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.