OK, so I’m slightly obsessive about making sure my PC is up to date. There used to be a great Cnet application called Catchup which scanned your PC for the software you had installed and checked for updates – and helped you download them via Cnet’s own download.com. Seemed a clever strategy – then they killed it. Anyone know why? And if there’s a similar service now? Some of my shareware and freeware is depressingly out of date.
That said – there are a couple of dangers with this model, I guess. Firstly, that Cnet could be collecting and transmitting all sorts of dodgy information about you (as MS no doubt does with its newfound ‘Microsoft Update’) – and second, that some of the updates could contain spyware (as the new version of of my fave video player, BSPlayer did :().
Still, I liked the convenience of it. My IBM laptop has a handy utility that does that for me, but the useless Dell desktop update utility just keeps telling me that ‘I could be vulnerable to the latest phishing threats.’ Not really a concern.
Passed a shop on Paddington Street that offered this slightly odd combination of products on services. I can understand wanting to preoccupy children with toys whilst they’re being coiffed – but what other unusual combinations are out there? Mussels and pedicures? Dentist and sweetshops? Lawyer and chiropractor?
It’s taken me more work and caused me more stress to (not even manage to) book a holiday this summer than it took me to map out the initial parameters of my novel. Argh.
If anyone wants to *give* me a villa in Greece for the summer it’d be appreciated…
Meme, via Tom and Ben. Things that happened on my birthday, Oct 3rd, according to Wikipedia…
Events
2333 BC – Establishment of the Kingdom of [[Korea]] (in the name of [[Joseon]]).
1952 – United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon.
2004 – ABC dramedy/Soap opera, [[Desperate Housewives]] premiers.
Births
1969 – [[Gwen Stefani]], American singer (No Doubt)
1976 – [[Seann William Scott]], American actor
Death
2005 – [[Ronnie Barker]], English comic actor
Google have added a bunch of features to their chat client, most noticeably the fact that you can now use an image avatar. Which is fine — I am digitally represented by a Superman-esque image which I think MS packaged in an earlier version of MSN messenger — but it may well run the risk of becoming bloatware, as ICQ did. I mean, if you’re going to add a feature – add the ability to have add multiple particpants to one chat, or conference voice calls – don’t add pointless cutesy crap.
But I guess the heaviest consumers of IM are teenagers, and they probably like that stuff. Any teenagers who read this blog that would care to comment?
Doubt it. The youth of today – apathetic as hell :P
This is just weird. Via Neil Gaiman’s blog, which I’ve been reading in an effort to more adequately engage with the blogosphere (and because Neil is a hero of mine, and I’ve been reading my way through all his fiction) – some guy set up, as an April Fool’s gag, a blog of a man who was going to “digest the compleat works of Neil Gaiman.” By “compleat” he means everything Neil’s ever written, and by “digest” he means pass through his alimentary canal.
It seems that a fair number of people believed that this slightly depressed, lonely individual was real and genuinely working his way through Gaiman’s back catalogue, which is odd in itself. What’s perhaps slightly more odd, if that’s possible, is that the selection of posts I read were actually really compelling – and, oddly, Gaiman-esque (like honey and spiders) – as if the imagined digestion of Neil’s writing translated itself into the posts. Which probably makes sense, as the blog’s writer was probably a fan.
I’ve never been that big a fan of paper. But the idea of shredded Coraline as breakfast cereal has a certain… well, not quite poetry, but there’s something there.
I really want an Xbox 360. I mean, mostly because it’s new and fancy and I’d like to see what hi-def games look like on my plasma screen, but at least partly because I want to play the new Elder Scrolls game.
But: that’s probably the only game I want to play, and to get the kit I need to make my Xbox 360 useful as a console (Premium pack, second wireless controller, the Elder Scrolls game) I’d actually have to spend £360. Which is outrageous.
Sadly, with the PS3’s delay and rumoured pricing (apparently around £350 for the console alone, if rumours and misquotes can be believed, which, apparently, they can’t) — the price on the 360 is unlikely to drop for a while. So I guess I’ll hold tight – and see what they come up with. If they release Halo 3, then I may break, but odds are that will be delayed till November as well.
Damn my tendency to want instant gratification, and my lack of limitless funds…
I’ve spent the afternoon dreaming up my world — understand a little better now why every other time I’ve started writing I’ve collapsed into a self-conscious vortex and given up. Setting the context in a structured way is giving me so much more scope to visualise characters, peoples, cultures, political drivers, and – crucially – is getting me really excited about getting started. I’m going to keep a reign on writing until I’ve decided on a broad plot structure, which is yet to take form, but its reassuring that there are a few ideas beginning to crystallise.
Also decided on a few protagonists, the principal of which is going to be a girl, I think. Not sure I’ll be able to successfully write for a heroine, but we’ll see how we go. Her name is Elieonor. I’m not sure about the spelling, but I like the name.
I will, at some point soon, start asking my friends slightly peculiar questions on how they think certain personalities might interact, on what kinds of life forms would evolve successfully on a slightly dry world with two suns, on what kind of weather an Earth-type planet could have if in orbit around a binary star system (if such a thing could be, I think it its theoretically possible) – on cataclysmic events, on the nature of faith, and how to weave humour into a fantasy novel and not make it seem like I’m (purely) paying homage to Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. But I’ve a bit more thinking to do myself first.
I’m getting tired of this look for the blog. Apart from anything else, it has trouble with my blogroll – doesn’t separate the blogs from the links, which is irritating. But: every other theme I’ve found is either too hard to customise again with all my lovely sidebar content or just mings, plain and simple. Doesn’t help that I’m set on getting a theme with expandable sidebar components (like WordPress’ new widgets).
Ah well. I’ll find a way around it eventually. Or just get someone else to customise me a theme ;)
Armand David's personal weblog: dadhood, technology, running, media, food, stuff and nonsense.
