The new title

Following several queries (OK, three, if I’m honest) about the new title for this page. There’s no ulterior motives or hidden meanings – it’s simply a lyric from the Sisters of Mercy’s “I Was Wrong“. I’d forgotten the song, and then hearing it live (and surprisingly acapella) on Wednesday made me want to use it. Simple, really.

Tiny PC case

At the moment there seems to be a trend towards smaller PC cases, enabling them to be in living rooms and so on, acting like TiVos, or just so they’re not as intrusive as some PCs are at the moment. But this system seems to be taking it to extremes. All the same – a silent, unobtrusive PC certainly has it’s uses.

Not that I’m a techie or anything.

Thoughts from a City Centre on a Friday lunchtime

• All people who buy umbrellas should be forced to undergo “Umbrella Awareness Training”
• I will be patenting that phrase
• Or maybe they should undergo IQ tests too.
• Is IQ a diminishing function? It seems like the more people in a crowd, the thicker they become.
• Or maybe it’s just that any amount of space has a finite IQ handling capability
• What is it with the “fashion” for cropped trousers at the moment? The street looks like an Armenian market.
• Wearing cropped trousers accompanied by either knee high boots or silver stilettos is a crime.
• Why is it that shoplifters always look so bloody dodgy, signalling their intent from about 5 miles off?
• And why are they so funny when they get stopped?
• Why can’t anyone walk in a straight line any more?

Thank Christ I never took on that contract

Ah, how we all love Ask Jeeves, it’s shit adverts, and even shitter search engine. Someone came to d4d from ask yesterday, using the phrase “I need pictures of people who are sad for a report“. None of which should result in d4d at all – no matter how ungrammatical the search request. But in Ask’s world, I’m #1.

Bizarrely, about four years ago I got asked to work on the language processing for Ask, when it was just starting up. Having seen the way it’s developed since, I’m really bloody glad I didn’t do it. Who’d want to admit on the CV to working for ’em?

Winnie the Crook

According to the Guardian, Winnie Mandela has been found guilty of fraud to the tune of about £75,000. Hardly chicken-feed, is it? Then again, this was a set of frauds based upon a completely false bank – at which point it really is chickenfeed compared to what she could have done.

All the same, it’s still somewhat sad to see another national hero toppled off her plinth.

Terminator 3 Trailer

If you’ve got Apple’s Quick-Time plug-in, you can now go and see the new trailer for Terminator 3 trailer – it looks bloody good.

Matrix on the big, big, BIG screen

The two Matrix sequels will apparently be released in an IMAX format as well as normal cinema screens. IMAX is a huge film-format, on a screen 27m (80 feet) high and 19m (65 feet) wide. Fucking enormous, to put it bluntly.

So I’ll definitely be seeing each film at least twice. *Grin*