Geoff's Random Thoughts

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6923373.stm "Couples who are living together should have more legal rights, according to a report by the Law Commission." Another example of our Nanny state. If people want this level of protection they need to either get married or enter into a legal agreement, I think that the idea that two people who've lived together for two years should automatically receive legal protection will actually cause some couples to break up before the 2 years. Also when do you classify two people as living together, if you stay over a couple of nights a week, do you live there? What if you do that for Eighteen months and then move in full time for a year, have you lived there for two and a half years? The answer to this question seems obvious but who decides or clasifies the terms. Some people live together for years and do not want or need this level of protection. Why can't Government spend both the time and money wasted on this proposal on so...

I keep meaning to write about this, but just never get around to it. The Manchester Congestion charging will barely affect me, I also Travel during Rush Hour and see Congestion on the motorway every single morning. I'll put that up front. Manchester is in the process of putting in place a congestion charge for those entering both Greater Manchester (i.e. crossing the M60) and going into central Manchester. Through Tax on Car Allowances and Diesel and My Car Road Tax, I pay approximately £4.5k a year, I drive quite a few miles and pay very much for the priviledge of doing so. The Government has previously made it clear that it wants to reduce the number of journeys people make, reduce pollution and congestion, and it's frequently stated that it should increase tax on those with large cars and those that travel a lot. THOSE WHO TRAVEL A LOT PAY LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY TO THE GOVERNMENT IN DUTY ON DIESEL. A Congestion charge is going to lead to an increase in tra...

I ordered a Macbook which arrived at work on Friday. I had it delivered because the last three time I've ordered things from Apple Online, the Delivery has been a Collosal Pain in the arse. I've had to schlepp across Manchester to pick things up from the depot. I'd ordered the Black Macbook with a 160GB HDD and 2GB of Memory, Plus Applecare. I currently own a Powerbook 1.25Ghz 1.25Gb Memory and a Mac Mini Core Duo 1.66Ghz The Brown box it was shipped in was TINY, I was expecting much bigger, and when I opened the shipping box and saw the actual 'display' box I was even more gobsmacked. As you'd expect from Apple, the packaging was a design in itself, someone had put time into it, it wasn't as good as the iPod Mini or Nano 1.0, or even the Mac Mini, but still well thought out. In the box was the Macbook, Install disks, the Power block, Power lead, the Apple Remote and a UK adaptor to slot straight onto the Powerblock. The first thing that struck ...

We've had an on and off problem with our broadband connection for a few weeks, I thought it was the router and replaced it. Well this afternoon I got back from work and it Sucked royally, so I disconnected everything and connected my work laptop to the Cable modem. Last time I did that it all seemed fine and speedy, but this time it was dropping packets left and right, over 20% at 13:17 I phone Customer Sevice and very quickly got through to a person. That's important because I don't have an NTL phone so it costs me money to phone them. I explained the problem and the young lady took me through a few things which I expect, 1st line is there to weed out the stupid stuff. She then stated that it was a problem with my firewall because she couldn't ping my laptop, I reluctantly turned the XP firewall off and she tried again. YL "I can't get a ping on your laptop, you must have another firewall switched on." Me "Nope" YL "Yes you mu...

Yesterday I made a major step forward in the Airey - Wrigley Household. The Last Windows Computer (Except for my work laptop which HAS to be Windows) has been deactivated and we're an all Apple home now. I can't tell you how good this feels. The Windows Computer the Girls and Adele share has been a complete and utter PITA as it can't decide whether or not it's connected to the Wireless, and when it is connected, the signal was garbage. I put my aging Powerbook right next to the PC, full signal, no problems. With me losing my office, I've chosen to move the Mac Mini into the Living Room and set up account for everyone, and as usual, it all just works. Fantastic. :-) No more headaches for me about Computers at home.

I spent 2 hours last night pulling my Powerbook to pieces very, very carefully. I had a problem with White Spots on the screen and took it into Apple for them to fix it. I use my Powerbook all of the time and usually leave it open on my desk, or shut it down and take it with me. It was only recently that I noticed that it wouldn't go to sleep anymore. After some research (And some help from the Mac community here on LJ) I found out that it was a magnet in the Lid that activated the sleep and I reasoned that it had probably been left disconnected when they replaced the screen. After much struggling to remove the back of the screen, I found the tiniest magnet you've ever seen which wasn't powered, had a play with the position and it was about 1/4 of an inch out of position, you'd have thought that the Genii would be able to test and get it right. Put it all back together and felt very, VERY accomplished. 24 screws on the casing of a Powerbook + 3 that hold the h...

I watched the last episode of The West Wing last night, Seven Seasons, over 140 Episodes, many wonderful characters and situations. Don't want to spoil anyone else's experience, LOTS of spoilers I've got to admit that I had a tear in my eye as the last ever episode finished and a lot of things were tied off. CJ and Danny got together, Sam Returned Donna and Josh got together Toby was Pardoned Mallory left something for President Bartlett. President Santos took the Oath and became President. I know a lot of people feel that it jumped the shark when Aaron Sorkin left, and the Fifth Season was disappointing, but after the Sixth Season I went back to watch the Fifth again and while it's not up to the standard of other Seasons, there are some fantastic episodes in there. I'm going to miss that fact that I will never ever see a New episode of The West Wing. I remember seeing an early episode and becoming hooked, I've spent a lot of money buyi...