Green Party asks: who has the key to your Vista PC?

Microsoft's latest operating system, due for release tomorrow, is defective by design, putting Microsoft and the corporate media in control of your computer. Read more at the Green Party site.

Russian loses wife in poker game

A Murmansk gambler lost his wife in a poker game when he ran out of cash and laid his other half on the table, Ananova reports. Read all about it on The Register.

Alternative updates for Windows XP

Thanks Sam for these interesting links and info.

NOTE1: As of posting this blog entry I haven't tested these links.

NOTE2: I do not condone the use of so called "sub legal" copies of operating systems. If you are the type of person who prefers not to pay for your operating system (and who doesn't) then check out this legal free operating system Ubuntu. For info on getting it and installing it there is a silly video available on google video entitled Adventures In Linux - Episode 1 - Ubuntu.

SP2:http://www.techspot.com/downloads/21-windows-xp-service-pack-2-network-installation-package.html This particular download of SP2 for XP does NOT require you to authenticate your version of windows, not even the installer looks for if your windows version is legal, handy!

And (windazupdate):http://windowsupdate.62nds.com/ Its a site that gets all the windows updates, sorts out which ones you actually need (ie, all the critical ones and security issues), searches your computer to see if you need any of them, and if you do, will download and install them for you. It wont install the shitty ones you don't need, just the needed ones. It does NOT check to see if your windows version is legal, so a sub legal copy can use it, and it works in Firefox!! Not just that, but it ONLY works in Firefox, it refuses to work under IE, lol :)

server up

OK I think my server is up... the only time I'm ever known to complain about something going down on me... ahem. Tested it with anonymouse and that was able to see my site so I'm guessing its working... will test tomorrow. now to double check security :)

How legit?

Someone asked me yesterday "Is there a way I can check if a site is legitimate". The common problem is that anybody can make a website that looks convincing and offering to sell you things. Often at prices that are too good to be true. So how do you know if you are on to a winner or a looser? Well the first thing you can do (If you are looking at UK companies) is to check them with companies house.

1. Go to the companies house web site.
2. Select the "WebCHeck" [sic] link
3. Put the companies name into the search box
4. click search
5. See if you can find it in the list then it isn't a registered UK company

While this isn't fail safe it's a start. More later

Organization... or sorting crap that hasn't been touched in a long time

Lately I have been sorting through some of the junk in my room.... Let me elaborate on this:

• I have piles of paperwork needing to be sorted (bills, uni work and other important documents)
• I have boxes of junk that needs to be sorted. This includes paperwork, assorted computer bits (in no particular order just thrown in together) and other loose miscellaneous stuff.
• Computer CDs (I'm sure there is over 1000) which are in no order
• books/magazines etc...

Most of this stuff is from when I threw it in boxes on my various times moving in and out of university. I did have an enormous sort (it took me a week of non stop sorting, bagging and organizing) before I went to uni so most of this is crap I built up at uni. I have thrown out 3 bin sacks... 4 in total if you count the manic chucking out of pointless crap that I did when I was looking for my passport last summer. My room looks no different from what it did before I started. So far I have sorted:

• One large box
• One small box
• All my folders from uni (with some interesting revelations):
• My first year notes were on the whole already well organized (thank god). These are the ones most useful at the moment as I can reuse some of the handouts with my teaching
• My second year notes are still in an appalling state. they were predominantly loose and in less than "no particular order". I have managed to separate them into 4 separate card folders (1 for each subject) so that if I ever need to find a handout I can (I think google will be far more reliable for finding any information I covered in the second year). All my coursework submissions (and their marks) seem to all be in folders with some kind of structure to them so they can be found if needed. Most of them I have soft copies of... But soft copies is something I need to sort soon...
• My final year notes were predominantly sorted by subject in card folders already (why didn't I use ring binders?) and the coursework submissions were easy to find so that wasn't as painful.

And thats about it All this sorting has taken hours and there is still a lot more to do. With the uni work it shows:

1. I was a swat in the first year trying to keep my folder immaculate... even if my note taking ability was shit
2. My second year had many focuses... obviously study and organization of revision notes wasn't one of them
3. My third year I actually made efforts to cover notes and make revision notes which no longer make much sense.
4. Perhaps if I had tried harder, been more organized and structured my work better I would have gotten a first over all... But then I wouldn't have had as much fun.

On a more entertaining note I found a photograph of a couple of my old lecturers on an old uni server. Have a look around on there, you get to see what lecturers do in spare time. Similar to seeing what teachers do in spare time in my photo gallery. I found that image of my lecturers when I was looking for notes on something by one of my old lecturers. For anyone who is interested in networking, programming or just reading the antics of a bigoted dinosaur then have a peek at bobs homepage.