I really, really, really hate Microsoft#1,000,999: Toxic pay: Non to the EU: Dumping Tortoise: Cruel and unusual Porn: and do you know your bobowler from a bishybarnabee?

I started this post at 6.30 of the am, it is now 8.30 of the am, office word decided to go tits up at 6.45am and froze, I had to use program manager to close it down and lost most of the work.

Then I had to run the “repair” thingy to fix it which took half an hour and here I am back at square 1.5.

Apparently it is the last day of summer at the Castle this morn-according to “them”, but at the moment it is sunny, calm, dry and more than a tad tepid.

The hip is still “hippy”, the garden is looking good, his Maj is asleep and I have already been to Tesco for stale bread, gruel and pussy food.

Over in the ex colonies it is Independence Day, let’s hope that the reptilian aliens in disguise keep away.

Dahn in Goodwood

A Bugatti racing car bought for £60 in 1950 has been sold at auction for £430,000.

The 1924 type 35 Bugatti was found by Jack Perkins, from Rugby, Warwickshire, at a Nottinghamshire aerodrome and restored to racing condition.

The car raced at Indianapolis 500 in 1936 and the American National Championship races in 1938.

The vintage car was sold at Bonhams' annual auction at Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex.

That’s inflation for you-wonder what the Honda will be worth in 2099?

Lord Patten, the chairman of the BBC Trust, indicated that the taxpayer-funded broadcaster should set an example to fellow public bodies by showing restraint in the salaries it pays out to senior managers.

The BBC employs 110 individuals who earn more than the Prime Minister's salary of £142,500, and 38 members of staff earning more than £200,000 a year – about eight times higher than the average salary of workers in Britain.

These figures exclude so-called "talent", such as news readers and entertainers.

Mark Thompson, the director general of the BBC, was paid £838,000 in the year to the end of March 2010. The latest accounts are expected it to show his pay packet fell to £675,000, after he decided to scrap pension top up payments for the corporation's most senior executives.

Better late than never......

Apparently the Treasury has dismissed an offer from European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso to give Britain a lump sum of £23 billion in return for giving up its annual EU budget rebate.

Mr Barroso said the Commission wants to go back to the ''original principles'' of the deal negotiated by Margaret Thatcher in 1984, which states that any country making a contribution which is out of proportion to its wealth should benefit from a ''correction'' when the budget is set.

With the next EU budget due to cover the years 2014-20, this could mean Prime Minister David Cameron receiving a massive cheque a year before the general election scheduled for 2015, when Conservatives are thought to be planning tax cuts to create a feel good mood among voters.

That’ll piss of U-Turn Cam.....

Over in Independence land

Thieves stole a 70-pound tortoise from a Chicago-area pet store, authorities say.

Spur, a 30-year-old female Sulcata tortoise, was stolen from The Animal Store, an exotic pet store in Lincolnwood, Ill., about 3:30 a.m. Saturday, the Chicago Tribune reported. Ken Bearman, owner of the store, suspects that the perpetrators may be getting more than they bargained for.

"The first time it takes a dump in your bedroom, you're going to be sorry," he said, explaining that to the right buyer, Spur could sell for $1,500, but the care and cleanup before selling her would not be worth it.

Hope they have a Vax...

Still in the land of almost freedom

A Michigan jail inmate says he's being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment because he can't have pornography.

In a handwritten lawsuit, 21-year-old Kyle Richards claims his civil rights are being violated at the Macomb County Jail. Richards says denying his request for erotic material subjects him to a "poor standard of living" and "sexual and sensory deprivation."

The Michigan Department of Corrections tells The Detroit News that prisons allow some pornographic material, though it's banned at the jail. The American Civil Liberties Union says prisons have a lot of leeway.

Richards was charged with bank robbery after police followed a trail of snowy footprints and dropped money to his apartment from a bank robbery scene in January in Fraser, north of Detroit.

Don’t rob a bank then you don’t have to wank.....

And finally:

Linguists at the British Library have assembled a list of thousands of rare words and phrases from regional dialects in order to preserve them - and make them available far beyond their native area.

Around 4,000 locally-used words and phrases have been contributed to the "wordbank" by members of the public who visited the library, in central London, or attended a series of events at provincial libraries, at which they were asked to provide phrases that are particular to their region.

The database has been compiled as one of a series of projects connected to the British Library's "Evolving English" exhibition.

Linguists are now studying them to investigate their etymology – how they came into use and the relationships they may have with other words.

Once completed, the wordbank will be available for use by language academics, as well as actors wanting to perfect regional roles and even foreign call centre workers looking to understand local British dialects.

And a bobowler is- a Birmingham and Black Country term for a large moth.

A bishybarnabee is- a Norfolk term for a ladybird.

A tittermatorter is- a see-saw, in Norfolk.

And tranklements are- a Black Country expression meaning ornaments.

Here are a few more for your delectation:

baffies - slippers (east coast of Scotland)

brash - to cut branches off trees after felling (South Wales)

brozzen - full (having eaten too much) (Swaledale)

coopers ducks - the end is nigh, it’s all over (Black Country)

deff - to ignore, split up, pack in, avoid (Birmingham)

dimpsy - half light, just turning dark (Somerset)

dodderman - snail (Norfolk / Suffolk)

dreckly - later, some time, 'manana’ (Cornwall)

gambol - forward roll (Birmingham)

ginnel - alleyway (West Riding)

gopping - unattractive (Manchester)

guddle - to rummage about (Northumberland and parts of Scotland)

gurtlush - the best (Bristol)

gully stottie - bread knife (Ashington, Northumberland)

kets - sweets (Darlington)

ladgin - something embarrassing or unpleasant (York)

man de don’t know what the buer is rockerin - I don’t know what the woman is on about, using “bewer” for “woman” and “rocker” - “to speak or understand” (Newark)

nesh - a bit weedy, being cold when you shouldn’t be (Nottingham)

on the box - off sick from work (Black Country)

on the huh - not quite straight (Norfolk)

pitch - snow that sticks to the ground (West Country)

spoggy - chewing gum (Grimsby)

ronking - smelly, disgusting (Black Country)

tiss up - forward roll (Leicester)

twag - to play truant (East Riding)

twitchell - alleyway (Nottingham)

while - till, until (Yorkshire)

I think my favourite is Dimpsy...

That’s it: I’m orf to check the moat for rare earths.

And today’s thought: Humour is always based on a modicum of truth. Have you ever heard a joke about a father-in-law?

Angus (9.10am)

Computer says WTF

click the photo for information

It has happened again, I am thinking of commiting computercide, I hate Microsoft, I hate windows and I hate the bastards that dream up the useless "security updates"






Angus

SATURDAY SNIPPETS

I am late posting today because it rained yesterday and BT, crap that it is, is unable to maintain my internet connection (again), and Microsoft is SHIT, because it managed to download an “update” that has ballsed up my logon, so that I can only access the “administrator” user instead of my own logon, and won’t let me delete the “new” administrator logon it created just to annoy, which it has.

Anyway:

Up first is the news on those ugly little smart cars with a 12ft mast topped with a “zoom” camera in Manchester to catch those of us that driving “while distracted” by doing things such as tuning the radio, eating, or driving “without due care and attention” BBC NEWS.

I agree that speeding or using a mobile phone while driving or not wearing a seatbelt is dangerous and should be “punished” but what next-picking your nose at a traffic light, or perhaps talking to a passenger or maybe screaming at the kids fighting in the back will be considered a crime by the SS Traffic Police, we already have more than enough speed cameras, and traffic patrols are there to nick the “phoners” and seat belt avoiders, so why are the Police, who are there to catch criminals and protect us from danger using zoom cameras to see what we do in the privacy of our cars.

And the worst bit is that you are not told about it at the time, but the fine comes through the post.

It seems the time is upon us when the final private space we have-our vehicles is no longer sacrosanct, the only way to avoid being fined is to not have any passengers, tune the radio before we set out, don’t put the kids in the cars, have something to eat and drink before getting into our cars blow your nose before you set out and don’t take your eyes off the road to wonder what those ugly little smart cars with a 12 ft mast on top with a zoom camera are doing.




From the The Register The BBC has been fined £150,000 over the Manuelgate scandal, Ofcom has confirmed.

On 18 October last year, Radio 2 broadcast a show featuring Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross in which they rang actor Andrew Sachs and left messages on his ansafone which boasted that Brand had slept with the Fawlty Towers vet's granddaughter, Georgina Baillie.

On 18 October last year, Radio 2 broadcast a show featuring Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross in which they rang actor Andrew Sachs and left messages on his ansafone which boasted that Brand had slept with the Fawlty Towers vet's granddaughter, Georgina Baillie.

The full adjudication can be found here (pdf)


Errr, excuse me but who has been fined? The money comes from our license fee, why not fine Brand and “Woss” they are the cause of it.





From the The Sun Googles street view is causing more than concerns about privacy,

A FLEET of UFOs in formation has been photographed — on Google.

The nine silver spheres hover above a row of shops, including Coral bookies, on the internet giant’s new Street View service.

Sun reader Faye Sharpe, 18, discovered them while viewing her neighbourhood of Wolverley Street in Bethnal Green, East London.

Faye said: “I was checking out the road to see if I could spot my mates. I thought it looked very strange and zoomed in.

Take a look UFO fleet menaces east London they certainly aren’t weather balloons.




Another tale about BT my favourite telecom company- The Register NHS Connecting for Health has agreed that BT will take responsibility for the Cerner Millennium installations at eight acute trusts in the south of England.

The NHS National Programme for IT has lacked a local service provider in the south of England since CfH fired Fujitsu in May 2008.

"BT can confirm it has signed a contract to take over the running of IT systems at eight acute trusts in the south of England as part of its NHS national programme work," said the company.

"This takeover was not unexpected," said Victor Almeida, a senior analyst at Kable. "BT is currently implementing a version of Cerner in the London cluster and thus is best positioned to run the sites.

"The big question is what will happen to the remaining trusts in the South, "he added. "Will they opt for BT, will they resort to Lorenzo software provided by the CSC Alliance in the North, where there are several out-of-cluster agreements within the NPfIT, or will they wait for offers from new software suppliers?"

Who cares? If it rains it won’t work anyway.

And finally:

Whatever you do DON’T read this: Bloggers could squeak out of court reporting restrictions it seems that bloggers might be able to escape reporting restrictions on sensitive court cases because they have not been informed of the restrictions.

An ongoing case about a boy said to have fathered a child at 12 years of age has highlighted the issue.

Reporting on that case has been restricted but foreign news outlets have carried stories about it, with versions of those stories appearing on websites accessible from the UK.

Some bloggers have picked up the stories and may be within their rights to publish while national newspapers cannot. The court order imposing the reporting restrictions says that it only applies to people who know about the restriction.

There is no central database of reporting restrictions, so while newspapers are informed of restrictions, bloggers generally are not, opening a legal loophole for their possible publishing of restricted information.


You didn’t read it did you? Good because ignorance is bliss, or blogs.



"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." Hanlon’s razor


Angus

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

NHS-THE OTHER SIDE

BORING MICROSOFT UNDER FIRE

It’s Saturday and absolutely heaving it down ‘ere in ‘ampshire, thanks to BT my Internet connection keeps cutting out and my foot is still painful.

So I saw this BBC NEWS and thought I would “have a go”, I am not a fan of Microsoft as a company, their software is Okish, it takes them too long to fix the bugs, maybe they should employ the hackers, it could halve the time.

Anyway the EU has decided that Microsoft is preventing “consumer choice” by bundling IE with XP or Vista or the other operating systems.

Fair point I suppose, but you don’t have to use IE, I do because I am lazy and can’t be bothered to change, my own fault, I am using IE7 because MS told me it was faster, safer and better, bollocks, I have had nothing but trouble with the damn thing, it keeps freezing up.

When I send the “error” message there is a page that says: “this error was caused by Internet Explorer, did this help? Please comment” Which I have, and it hasn’t helped.

But as I said, my own fault.

Another pop at MS BBC NEWS the US financial watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has reopened an insider trading inquiry into Microsoft.

And yet another problem for Mr W Gates BBC NEWS Ms are appealing against a 899m euros ($1.4bn; £680.9m) fine given for defying sanctions imposed on it for anti-competitive behaviour.

There are loads of other browsers available Internet Browser Software Review 2009 this site compares the 10 most popular.

To sum up, yes you can use other browsers if you want to, if you are like me and can’t be “bovered”, you will have to put up with the glitches, but isn’t it bloody annoying!

A really boring post I know but that is how I feel-really bored.



“Perhaps the world's second worst crime is boredom. The first is being a bore.”- Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton. (Boring name)

Angus

HAPPY NEW YEAR

And no, I am not being sarcastic, a new year, new site colours, and a new start (maybe).

It was very quiet here last night, not surprising really, unlike the rest of the world.

Just a quick rundown of some “interesting” news.

Resolutions- I never make them, and now there is proof that you shouldn’t- Resolutions 'bad for your health'.

Now I can be smug for a while.

Gordon Brown trousers is telling us that the New Year will be “tough”.

He is very quick isn’t he?

Russia is threatening to cut off gas supplies to the Ukraine, and would “do it’s best to guarantee supplies to Europe”.

So, if your heating goes off you know whom to blame.

Microsoft, my favourite software conpany (yes it is a deliberate miss-spelling), has cocked up-their software for the Zune, the IPOD look-alike.

Well, there’s a surprise!

Yet another Pillock has come up with a reason for the recession-It’s all our fault for being pessimistic!

On your bike Sir David Tang, and they say I live in another world.

Afghanistan yet another pointless death of a British soldier, He is the 137th British serviceman to die in Afghanistan since the start of operations in October 2001.

GET OUT.

And finally, the Hypocrite of 2008 goes to Gordon Brown-Trousers for his statement-

Brown's new year message hails end of 'free market dogma', because he is the Tosser who decided that the “free market with no regulation” was the future.

I must get on now, I have a “new” laptop and apart from the “qwerty” bit all the other keys are in different places to my old one, and I keep pressing the wrong one and deleting things or shifting into caps. You would think they would come up with a standardised keyboard wouldn’t you?

Angus