Happy Birthday D!!

Leslie sex charges dropped

If he is innocent he has been completely stitched up. The stinker is as soon as someone alleges that a person has sexually attacked them, it appears that that person is immediately guilty. Is the law going to change to give some one anonymity until they are proven guilty (then you can name and shame them), but I bet even now there will be people that think he is guilty only due to the fact that he was accused of it in the first place.

'Critical' flaw found in Windows

What Bill Gates producing buggy software that stays as secure as a hookers knickers, never, I will not hear of such a thing. Well it seems even the new super secure Windows Server 2003 is affected by this. Its seems there is a flaw in DirectX which allows a would be hacker to run code on your PC. This flaw even got Microsofts highest we buggered up mark (high severity rating)

The following software combinations are affected:
DirectX 5.2 on Windows 98
DirectX 6.1 on Windows 98 SE
DirectX 7.0a on Windows Me
DirectX 7.0 on Windows 2000
DirectX 8.1 on Windows XP
DirectX 8.1 on Windows Server 2003
DirectX 9.0a on Windows 2000
DirectX 9.0a on Windows XP
DirectX 9.0a on Windows
Server 2003
DirectX 9.0a on Windows Me
NT 4.0 using Media Player 6.4 or Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1
NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition using either Media Player 6.4 or Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1

So really any windows running any DirectX. Aren't we a clever Bill, aren't we. The security warning and fix can be found here. BBC also did a nice article entitled 'How far do you trust Microsoft', about as much as I trust Rick Waller to adhere to a strict pie ban.

Happy Birthday Grinner

Radiohead - Hail to the thief (buy it)

I have been listening to this album since the beginning of June and again they have produced something that is not only new but also something that after a few listens you feel part of. I think what they do that impresses me so much is that they can start a song and build up not only your senses and emotions but also expectations and then during the track they just kick off, saturating those feelings. They have come back to earth a little from Kid A and Amnesiac, but this record is still very progressive.

I suppose it depends what you want out of your music which will make you either enjoy this album or not. I enjoy listening to music which is an emotional rollercoaster as much as music which is there purely for you to bob your head up and down (Snoop dogg, Stone Roses, Charlatans, Orbital, Underworld etc.), if you like purely the latter then this album is not for you. Whether or not you like the records you should go and see them live where they come in to their own, they have an amazing quality about them when they are play live.

I was watching breakfast on the BBC today and it was explaining that currently not only do most students have some form of part time job but a increasing numbers are actually doing their study while in full time employment. Some teachers and university administrators were explaining what a good thing this was, that it gave them a significant advantage in the market place an that it was more difficult to get a graduate position.

I only left uny in 97, how have things changed so quickly. We didn't have a great deal of money, but it was such a beautiful hedonistic time where enjoying life and freedom was so much more important than the actual subject that we were being taught. I suppose the emphasis is changing, for me University was a method for me to experience life with different cultures, attitudes and experiences and that was a lot more important to me than the course. I am not saying that the education was secondary or unimportant as it gave me the footing and the ability for me to learn, think and develop in ways which enabled me to quickly and effectively learn my trade and also gave me the links to organisations to further myself like gaining Chartered Physicist (and currently applying for Chartered Engineer) status at the IOP

I really do feel for the kids now in further education having to slog only thinking about their little field of expertise with no money, not truly experiencing the broader world University should offer and I also feel privileged that I was part of probably the last batch of kids able to experience education as part of a life experience that did not comprise of responsibility or reduced freedoms but the true pursuit for life.

It was on this day in 1969 that people finally landed on the moon. at 0265 GMT, Buzz Aldrin was the first man ever to speak from the moon saying, "Tranquillity base. The Eagle has landed.". The last Apollo Mission (17) was in 1972, that is two years before I was born, which is absolute rubbish, just think how exciting that would be watching people land on the moon again. All I can hope is that the Chinese will get there soon and start the space race off again

Masturbating may protect against prostate cancer

BRILLIANT, at last there is a good news story worth talking about!!!!!! it states quite clearly that men in their twenties can help them selves later in life by spanking the monkey or beating the bishop as much as possible. In a world of hyprochandira, I am covered, saved from nasty prostate cancer because of the years of hard work and sacrifice.

Went on a stag do last weekend to Cromer to celebrate the impending wedding of Andy and the new Mrs Smart (that sounds top!!!). Had a few beers in a absolute beautiful house, although I never managed to sleep in it (went to get something out of the car saturday night/ sunday morning and woke up in the car the next morning).

Went go-karting on the Sunday, never done it before and it was absolutely brilliant, you can fly. Well we had a few initial rounds and then three semi finals, I was robbed to the big seven man final by all the other cheating sods (no really). Actually it was only supposed to be a six man race but we as it was Andys do everybody wanted him in it, he then barged, bullied ,wrestled and won on the last corner of the course (mikey, you were in the lead for 14 and 3/4 laps, what a stinker) and they say cheaters never prosper. All the pictures can be found here!

Haven't posted for a while as I am on early shift and can't think properly

reading some good articles on politics in the UK and blogs, there are a couple of MP's with blogs now and they seem to think it is a good way to get a little transparency and a easy way for them to interface with public. I think it is a brilliant idea, but all the mp's you would like to have a bit of a whinge at I bet will never do anything like this!!

links
Tom Watson MP
Richard Allan MP
Voxpolitics

I haven't smoked this year, I stopped completely one day and then suffered the fallout for this long. Although the actual addiction to nicotine left my body with in a fortnight (it's true), the brainwashing that nearly two decades of smoking caused was the difficult bit. Until a month ago I was still thinking that I was more social and relaxed when I smoked and when I went to pubs or I saw other people smoke I thought how much I missed it and what a sacrifice and what a martyr I was.

My mate Ian (cheers T) lent me this book which he had used to give up smoking and reluctantly I read it. It was by this dude called Allen Carr and his Easy Way to Stop Smoking (buy it) and it basically said that he could stop you smoking and do it a way that would be enjoyable.

It has made me think completely different about smoking, I actually don't want to smoke and I really believe I have had my last cigarette, it's quite mad me thinking that. What you gotta get in your head is that when you smoke a cigarette it doesn't relax you or make you any more social, it just brings you back to the level of a non smoker. The problem is when you are not smoking the drug addiction side makes you more anxious, less sociable, more stressed and all the rest, so smoking does nothing for you and that is the bit you have to get in your head. If you want to stop smoking or you have stopped smoking and you have been thinking like me that it was a sacrifice and you will never be quite the same again, then read this book.

Just been sampling some choons for my phone and thought I would stick them on here. They are .au which are fine on my Sony P800 but not sure how they work on other phones. I have made them so that they can be looped on the phone.

daBoss.au
crazy.au
FEAR.au
generation.au
itsyourbirthday.au

Hunt groups vow to fight ban

Oh dear, the posh people are cross they can't kill some more defenceless animals. I suppose I don't understand either as I am a townie, I don't understand the way of the land, I don't understand the heritage and I certainly don't understand the thrill of the hunt. I know there are more than just posh people involved, there are all the other people that have jobs looking after the stuff that the posh people use to mow down those dangerous and vicious animals (I hear that foxes now carry AK47 assault rifles). The problem we face as a nation is that there are going to be a lot of angry country folk and they got all the guns, and as they have demonstrated they are not scared to use them, they shoot birds for Christ's sake and birds don't do anything.

So the next time you go for a drink in your local pub, club, bistro, wine bar or any other urban dwelling with a mixture of people who 'may not be from round these parts' watch out, you know there is gonna be some dude in a tweed jacket with fifty hounds and some mini hand cannon and he/she/it is gonna shoot all of us, probably starting with the minorities and other strange folk.