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Feb. 28th, 2006 @ 11:14 am Another syncronisation service
One of the hassles which I have from time to time is keeping all of my telephone numbers, e-mail addresses and snail mail addresses updated on all my machines.  There is a terrible tendency for changes to get made on the nearest device, and not always updated on everything else.

At the moment, my phone syncs with my main computer, but my work computer and my laptop only get updated when I remember to export and import data manually (at which point I run the risk of overwriting more up to date information with older info if the latest address is on the work machine or laptop).  This is inconvenient, but there is no easy answer.

For a while I looked a syncronisation software, and online syncronisation (such as the service offered by Orange), but none of them were adequate.  The orange online service was just a pain, and most other free services wouldn't work with outlook or my phone (which basically renders them completely useless).  Many of them didn't support all of the fields I use, so things would end up in the wrong places (mobile phone numbers are easy to spot, but if work and home numbers are swapped, how do you tell?).

Anyway, I'm trying a new service now - Plaxo (www.plaxo.com).  First impressions are quite positive - it doesn't seem to be able to update mozilla calendar in Thunderbird (which I use at work), but it will sync contact information with Outlook (and by extension my phone) and Thunderbird, it's got a reasonable web interface (although why I would need that when I always have my phone I don't know), and for other Plaxo users it will always automatically update their information, and keep a log of changes.

I haven't given it the big test yet - at the moment I've synced Plaxo to Outlook, but I haven't synced Outlook to Plaxo.  I hope that it doesn't mangle my contact information....

If it all works, it should be revolutionary for me - and I'll probably start pestering everyone to use it so that I don't have to track things manually.  If it doesn't work, I've got a current backup of my contacts, and I'll just uninstall the plugins and forget about it (meaning that when someone else discovers it in 3 years time, all of my contact information will be out of date - but that's their problem).

Now to go a find a plugin which will let me display calendar information and appointments on the MCE machine.  That said, I'm not sure I want to be greeted with the todo list for the day when I first turn on the TV in the morning.
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Feb. 24th, 2006 @ 11:35 am New Toys
Current Mood: cheerfulcheerful
I have a new toy today (well, it's not really a toy, as it's not particularly much fun, but it is probably going to be enormously useful.  I bought myself a 200Gb external harddrive made by La Cie.  It's USB2 connected, and the case was designed by F.A.Porsche (probably during a lunchbreak, after all it's a rectangular box with rounded edges, a shiny front, and some port connections at the back).

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10468

At last I will be able to move media files around - 50Gb of music, 40Gb of video and 4Gb of pictures are a complete pain (I have several 80Gb drives, so apart from my MCE machine, nothing has a drive large enough to hold the whole lot at once).

So, lots of great reasons for having this thing - I haven't mentioned the main one, which was that it only cost £77 + delivery (another £5).

Cheap and useful - I'm in a good mood today.
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Feb. 21st, 2006 @ 10:29 am Tuesday - What a dismal day of the week
Current Mood: apatheticapathetic
Ha - It's Tuesday, which is probably my least favourite day of the week.  Mondays are never pleasant, but at least everybody acknowledges that Monday is a pretty awful day.  People just don't hate Tuesday enough.  You're still an age away from the weekend, you've already fallen behind on the schedule that you set yourself for the week (that completely unrealistic one which you were thinking about while watching TV on Sunday afternoon), and you know that there's probably nothing interesting happening anywhere, cos' Tuesdays are so dull.

Possibly the only good thing about Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday, but that's not until next week.  So no help today.

Still, British Gas haven't called me yet (though I am expecting it).
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Feb. 21st, 2006 @ 10:20 am I'm a steroid (?)
Steroid
You are a steroid. You're a special kind of

inter-nuclear hormone and have direct,

immediate effects on the near future; you are

pumped up, ready to go, and excite the people

around you into action. You can also cause

cancer.


Which Biological Molecule Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
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Feb. 3rd, 2006 @ 04:26 pm Just like buses
You wait 7 months for a posting, then two come along at once.  Just thought that I would mention that my new found enthusiasm for posting is partly due to my reinstalling the deepest sender plugin for firefox.  What a fantastically useful idea.

Perhaps I'll get round to posting more often.

Then again, perhaps not.

Bet I'll still be bitching about British Gas though
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Feb. 3rd, 2006 @ 04:22 pm It's been a long time
It seems like ages since I last posted anything here - probably because it has been ages (7 months).  Life is fairly cool at the moment; work is busy as usual, I don't have quite as much money as I would like (as usual), and I'm annoyed with numerous companies (as always).
My current most hated companies are:
  1. British Gas
  2. Dixons
  3. British Gas
  4. Currys
  5. British Gas
  6. Comet
  7. British Gas
  8. There is no number 8
  9. British Gas
Which seems a bit harsh on all of the electrical retailers, as I wouldn't want any company to appear on a list with British Gas.

My anger with electrical retailers comes down to their lack of ability to sell me something which I want to buy.  Our rather nice 28" widescreen CRT television has turned green (the picture that is, not the casing).  It varies in precisely how green it is, but in general if the scene is dark, it's now dark green.  This was vaguely amusing in the case of the recent Stargate episode where they ended up with several hundred SG1s from alternative universes arriving at Stargate command, but given that the plot rotated on the fact that the 'bad' team was wearing black while the good guys were wearing green....well, it was even more confusing than the writers intended.

So I would like a new TV.  As I want to connect a media centre PC to it, I'd like a LCD TV.  I therefore went into a few shops with the intention of spending around £500, and was most surprised to find that it was almost impossible to do so.  The reason for this is that they don't have proper information on most of the sets, they drive HD ready TVs off a poor quality coaxial RF feed, they don't set up the TVs to give a decent picture, and in one particular case they couldn't even turn the TVs on.  This makes it rather difficult to compare between the screens.  Of course, if you have £1200 to spend, at that price point they have HD feeds, perfect setup and the screens look great.  But not for £500.  And I thought that was really quite an amount of money to consider spending on a TV.

British Gas
.
You must have been wondering when I would get round to them.  Yep, in typical style they are still annoying me, despite the fact that I haven't been a customer for about 4 years.  Every 2-3 weeks I get a sales call from them, and although I have now spoken to the head of BG customer services (who promised that there would be no more sales calls, and of course they were responsible in their attitude to such things), this week the sales calls started up again.  My advice is never, ever, ever have anything to do with BG - any company that has a computer system so screwy that they tried to sue me for not being able to pay a fraudulent bill (they sent me an incorrect bill for the 9 months before I moved into a flat, then sent me a bill for the same amount, but with the dates adjusted to show the period was 3 weeks, and then claimed that they didn't supply the electricity to that address so I couldn't make a payment) should get no business from anyone with half a brain.  And they have the highest prices of almost any supplier.  Scumbags.

Anyway, Enough about BG - it's almost the weekend, and I want to start Friday night on a positive note, not as a seething mass of rage.  I'm hoping for a quiet weekend, although we are going to see a house tomorrow (potential swap), so it could turn into a very busy weekend.
We shall see.
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Jun. 2nd, 2005 @ 01:47 pm Yet another quiz
Current Mood: busy
The mistake that I make is reading my friends journals before posting - I always seem to find an interesting quiz, which I complete, only to realise that all I have time to do is put the results in my own journal, rather than writing anything inspiring. Ah well, I might try again later.

You scored as Materialist. Materialism stresses the essence of fundamental particles. Everything that exists is purely physical matter and there is no special force that holds life together. You believe that anything can be explained by breaking it up into its pieces. i.e. the big picture can be understood by its smaller elements.

</td>

Materialist

100%

Modernist

88%

Existentialist

75%

Postmodernist

69%

Cultural Creative

50%

Fundamentalist

25%

Romanticist

19%

Idealist

0%

What is Your World View? (updated)
created with QuizFarm.com
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May. 24th, 2005 @ 10:05 am Hmmm - probably doing too many quizes at the moment
Current Mood: apatheticapathetic
I should really be working, but I keep getting distracted. Still, after 3 foreign trips in 1 month, I suppose it's understandable. This result seems to fit reasonably well with the last one.

You scored as General Grievous.

</td>

General Grievous

83%

Yoda

72%

Mace Windu

64%

Darth Vader

61%

Clone Trooper

58%

Emperor Palpatine

58%

Anakin Skywalker

56%

Obi Wan Kenobi

50%

C-3PO

42%

Padme Amidala

36%

Chewbacca

33%

R2-D2

33%

Which Revenge of the Sith Character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com
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May. 24th, 2005 @ 09:16 am Another depressing test result
Current Mood: indifferentindifferent
Sadly, this is all probably true......

Smartass
You are 100% Rational, 85% Extroverted, 57% Brutal, and 71% Arrogant.

You are the Smartass! You are rational, extroverted, brutal, and
arrogant. You probably consider people who are emotional and gentle to
be big pussies who are obviously in lesser stature than you. You have
many flaws, despite your seeming intelligence and cool-headedness. For
instance, you aren't very nice. In fact, you're probably an asshole.
And you are conceited and self-centered. Not only that, but you are
very loud and vocal about all this, seeing as how you are extroverted.
There is no better way to describe you than as a "smartass", I'm
afraid. Perhaps just "ass" would do, too. But that's a little less
literary and descriptive. At any rate, your main personality defect is
the fact that you are self-centered, mean, uncaring, and brutally
logical.



To put it less negatively:

1. You are more RATIONAL than intuitive.

2. You are more EXTROVERTED than introverted.

3. You are more BRUTAL than gentle.

4. You are more ARROGANT than humble.


Compatibility:


Your exact opposite is the Emo Kid.


Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Capitalist Pig, the Braggart, and the Sociopath.


*


*


If you scored near fifty percent for a certain trait (42%-58%), you
could very well go either way. For example, someone with 42%
Extroversion is slightly leaning towards being an introvert, but is
close enough to being an extrovert to be classified that way as well.
Below is a list of the other personality types so that you can
determine which other possible categories you may fill if you scored
near fifty percent for certain traits.


The other personality types:

The Emo Kid: Intuitive, Introverted, Gentle, Humble.

The Starving Artist: Intuitive, Introverted, Gentle, Arrogant.

The Bitch-Slap: Intuitive, Introverted, Brutal, Humble.

The Brute: Intuitive, Introverted, Brutal, Arrogant.

The Hippie: Intuitive, Extroverted, Gentle, Humble.

The Televangelist: Intuitive, Extroverted, Gentle, Arrogant.

The Schoolyard Bully: Intuitive, Extroverted, Brutal, Humble.

The Class Clown: Intuitive, Extroverted, Brutal, Arrogant.

The Robot: Rational, Introverted, Gentle, Humble.

The Haughty Intellectual: Rational, Introverted, Gentle, Arrogant.

The Spiteful Loner: Rational, Introverted, Brutal, Humble.

The Sociopath: Rational, Introverted, Brutal, Arrogant.

The Hand-Raiser: Rational, Extroverted, Gentle, Humble.

The Braggart: Rational, Extroverted, Gentle, Arrogant.

The Capitalist Pig: Rational, Extroverted, Brutal, Humble.

The Smartass: Rational, Extroverted, Brutal, Arrogant.




My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 90% on Rationality
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 86% on Extroversion
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 61% on Brutality
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 81% on Arrogance
Link: The Personality Defect Test written by saint_gasoline on OkCupid Free Online Dating
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Apr. 14th, 2005 @ 03:56 pm Elections
Prepare to be shocked and amazed......

Who Should You Vote For?

Who should I vote for?

Your expected outcome:

Conservative


Your actual outcome:



Labour -54
Conservative 56
Liberal Democrat -36
UK Independence Party 49
Green 34


You should vote: Conservative

The Conservative Party is strongly against joining the Euro and against greater use of taxation to fund public services. The party broadly supported the Iraq war and backs greater policing and ID cards. The Tories are against increasing the minimum wage above the rate of inflation, and have committed to abolishing university tuition fees. They support 'virtual vouchers' for private education.

Take the test at Who Should You Vote For

Hardly a surprise, is it. At the moment the campaign is boring me to tears. It's probably most reminicient of the Monty Python Argument sketch.
Con "You plan to raise taxes"
Lab "No we don't"
Con "Ohh, you liars"
Lab "We are not"
Con "Yes you are - last time round you raised taxes after the election as well"
Lab "No we didn't"
Con "Yes you did"
Lab "No, we raised NI contributions, which means that people get less money in their pay, and the government gets more income. That's completely different to raising taxes, where people get less money in their pay, and the government gets more income"
Con "No it isn't"
Lab "Yes it is"
DING!
Lab "Time is up."
Con "No it isn't"
Lab "Yes it is, and anyway, you plan to cut public services"
Con "No we don't...but hold on, if you're still running a negative campaign, then that must mean that time isn't up"
Lab "Ah, like Alistair Campbell, we're running a negative campaign in our free time"

I'd vote for the Lib Dems if they weren't a bunch of beardy leftie sandal wearing wannabe hippies with hardly any coherent policies, or the greens if they weren't a bunch of beardy leftie sandal wearing actually hippies with no coherent policies. The Green party policy on national defence? I haven't heard if they have one, but it wouldn't surprise me if it involved growing a really big hedge all the way round Britain. In fact, the only policy which I have heard was that they would make it prohibitively expensive to own or use a car, which simply confirms what I've suspected for a long time - the green party is mainly composed of people who live in cities and have absolutely no idea at all about life in the countryside. And before I start getting comments, no, Kelvingrove/Hyde/St. James park do not count as the countryside. The main difference in the countryside is that you set your calendar rather than your watch by public transport, and a quick trip to the shops for some (fair trade) sugar involves a 3 hour walk each way. Or a £35 taxi (which of course everyone in the countryside can afford, cos' the city dwelling Greens haven't met a single person from outside London who doesn't own a 6 bedroom house).

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