Geoff's Random Thoughts

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7106952.stm What this actually means is that the English Economy will gain little benefit from Euro 2008. Anyone who issued a warning that this will affect their business is basing their business model on England 100% making it to the European Championships. Now how Stupid is that! It should be set aside as a potential uplift in business. The flip side of this whole story is the productivity that would have been lost by UK Businesses if England had made it. The usual story is that once England get to the Knock Out Stages as staff leave work early, come in late, are off sick or drunk, and the whole country is paralysed for a day and a half. All in all, we should be about right then.

While I was away last week, I watched the second series of Life on Mars. All I can say is, absolutely amazing. I love watching things on DVD rather than on TV as it means that I can watch it continually without breaks, without missing things because of time. John Simm is excellent in this, so much better than in Doctor Who, I can't wait to go back through his back catalogue and pick up some more of his work. Philip Glenister was excellent and I can't wait to see him in 'Ashes to Ashes' although the person that they cast opposite him is going to have to have a character as strong as Sam Tyler, the Actress is going to have to be excellent and believable and above all, it makes you wonder how they'll bring this second person out of their coma. I can't wait to see it next year, lets hope that they can repeat the magic.

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.