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Month: March 2003

Blogging: Neil Offline

Neil TurnerAs some of you may have already noticed, fellow ODP editor Neil Turner‘s (aka totalxsive) blog is currently offline. I was aware he was having problems with people spamming his comments (I could tell by reading comments people had left that there were a couple of rather immature people with too much time on their hands) – but it seems it escalated into a flood attack resulting in his ISP (Freedom2Surf) taking the site offline – he’s tried contacting them, but no response after 36 hours! I’m disappointed if I (or another member of our technical team) don’t respond to a technical queries on website hosting business within 6 hours (that’s 6 hours full stop – not just “working hours”, after all – the internet doesn’t close down at 5pm, so why should your site?)

Neil’s currently looking for alternative hosting (I’ve recommended our hosting service as I know how good the tech support is and how reliable the servers are – I would move my own sites to them, but I’m a massive bandwidth hog and use up around 1.5Gb of traffic a week – that’s around 6Gb a month – on my various sites and I’m expecting that to return to normal levels of around 2-3Gb per week after the Iraqi war finishes).

Anyway, Neil’s got people looking to trace the person that spammed his account (and, yep, if whoever you are is reading this – Neil DOES know where you live and is contacting the relevant people), but has said in an email to me > Only downer is that I’ve probably lost a whole bulk of entries – my last backup was about a month ago <

Whether Neil will be bringing back his blog (which is one of the few that started me on my blogging adventure) at the same URL or reference to him as an individual, I don’t know, but whoever caused him this inconvenience lacks basic netiquette and intelligence – if you’ve got nothing nice to say, don’t say it at all!

Hopefully Neil should be back at the weekend…

Personal: Tiredness and Valentines

Dancing SaddamWhy have I been so tired recently? For example: I got home from work today, came upstairs and checked my email and then thought I’d have “10 minutes rest” on my bed whilst watching next month’s episode of South Park (that’s number 704 – Cancelled) and within 30 minutes of me getting home from work I was fast asleep 🙁 5 hours later I woke up and I’m already beginning to feel like I’m fit for bed again… Plus my legs absolutely ache which isn’t good. I’ve actually been worried about my legs for a while now as my feet seem to have been “pointing outwards” a lot more than usual and been hurting a lot – but it’s just one of those minor things I didn’t think it was worth bothering the doctors with, but I might have to see if I can get a referral to a chiropodist just to try and alleviate the pain a bit (it’s more a “numbing” pain and sudden cramps) – I’ll probably have to get some “insole corrector” thingys to put in my shoes to correct my walking posture… Yep – I’ve got weird legs. Saying that, it could just be how I sit – the chair I’ve got at home at my computer desk is around 3 years old and isn’t too comfy – I seem to get cramp in my legs after half an hour or so sitting on it – maybe a new chair is in order…

Oh – I spoke to my GESF for the first time in 1.5weeks yesterday and we had a bit to talk about: some was quite funny, but we did find out we had the same viewpoint concerning the current crisis in Iraqi (yep, like all bloggers, I had to get a mention of it in my blog somewhere) – I’m not publicly stating my stance on whether I think the war is right or wrong etc – but my GESF and I do agree on practically every issue. Oh – and whilst we were talking, the subject came up regarding her mystery valentines card – I’m still the “prime suspect” at the moment, but then I moaned “well, you were lucky to get one – I’m still waiting for mine” and she remarked that perhaps, if I had sent her a Valentines card, she would have sent me one… So I’ve agreed to send her a belated Valentines card (deity knows where I’ll get one from though – 1.5months after the event!): what it means, I’m not sure – did she want a Valentines Card from me? Does she really like me more than I suspected, or am I just being overly hopeful again?

Whilst on the subject of being overly hopeful, I did get a little surprise today – my boss is going to be giving me a bonus this month for all my hard work and commitment to work (well, I agree that I am probably should be committed but;) ), it’s come as a very nice surprise and I did thank him for it – but I’m not 100% convinced I’ve actually done something to make it worth while giving me a bonus. Admittedly, I have come up with a few ideas and stuff – but nothing sensational or that really saves/makes us money (whereas he’s come up with new products that we now sell for around 100% profit!), but… Oh well, if he thinks I’m worth it, then who am I to argue? 😉 I will have to actually do something that really makes a mark though, but it’s just where and how – there’s lots of room for improvement in our workflow – but I just haven’t got the time at the moment to even sketch out what’s required let alone implement it.

I’m also think of asking somebody out for a date/meal/movie this week, but I’m not sure if a) I’ve got the guts (that’s confidence for all you non-slang speakers) and b) if she’ll agree… I need to think about this…

Guess That Movie: XLII: Space Balls

[Guess That Movie 42]Well, when I posted Guess That Movie round 41, I really believed I would have got you all stumped… And I did for some time – until Kymberlie R. McGuire came along and managed to recognise the image as being taken from the 1949 movie Kind Hearts and Coronets [Order from Amazon.co.uk] amazoncom:B00006FMAR . It’s another movie I haven’t seen in ages and that I really want to see again. Starring Alec Guinness as the entire D’Ascoynes family, its a really good film despite its age.

Let’s move out of the 1940’s and move into a bit more modern times with this image taken from a colour movie (oooh – we are getting up to date aren’t we? 😉 ), it didn’t win any Oscars – but I really enjoy it (yep, it’s a comedy).

So have a guess at the title of the movie you think this image has been taken from and let me know what you think, and in my “custom” at the moment – here’s a “no extra points available” mutated theme song from my childhood:

“Up above the streets and houses,
Richy climbing high.
Everyone can see him climbing
Through the sky.

Paint the whole world with a Richy!”
A: Spaceballs. amazoncom:0792844890 [Order from Amazon.co.uk] Correctly guessed by Kymberlie R. McGuire

Techy: New Computer.. Mmm…

[New Computer]Yes! I should be able to get back to normal blogging and stuff shortly – I’ve now finished setting up my brand new computer! Yep, I splashed out £880.80 on a brand spanking new machine last week and it was delivered at 8.10am on Wednesday (whilst I was in my dressing gown). I spent Wednesday night setting it up, Thursday cleaning the house, Friday sleeping and Saturday making a voyage of discovery…

Before I jump the shark (wheee!), I may also well be an “ultimate geek” and list the spec. of the new machine. It’s a Dell Dimension 4550 mini-tower machine with a 2.5Ghz Intel Pentium 4 (dah-dah-dah-ding!) processor and 256Mb RAM: complete with a 10/100 NIC, NEC DVD+RW drive (yep, it’s a DVD writer!), 64Mb NVIDIA GeForce Graphics card, 60Gb IDE hard drive, 17″ monitor, 6 USB ports, in built 56K modem and a nifty ball-less scrollwheel mouse.

Software wise, it came with Windows XP Home Edition and some other stuff (such as MS Works). For the time being at least, I’m keeping Win XP on this machine until I decide what I’m doing with my old machine: but I’ve installed Office 2000, ZoneAlarm, Symantec Anti-virus, Digiguide, EditPlus, Mailwasher Pro, Adobe Photoshop and all the other software I had on my old machine.

Aren’t I worried about breaching the “one machine/one license” rule? Nope. Because as soon as I had installed the essentials and upgraded Windows XP (it had nearly 40 critical updates to install), I “downed” my old machine (just as it was beginning to make funny noises)…