It is outrageous

See this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4104129.stm

basically they are charging people extra to protect from threats the operating itself is too incompetent to guard against, I am not going to say anymore, it is a most heinous crime, continuing to use Windows is an act of lunacy!

A Marvellous Host and Hostess and the longest game of Jenga ever

Thankyou Limpetboy and Joey for a marvellous party, great food and the longest game of Jenga ever.
But next time we need to force the Ginger Monkey to play the electric shock game.

Now New Years Eve has to live up to that!

In my crusade against Internet Explorer and Microsoft...

you have to check this out, its just the latest in a long list of warnings against IE;


Government says Finnnish with IE


this time an entire government is telling its people they should not be using Internet Explorer,

now add that to the American security bodies who have already said the same things and ......

if anybody is still using IE, why?????????

The Incredibles

Well to cut a long story short, this animated film was as the name suggests, I sat through the whole thing with a big grin on my face, and laughed out loud plenty of times.

Fantastic, great brilliant.

Decent Company

It has come to my attention that you know you work for a decent company when the management are mature enough in their attitude to not require timesheets. Lean, professional competence, no sycophantism, thats the way forward!

It took me some time to realise that I was no longer filling meaningless timesheets out, (where you have to put filling your timesheet out on the timesheet!).

My Crazy Dreams

Dreams, I don't usually remember them, but sometimes, they are just so strange, you can't help but remember them!

Last night I dreamed that people were sewing extra arms on to kill people with, and there were puppies from hell with cloudy dead eyes, who had mouths on their stomachs with vicious teeth, I was trying to kill them with a spade!

This made me remember a dream from a few years ago where I was running round on an island and there were some nuns on a hilltop with a cannon shooting at me.

Which made me remember a dream from before that where I was crucified under water by a cat.

Which in turn made me remember a dream where my friend from school was a changeling, in the form of a video cassete, trying to murder me.

Anyway, thats enough for now, suffice it to say my imagination runs riot when I am asleep sometimes.

Firefox 1.0 final release

In case you are a generally insane person and are not yet using Firefox, release 1.0 final came out today, you must switch now, for security, stability, and in order to use a browser that complies with web standards.

Microsoft suck, quite a lot really, their arrogance in not complying to standards in web design is irritating, and leads to a poorer surfing experience for EVERYONE.

Anyway, enough ranting, the URL is www.mozilla.org.

So Starsky and Hutch

It seems this film has done the rounds and the immortal line is

'Do it!'

marvellous film, much underated!

Happy Gilmore was funny as well, especially seeing Ben Stiller in the role of a dictator rest home blokee!

Hobbit's really did exist

I knew Mr Tolkien had it right, see this story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3948165.stm

now it may just be that I love escapism, but how many of our fables are really ancient truths?

Very Excited, Conan and Hawk the Slayer!!

They arrived this morning, just before I left for work.
Now everyone has heard of Conan the Barbarian, (perhaps the first of Arnie's finest hours)?

But Hawk the Slayer, (parts of it inspired Peter Jackson for Lord of the Rings), I am sure Dave knows this one!!! Comments Dave?

Rome Total War, those bloody Carthaginians

They just won't be subdued, I conquer their cities, only to have them revolt, I must crush them.

Yep, its still just as addictive!!

Trip to Ghent Belgium

I am officially an uber-geek. Just spent two days at the Apache Cocoon get together, the first of which was a 'hackathon', say no more.

Anyway, free food, free drinks the whole time, (2 racks of ribs, mmmmmm).

The whole thing was fun, second day a bit heavy though, and I could have done with more sleep.

One whinge, do not get the last train to Thatcham from London, I think I entered a wormhole, and lost a couple of days....

More praise for Mozilla

This time its Mozilla Thunderbird, which now has a calendar component you can install, its peachy, whats the point in tying yourself to Outlook, where insecurities arise from the fact that it is tied to the OS.

Give it a go, its quick, easy, and has built in RSS feed accounts, marvellous.

OK, I promised a few friends a blog about Trunk Monkey

Here it is, lets gibber about http://www.trunkmonkey.com/, its great, the most important thing about it of course is the media section half way down the page, some five or so movies.

Enjoy, its bizarre, insane, etc etc.

So, Rome Total War...

Well I lost five hours in the world of the Legions without realising, just a bit addictive, amazing, incredible, marvellous, tremendous, splendid hmm, the list goes on.

Don't like how you are always outnumbered 2 to 1 though, cheating stinking barbarian hordes, oh I will show them...

Rome Total War

For anyone who did not know, 'The Defining RTS game' came out yesterday. I am buying it today, and playing it as soon as I have a chance, (tomorrow).

This game must be bought and played.

Hurray for the weekend!

I am a flabby city boy

Last night Rosstopher thrashed me in four straight games of squash, and he was recovering from a cold.

I was a shambles, slow, out of breath, you could almost see the pollution being expelled from my lungs as I puffed and panted across the court. Still, it was a start.

Thanks for the game Rosstopher, I will have my revenge.

Hmmmm, Strawberry and Vanilla Smoothie

Its a very nice, I've already got one...

Why do you think I am writing with this outrageous accent?

Thats an I can't be bothered to make lunch so I will have to go out at lunch time to buy it comment.

Gibble, flibble, muppet.

Blarg.

OK, we will soon be able to host our own blogging/wiki

Excrement!!!!

We now have the capacity to host our own blogging/wiki'ing etc etc whatever you want to call it. Now its just up to us to produce the software we will use, ETA I don't know, but there should be something up within a fortnight hopefully, watch this space.

Positive Internet sorted everything out, and were really very helpful.
Thinking of calling the bliki or whatever it is, 'Friends of Ntombi' or something like that as it will be hosted off the Ntombi site that Bert, Dave P and I are in the process of putting together. Please post any other suggestions, and feature requests.

Rantings about the system

Just to let you know I am not going to swear, I am trying to cut down, so imagine the effort that has gone into this trying to describe the lunacy of the system without swearing. I got off the train at Paddington, I pay a large amount of money for a year season ticket, which covers the tube. I find that the underground is closed because it is too fu*$ing busy.....

Why are there so many people here in London, why do they let you buy a ticket if it is going to be too fu*$ing busy, what the hell is this??????

The whole concept of travel, the government and cities in general is an act of lunacy. Rossputin for Prime Minister, or first minister, as long as the Tsar doesn't try to stab poison and drown me...

15 Minutes Notice Dinner Party

Excellent, I am so disorganised that I don't even know I have organised a dinner party till 15 minutes before it is supposed to happen. Luckily Nicky is amazingly organised and can cook and host without any notice, she saved me. Thankyou Nicky. Sorry Rosstopher and Loue, hope our unpreparedness didn't show.

Use Firefox or Mozilla DROP INTERNET EXPLORER

It is quite simple really, I have been using Mozilla for some three years now in its many forms, its better, more standards compliant, secure, extensible, feature-packed, and generally more intelligently put together. Why continue to risk everything on IE, why succumb to the 'herd' mentality, why use Microsoft at all (except perhaps for some gaming). Demonstrate your intelligence, remember the power of choice is available to humans...

Ntombi blog

In the absence of an Ntombi blogger/wiki, (bliki), cos Positive Internet are either on holiday, sick, or maybe just a bit slow, here is a progress update on projects.

Mexico, Architecture company website - not looking good, our friend has let us down by not staying in contact, and it seems he no longer wants to be associated with us, (a shame really). A double blow because he was the graphic designer.

Dorset Youth Orchestra - evaluating their budget, will have an answer in the next month - Herbert informed me they still want it done.

My contact from work - I have sent an email to my contact, and am awaiting a reply, fingers crossed.

Bertie new graphic designer contact - Bert has been networking, and has got a possibility for some freelance work from a friend of his, well done Bert.

Lets hope something comes up soon.

Gentoo Linux

I have to admit it, geek installations of Linux are better than the one click SUSE types, Gentoo while being more complicated to set up, is a far faster distribution, with an excellent build and packaging system, have a look, Gentoo Linux.

Landline restored hurray

I am back, and can now call people without having to watch the seconds tick away on my pay as you go.

My landline trauma

With any luck after some 7 odd weeks with no landline (not helpful when your mobile is pay as you go) I will be reachable on my landline again, please god let the engineer turn up this time.

Anyway, once I am back on, I will be in touch again.

Benefits and drawbacks of Remote hosting

Remote Hosting versus dedicated... if you have the time and knowhow.. go dedicated everytime, ServerPronto offer very competitive prices.

Newbury Beer Festival

So we went to drink lots of beer, it was okay, but we went mainly for the hog roast.

One word of advice, if you want a nice hog roast, do not go when all that is left is a small pile of cold fat, as this mixed with stuffing and apple sauce is not particularly pleasant.

Much preferred the Reading Beer Festival, but Newbury will get better.

Welcome associates of Rossputin

As you can see, I now have bloggage, so we can communicate a little easier. Hope you are all well. I am still suffering from 'new-boy-itis', as I was luckily blessed with many close friends at my last work, so I am quiet and settling in at the moment.