Things of Interest

You’ve all done it – go on admit it!!

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photo credit: Jason Cartwright

Thanks to Alexia I’ve found this “Google Mail Goggles!” from Google Labs!

When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you’re really sure you want to send that late night Friday email. And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you’re in the right state of mind?

It only works late nights and weekends (by default – but you can adjust it!) and you’ll have solve some maths puzzles before you can send your mail – just don’t be too good at arithmetic when you’re drunk!!!

Personally I think this should be a standard feature on all mail clients – particularly for some of the emails I get!!!

We saw the spires too (photo’s at some point when I can get them sorted)! And the huge bookshop (thanks Sinead!) But the coffee shop was what made me laugh!!!

Having strolled around for several hours it was time to chill with a large receptacle of caffeine for half an hour, a coffee shop in a bookshop seemed to the sensible place so I hunted down a table whilst Emma ordered coffee…. I spent much of the next half an hour trying not to laugh helplessly and unable to tell Emma why!

Allow me to set the scene:

• MacBook Man
  The gent to my immediate right was pondering whilst typing onto his MacBook, his reading matter interested me somewhat – not exactly light coffee shop reading: “The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich”
• French Teapot Man
  Sat alone with his teapot, staring out of the window.
• Student Giggling Guy
  With his tall hot chocolate and his nose buried in a book.
• Highlighter Girl
  Frantically scribbling notes on a pad (this isn’t a library you know!!), and highlighting in relevant colours!
• Studious Girl
  She arrived a little later and sat behind me.

So, being the techie I am I snoop a bit at what MacBook Man is doing every so often, Word documents never interest me so I pretty much ignore him until he starts fiddling with iTunes – if he kicks that thing off  in here – he’s going to get some damned funny looks! The he starts glaring into space, this is well and good – he’s probably the creative type….. Until I realise he’s not actually glaring into space, he’s looking down Highlighter Girl’s top every time she changes colour of pens!! It’s all I can do not to spit out my coffee in laughter.

Before I know it Studious Girl has appeared, with more books than really she can physically carry (I’m sure she hasn’t paid for them yet and is just getting a free read – is that right in these sort of places!?!?). This causes a problem for MacBook Man – he has Highlighter Girl on his right, and Studious Girl behind me on his left – it’s like watching a game of tennis as he swivels back and forth – he’ll be getting dizzy soon.

The staff eventually inform Studious Girl that she really must order something if she wants to sit there (and not spill it on the books that she hasn’t paid for!!!).

Whilst this is all going on, behind MacBook man sits French Teapot Man, who whilst constantly answering his phone – can’t pour from his teapot! He keeps spilling it everywhere…..On his second (or possibly third) spillage, Student Giggling Guy lets out a giggle, Teapot Man glares (and nearly spills more tea!), so does MacBook Man (and nearly falls off his chair dizzy with all this swivelling) – thankfully he’s not laughing at either of them – just his book – for a moment I thought I was going to witness coffee shop rage!

MacBook man is clearly on the pull, but I don’t think this is the time or the place – nor is it the time or place to stay for longer in case I get involved in this little charade in some way. Having finished our drinks we put our coats on……..

And I have sneaky look at MacBook Man’s Word document…………………

“How to write a surrealist comedy whilst in Auschwitz”

Hmmmm…….. Comments?

photo credit: Teo

Do you find you fight your way through your RSS feed reader, frantically clicking “Mark as Unread” (like I’m going to find time to come back to them?), “Star this” (Hmmm I might find time to post about this it seems quite interesting) and “Mark all as Read” (that writer really is writing a pile of tosh these days maybe I should unsubscribe?).

From your 158 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 2,150 items, starred 165 items, shared 0 items and emailed 0 items.

ARRRGGHH…. See, that’s another bunch of things starred to add to the 2,000 other items (and the 755 I haven’t read yet) – and you know what…… It will only get worse tomorrow!

This appears to be a somewhat ongoing saga as well, I first was concerned about this nearly a year ago with only 39 Feeds…. I now have 158!!!!!

Watch out for lots, and lots of Starred Up linking coming your way really soon!

Note: The song has nothing to do with anything other than the title of this post!

I saw this over at TheChrisD – Rant Central. I agree with Chris far too much test for me even to be bothered to read, they probably produce enough text about every name so that they cover all their angles!!

What Keiron Means

You are a seeker of knowledge, and you have learned many things in your life. You are also a keeper of knowledge – meaning you don’t spill secrets or spread gossip. People sometimes think you’re snobby or aloof, but you’re just too deep in thought to pay attention to them. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It’s easy to get you excited… which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don’t stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You’re always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can’t handle you. You’re very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you’re likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

What’s Your Name’s Hidden Meaning?

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron move

You might think you’d reached the pinnacle of your career when you became colonel-in-chief of the Norwegian King’s Guard, but not Nils Olav he’s been knighted this week as well!

You may wonder why I’m even bothering to comment on this subject! Nils Olav is a penguin!

According to King Harald the Fifth of Norway, Nils as a penguin:

“in every way qualifed to receive the honour and dignity of a knighthood.”

How did all this come about?

It all started when Norway presented Edinburgh Zoo with it’s first king penguin in 1913, the year of it’s opening.

In 1961 a lieutenant from the Norwegian King’s Guard, Nils Egelien was in Edinburgh for the Military Tattoo and became interested in the penguin colony at Edinburgh Zoo. When they returned in 1972 the unit adopted the penguin and named him Nils Olav, in honour of Nils Egelien and King Olav V of Norway.

Nils Olav was given the rank of lance corporal, and has been promoted each time the Guard returns to Edinburgh for the tattoo:

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• 1982 – Corporal
• 1978 – Sergeant

Unfortunately Nils Olav died shortly after his promotion to sergeant, and his place of honour was taken by Nils Olav II, a two year old near double, who continued his rise through the ranks:

• 1993 – Regimental Sergeant Major
• 2005 – Colonel-in-Chief

Clearly he is the first penguin to hold this rank in the Norwegian Army!

Travelodge surveyed 3,500 Britons (more women than men) who reported waking up screaming, sweating, shaking or crying. Why?

Amy Winehouse

Well that’s understandable, but it’s not just her!

Spider attacks, falling and encounters with famous faces such as Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling, Cherie Blair, Heather Mills and the Cheeky Girls are all enough to scare people awake at night…

It is believed that nightmare thoughts of losing your job, being homeless or being chased are all manifestations of how the credit crunch is affecting our stress levels (no wonder Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown get a special mention then!!).

What do you have nightmares about?

photo credit: mikeakelly

Turning your hobby into a business is every persons dream isn’t it?

I know we all love crashing in front of the TV after a long day with a bottle of wine, don’t we? The catch is there’s very little ways of making money from doing that (unless you’re a wine taster for a very chilled out vineyard owner, or you’ve found a way of making money out of being a couch potato?).

The Magdalene Sisters psp Even if what you enjoy doing you’ve seen other people make money at, there’s no guarantee that you will. You can play the piano, so can thousands of others (I can’t if that helps!), and only the very best play in bars or on the Royal Variety Performance!

I’m lucky (I know a few people would disagree!), I had a hobby a long while ago – tinkering with websites and computers. I’m reasonably good at it, I’m a Software Engineer for a big company. At some point in that hobby I decided to setup a little offering for a few close friends, I’d host their websites for them (which meant if I charged them enough – I might even get mine hosted for nothing!). This went on for a while.

It then got a little bigger, I was hosting websites for friends of friends. Fixing up sites as necessary for people, and often getting asked to do custom work. Before I knew it I wasn’t just a reseller for a hosting company, I was a hosting company renting a server.

Today I still run BetterWebSpace, it has quite a few servers, and a lot more customers. I knew it was getting big the day I turned round and said “I don’t know every customers first and last name, and which server they are on!” – it might sound mad, but for a long while I really did know that!

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What’s the secret of it?

My passion is getting it right, I’ve seen so many people ripped off by hosting companies in the past, and I can’t bear it. If I can’t deliver something for you – I’ll be honest and tell you that. On the other hand if I can help you out – I will.

I’ve thought about getting out a couple of times (I’ve even been asked to once or twice) – but the big stumbling block is that this is my passion (whether that passion be the tinkering with websites, or the getting it right for my customers), I couldn’t stand to see someone else running it, or hear that it was suddenly being run into the ground.

Could your passion become your new career, with a lot of hard work? – Hey, I never said it was easy doing this!

photo credit: glangille