Geoff's Random Thoughts

This is a good book, it links well between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, the writing is good and the story moves well. My only downer on it is that it's not as good as a Zahn Novel, it's not got as many plot threads as any of the Thrawn Books. Definitely worth a read, especially if you're a Star Wars nut, the last short chapter alone is worth the purchase price alone.

After recently upgrading from iPhoto 2 I've been playing with iPhoto 6 a little, and I've seen a lot of good points, but also some bad points. Now I appreciate that this is probably a far larger leap than a lot of you may have made, so some of these features may have been in iPhoto 5 Full Screen editing it's excellent, with the gallery along the top and the features at the bottom, I now find it easier to focus on the photo with the black background now Keywords I use Keywords a lot they make my life a lot easier. They are now part of the main window, I did prefer them to be on a movable 'pallet' type arrangement, I could move it around at will, I don't like it fixed on the right hand side, and I certainly don't like it sharing space with the Source window, for me they both need more space. I don't like the fact that you have to go into preferences to alter, add or delete keywords, too clunk by far, why not a button on the bottom toolbar, there...

For Christmas, I got four things, and Lauren got one that took AG13 Batteries. Now I hadn't seen these before, but they're like big watch batteries. I had a scoot about on the internet and Battery Force looked like the cheapest. I ordered the batteries on Boxing day, they were shipped on the 28th (The first non Bank Holiday Day) and arrived on the 29th. Oh, and 'Free' shipping also. Now THAT'S what I call service, and for that I RECOMMEND Battery Force.

OK, I love Sony Equipment. My Stereo I bought back in 1994 that I've only just loaned to my Mum and Dad because theirs is in for repair, and I hardly use it. I've always chosen Sony in car stereo's because of the pure quality and simplicity. Sony to me says Quality, like Panasonic or Pioneer or any other established brand you care to mention. But from this point on I am boycotting Sony's equipment. I've mentioned it before but the rootkit debacle has shown how little respect Sony have for their customers. If you normally buy Sony equipment, I urge you to boycott them too and urge others also to do so. We have to get a message to manufacturers, Music distributors and anyone else who thinks that they should: 1) Treat their customers as criminals 2) Install software onto your PC without your express permission to do so. And by that I mean telling you that is what they want to do, rather than Burying it in a EULA (End User Licensing Agreement) among the le...

Sony have Class action filed against them for Rootkit. http://www.aunty-spam.com/lawsuit-filed-against-sony-bmg-over-sony-rootkit/ I've got to say that much as I love Sony's Electrical Equipment, the idea of someone installing software on your PC without your permission or even your knowledge, especially one that allows other people to exploit the 'Characteristics' of your software and the way it works and create backdoors into your PC, dumbfounds me.

When Adele and I were packing to go away for the weekend, I knew that I'd have time to read, and casting about for something to read, I noticed 'There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale - A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Lord of the Rings' by Sean Astin. I bought it on an earlier holiday in Wales and ploughed through the first half, but I noticed it sat there with a bookmark showing my last point of reference halfway through the pages, so I threw it in the bag to push on and complete it. Last night I got a chance to read while Adele was watching X Factor, so I opened the book and within two pages, I remember why I'd put it down. I hated the writing, I hated the way that the actor Sean Astin portrayed himself, made assumptions about what other people were thinking and generally portrayed himself as the holder of a wealth of experience. Now I've always enjoyed Sean Astin's acting, he's excellent in LOTR and I've seen him in a couple of other things, bu...

NT tried to deliver the Airport Extreme today, but Adele was out, so I had to go and pick it up from the Depot which is about 10 miles away. Of course it was packaged exquisitely, Apple had taken the usual amount of time and care to design the packaging, quality all over. So I whacked it together and plugged it in, I could tell from the LED that it wasn't happy, it should be solid Green and it was flashing Amber. I threw the CD into the Powerbook, and proceeded to install the software, at least I would have installed the software if the installer had worked, it didn't, it said that both iTunes and the Airport software were disabled. Right, I said, I'll just do it in Windows. I put the CD in, installed the software, fired up the Airport Setup Assistant, and set about installing the Airport, except that even though the PC was connected to a wireless router, it wanted the PC to be wireless. My next step was to search the Apple website for help, support showed that th...