Monthly Archives: May 2005

Whats worse than a late train?

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….no trains at all!

I arrived at Coventry station today ready to catch my train back to Manchester. All looked well as the departures screen said:

15:23…………………Manchester Pic…………………On Time

Then a kind notice flashed up:

“All Virgin Cross country trains have been recalled for urgent safety modifications. There will be no further services today.”

Well that’s useful! Lucky I wasn’t trying to catch a flight, in need urgent brain surgery only available in Manchester, or worse, attending an exam later that day!

Strangely it was the only time I was vaguely looking forward to the prospect of being on a train for two hours. I thought it may force me to revise a little! Oh well!

Hopefully I will be able to get to Manchester by Thursday, but you never know.

How to grow coffee.

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My coffee seeds have arrived and I have started the process of germinating them. There are several steps you have to untertake if you want to grow your very own coffee plant/tree.

First you soak your green beans in water for 24h. Then place in damp sand / vermiculite until the seeds start to germinate. Then place in soil 1.25cm beneath the surface.

All sounds very easy but this is my third attempt to get coffee seeds growing. I have a hunch that last time I bought some seed they just sent me some normal green beans which you can roast yourslef for coffee, which are somewhat different to the green beans you use for growing!

I’m at the soaking stage at the moment so I’ll let you know how they get on!

Also with my seeds came a separate bag full of seeds called “Smoke Bush.” I wondered for a few moments if the “coffee seeds” were in fact a front for the sale of cannabis seeds. Apparently they are actually to grow a bush that looks like smoke!

Linux Saves the Day!

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The wonderful Microsoft corporation have done it again, but this time its personal!

Today on waking up at 7.30am, I thought I would leisurely watch some TV on my computer before my exam. So I turned on the power to be greeted with my nicely glowing case. Windows began to load as normal (slooooowly that is) but I noticed it was doing something unusual. It wasn’t loading windows at all, it was rebooting, over and over again!

In the end I got bored and am now in trusty linux!

Nice Job Heineken

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After buying some of the new “honeycomb” shaped Heineken today I thought I’d look for a picture to show you. Heineken have clearly reached a pinnacle of design by adjusting their shape from the norm!

Anyway, I was looking around their website and I stumbled upon a section called ESTUFF, so I thought I’d have a look. They have a few of the normal “beer” related stuff but I realised they had made a significant achievement when discovering a section called “Sounds” in which some genius at Heineken has recorded the sound of beer being pored. So for those long days of revision, you can enjoy the sound, if not the taste of Heineken.

A glimpse of next year…..

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Today Duncan, Tom and I took a quick trip down to the accommodation centre to complete our sections of letting the house for next year, so I thought I’d give you a sneak preview of what our wonderful new house looks like!

I think this is a particularly nice picture, displaying spiderman (who comes as standard) in the front window.

I thought it would also be nice to point out just how much better our house is than those acquired by other students, for example “the girls”. Not only does our house have dining area, it also has a well positioned sitting room on the 1st floor! Saves walking further!

I will keep you posted, but expect regular shenanigans!

Blog Tree!

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This newly created phenomena, (in a Discussion between Duncan and I about 30 seconds ago, as far as I know) is causing friends and others to begin blogging. Unfortunately that means I am technically a “leaf” of Duncan’s tree!

Anyway we must warmly welcome Peter to blogging with his new website peter.welbys.co.uk!
I think its looking rather good for a first time blogger!

If anybody needs a blog, we at accessdesigns.co.uk are happy to help provide you with the support for starting one and hosting it for the equivalent of 50p a month!
Email accessdesigns!

So currently I have 1 person in my tree! How many have you got?

Microsoft PatentXPâ„¢

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Down with Microsoft! “Bill, Who do you want to screw today?”
I read an interesting article in the BCS magazine(IT Now) yesterday about patents. Microsoft apply for a staggering 3000+ patents per year. In an attempt to patent anything they possibly can, they aim to stifle smaller development companies by overwhelming them with research into the legality of their algorithms and code.

Apparently they can’t do anything right, and its worth checking out this post on StripyTshirt.co.uk especially if you have Thunderbird.

Up with IBM?
Although IBM supports software patents, they have made it their policy not to enforce these patents in regard to open source software. Maybe this is the future of software patents? If you profit from it, you pay, if you don’t your ok! Maybe this will be beneficial? People would be more likely to develop open source software if it prevents them being sued!

Its worth checking out the article in the BCS magazine, IT Now, if you can get hold of a copy!

Argh! Adware!

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Search bars, browser hijackers, tracking registry, cookie scanners.
A friend has just asked me how to remove the search history in google because spyware has added a load of pornographic references. Apparently clearing history, cookies, temporary internet files, temp, running Adaware SE (useful free utility) and removing form content from internet explorer dosent stop it!
So the ISRVS suite of spyware seems almost impossible to get rid of!

If anybody knows how to get rid of it, let me know!

Mass Hysteria!

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While walking throught the centre of Coventry, the song “Music Man” by John C. Skipper came on.
It appeared to have a stange effect as people started singing, gesturing and even dancing to the song!
The only explination is that must be some strange phenomenon !

For anybody who cares you can get the words here