The Blog has moved

I've come to resent Google's attempt to take over my world, so I've moved the blog to

http://www.mattc.org.uk

All of the preceding posts from this blog have been moved to the new one.

PC World

So you'd think that it'd be possible to walk into a shop called 'PC World' and purchase a USB cable to go between a computer and a phone. Wrong.

Once again, PC World have proven their uselessness and failed
me. I had previously tried to purchase a HDMI to DVI lead, but they failed on that too.

I thought Maplins were bad, but PC World take bad to a whole new (lower) level. At least Maplins would have the lead, even if they are miles away.

Next time I won't bother trying.

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KFC WTF?

So I'm doing a bit of driving. Didn't have breakfast, so I've called in at Woodall services to have a KFC. No lights on, but the self-service tills are working.

Maybe they've blown a fuse. Anyway, I placed my order on the self-service till and go to the counter. Turns out they don't open until 11 am. That's just weird.

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The Grinding Gears

This gear-grinder just proves how some people can be inconsiderate, dangerous and stupid all at the same time.

People who think it's OK to drive around with one or more of their car's lights not working.

See, the weather here has been pretty miserable lately. And it's that time of the year where most evening commutes and some morning commutes are done in darkness. But I still see folks driving around without lights working. Sometimes it's headlights. Sometimes it's headlights and sidelights. Other times it's brake lights.

The worst bit is, that since I have a knack for remembering car number plates, I can be sure that it's always the same few cars that I see over and over again.

I was unlucky enough to have a couple pop on my own car not so long ago, and I noticed immediately when I switched them on again to go home. I had to change them. Half an hour stood in the dark and the rain, groping around inside the engine compartment. OK, I could have left it until daylight, but I didn't. It really does reflect poorly on those that leave it.

The Big Freeeeeeeeze

Well, it's been pretty nippy here lately. Not been posting, as I've been busy doing Christmas preparations.

The weather turned nasty a couple of weeks ago. Just before I went down to Silverstone on the Monday morning, I was greeted by a flurry of snow at the office. By the time I'd gotten down to Silverstone, it was clear again. This, regrettably, didn't last long, and by Tuesday afternoon, it was looking rather dire. I decided to try and get home. Got home safely, but crawled the last 10 miles or so of the motorway, and had to dig the car in when I got back.

More snow that night, so I couldn't get off the crescent again on Wednesday (we're up to about a foot and a half of snow now...) or Thursday. Made it in OK on Friday, and every day this week. The snow still hasn't shifted significantly here, but it has been noticably warmer these last 2 or 3 days, and will be relatively warm (compared to the -14 centigrade) up to Tuesday, and possibly Wednesday too, so I'm hoping that it'll have all but gone by the time family visit on Wednesday afternoon / Thursday.

In other news, I've got a few odds and sods of Christmas shopping to do, and a large wad of Christmas cards to write, including, for the first time, some to foreign lands!

Contact Lenses

I can't remember whether I blogged about it previously or not, but I thought it'd be a good idea to get my eyes checked. Firstly, the glasses I have are about 5 years old, and on the verge of dropping apart, so I needed some new ones anyway, but seeing as though the actual eye tests are free at Tesco, I went and had the full check.

It turns out (unsurprisingly) that my prescription hasn't changed significantly since the glasses were made, so it would appear that things are pretty stable in that department now.

I also enquired about contact lenses. After a couple of appointments (one for an assessment, and another to teach me how to put the lenses in and take them out, I came away with 5 pairs of trial lenses.

First pair went in on Saturday, and everything was fine until I washed the car. The combination of the wind, the spray from the hose, and me was enough to make the right hand one disappear. Not sure where it went, but all of a sudden, it had gone. I had to take the left hand one out, and revert to glasses.

The second pair went in today, and were just fine. All day, no problems at all. I did get a weird sensation as if one was falling out, but it didn't. I guess it'll take a while to get used to them.

All in all, I think I'll get on with them. Might have to invest in a new magnifying mirror though.

Firefox x64

So I've downloaded a beta release of Firefox 4 x64. I quite like it, actually.

The interface is much more minimalist. All I get is a button in the top left that says "Minefield" (which will presumably change to "Firefox" on the final release), a row of tabs underneath that, and a toolbar underneath that. The toolbar has forward, back and home buttons, an address box and a Google box. And that's it.

Clicking on the Minefield button pops out a menu that has everything on it (Options, Add-ons, Downloads, Print, etc, so no functionality is lost there. At first glances, the "back" button appears to have lost it's memory feature (the list that allows you to go back five pages by clicking the line on a dropdown box) but it's still there. Just hold the mouse button down and the menu pops out. Also, it warns you if you have unsubmitted data in forms on the site (like this blog post) and gives you the option to stay. Useful.

The best bit is it's 64 bitness. Whether it's just me, I don't know, but it seems faster, especially at things like images and stuff.

I have also downloaded the beta (or perhaps an alpha) release of Adobe's x64 FLash player, codename "Square". But it and Firefox won't play nicely together, with Firefox crashing and exiting at the sniff of anything Flash, whether it Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, or Youtube.

Anyway, the release is due for sometime in the New Year. The official review should wait until then, as it's not really fair to pick faults in a beta. It's a beta, afterall.

The Grinding Gears

This particular gear-grinder is probably the most annoying so far...

Pedestrian crossings.

They are too slow. The one in Staveley is so bad, such that when you press the button to cross, does absolutely nothing to stop the traffic until there is no traffic on the road. When the traffic has stopped, the traffic signals change. Unfortunately, by the time this has happened, most folks have already crossed. Utterly pointless. What's worse, for the innocent car driver that just drives up, they now have to wait for no-one to cross, and for the lights to turn green again.

This particular crossing in Staveley also has another annoying trait. A little sensor that detects whether you are stood on the kerb waiting. If it's raining, and a truck is coming, you stand back, so that when the truck hits the pooled water, you don't get soaked. The magic eye senses that you are no longer stood on the kerb, and pretends you haven't pressed the button, and carries on like you're not there.

Down down down down.....

Yes, the pressure is falling.

It's currently hovering at a needles width above 28 inches of mercury. I'm informed by t'internet of two things.

Firstly, 28" of mercury is equivalent to about 948 millibars.

Secondly, Hurricane Jeanne (in 2004) had a lowest pressure of only 950 millibars.

Assuming both of those pieces of information are correct, and assuming the barometer is reading correctly (it is rather old...) then we have a big-ass depression over us right now....

What do do with telephone sales / marketing calls

So what to do?? I seem to be getting a few calls from these folks, even though I've registered with the telephone preference service. Fat lot of good that did.

Anyway, it gives me a chance to have a laugh at someone else's expense without feeling guilty. They phoned me, after all...

The usual one is to jot down the questions, then ask them back after he's finished. Can be rather amusing, especially when filled up a bit with drivel. I kept a guy going for 15 minutes or so with that one. At which point, I got bored.

I did ask on my Facebook page, and had a variety of responses, from a "Hold on a sec" and put the phone on the sideboard, to just plain "£$%^ off!". Thanks to Sara and Nicola for those two.

I've also contemplated a few other things, so I'll see which one works the best.