and then get elected there. It works!

1.8

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I got the Canon f/1.8 II a couple of days ago. First impressions are that it’s small and I have less zoom than the default lens the D400 comes with. Having read some photography forums it would seem I need to work more on composition which is no bad thing. I have been doing so anyway with the default but this forces me a little more.

I also decided that for now all I’m going to play with is the aperture. I don’t think I need to shoot lots of pics with every step but then again it’s pointless having a wide range and using only 2 settings. So every day – if no rain – I’ll be going out with the dog and one setting. This morning I decided that one setting was the case after trying to take the same view with different settings which seemed pointless after some thought. I reckon I’ll learn better by just taking lots of images and learning from that. So the 4 that looked good (no tremor from me) are here: http://markr.smugmug.com/Experiments but of those there is only one I actually like but the others tell me something which is useful. (and there is no image enhancement apart from whatever the EOS utility does when it gets the images from the camera.)

Roundcube

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I want to drop using Thunderbird so I look at Roundcube. I try installing it.

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cookie – headers already sent by (output started at…

Check the forums. It’s asked, no solutions. Check their wiki. Not found.
I google it and find installs just sitting there with errors exposed, passwords on show.
Google it some more, find no solutions.
What I find surprising is that this kills an install before it gets started, it kills my enthusiasm for a product I would like to try but have no investment in and if I cannot see a solution to a problem like this, what hope do I have for any other problems that might occur? Shouldn’t the install process but a priority? But what it actually means is I delete all the files and decide to look elsewhere. Been a while since I used Squirrelmail…

Do a mac-click here

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Got a Mac? Want a bundle of software for $49? If you do, this link is the one you need. Click me!. It’s a referral link – which reminds me, I have some software from the MacHeist bundle I have not used. I’ll list it here when I remember.

Socialthing is winning.

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I buy Twitterrific because I want to follow what people are saying. Nice app.
I start using Friendfeed because I would like to follow more information from certain people.
And then along comes Socialthing which beats both. I can post to Twitter, post to Facebook – that was the missing element from friendfeed for me. Socialthing has some way to go with services as it moves long it’s beta path and right now I’m still using Friendfeed for RSS, Jaiku, Shared items from Google Reader but Socialthing certainly seems to have it right.
And they sit inside Hana which means it’s not in the browser taking up space and I can also hide it in another Space so I don’t get distracted. (Spaces + Think + Hana is really working for me right now).

Eating some lies

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Former deputy prime minister John Prescott has confessed to suffering from the eating disorder bulimia. BBC

I could sup a whole tin of Carnation condensed milk, just for the taste
So? Last week while watching TV late when I’d left the computer I had that taste for a certain something. Didn’t know what it was, just that I’d know it when I saw it. And I did – I ate a whole tin of Ambrosia Rice Pudding. Lovely stuff. Oddly enough I ate it for the taste too. Weird though that we both eat food because we like the taste. What do others do eh? So condensed milk? No deal.

eat Marks & Spencer trifles “for ever”
Jaffa cakes here. And hob nobs. And fig rolls. And ice cream. And Ambrosia Rice Pudding. And custard. And doughnuts. Trifles? No deal. (And M&S for the die-hard Socialist? Oops – forgot the sellout to get into power along with Tony)

eat through an entire Chinese restaurant’s menu.
Really? Where? News 24 checked that restaurant and you only ever had the same menu item. Note the lack of an ‘s’ there.

And it’s got nothing at all to do with The Times wanting to sell more papers and you wanting to sell your autobiography has it? He’s a politician, his lips are moving therefore he is lying. I hope the Press prove it.

Safari reboot

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The system wanted to upgrade Safari, so I just clicked the little button and carried on in Firefox. The next thing I know is that the computer needs to be rebooted.

That’s a whole OS to be rebooted JUST for a browser.

If Microsoft did that for IE the mac fanboys – and other mac users – would deride the event. Yet I hear no noise from the mac users. I also hear no noise for the continuing huge security updates which get pushed out with increasing frequency. If Apple had their own version of the Microsoft Tuesday then people would really see what is going on. Odd that sites go on about those Tuesdays but never mention what must be the increasing fragility of Apple’s OS.

Since when does a browser hook so deeply into a system that it even needs a reboot?

Hidden speech

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http://threespeech.com

Google ‘three speech’ or ‘threespeech’ or ‘threespeech.com’ or ‘threespeech blog’ and you get zip. Nothing, no link to the domain.
Yahoo has it as result #1

Either Google are losing their touch or they are removing that domain. Why?

Hoping for a 3

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2 days ago someone I used to work with and who irritated the hell out of me left a message at FriendsReunited – “Remember me?” – and I thought “Yes, and no way will I get in touch”.
Today someone I worked with called my name in Asda and we had a brief conversation. He’s a good guy and we got on well.
I am really hoping that this is one of the things that happens in 3′s and I’m really hoping that tomorrow someone gets in touch who I really do want to see again. (I know she’s not on facebook…)