I've moved!

If you are reading this, then you must have subscribed to my Blogspot site via RSS or email or divine audience or something.. I have now left Blogger for Wordpress and you can find my new blog at http://taoskiblog.wordpress.com. You can also get the new RSS feed at http://taoskiblog.wordpress.com/feed See you there!

Anti Lurker Week

I know there are lots of "lurkers" who read my blog but never leave comments or feedback. Of course you are more than welcome to come, read and go - but the idea behind blogging is about sharing, discussion and feedback. So...

• Say hello or ask me a question.
• Tell me you hate it or that you love it.
• What would you like more of?
• Should I buy www.taoskiblog.com and move there and dump Blogger all together?

Open For business

Some of you may have seen that picture on here recently. Sorry for the confusion. This blog is NOT closed and will continue to operate normally under my usual mis-management. And no, Robert... it's not a Butterfly! It's a hacked image I did on Illustrator, of an XBox360 controller. Tsk.

Easter Weekend

Had a great Easter weekend over the last four days. Friday: Went to the Cotswold Wildlife Park with the wife and kids. We went with Mr and Mrs Swimpig and their daughter too. A very nice day out all in all and ended off with some late night card playing and Jack Daniels drinking fun. As usual, Mr Swimpig won. Saturday: It was the mother-in-laws birthday, so we were over at her house for dinner. The kids got to play easter egg hunting in the garden, so we have again got a cupboard full of chocolate eggs, chocolate bars and assorted chocolate bunny shaped sweets. And all that after we just threw away the eggs that never got eaten from over two years ago! Sunday: Had a lazy day around the house and then went for a dog walk with friends through the local fields. Very nice. Monday: Went to my first ever football match to watch the MK Dons beat Hartlepool 2-1 at the Milton Keynes National Hockey Stadium. My eldest son took part in a Football In The Community scheme where the MK Dons came to his school to teach them football skills. As part of a fund raising Penalty Shoot-out competition, we got a free pass for one adult and one child. I then bought two more tickets so that the wife and my other son could come too. It was quite exciting being in the crowd and we only just won after trickling a shot off the post about 4 minutes before the final whistle. As you may know, I am a seasoned FIFA player on my XBox, so it was nice to see the real thing for a change. There was only a few times when I got confused and thought I would watch the replay of the goal again... only to find I was pressing the head of the bloke sitting in front of me instead of the start button... Hartlepool were certainly the best side and at times The Dons were quite comical, falling over the ball and passing straight to the other team. Some decisions did not go their way though after Hartlepool scored by barging the goalie down after he had grabbed the ball and vollying the shot in. I did enjoy it though and might go to the next, and last, home game later this month. Anyone else up for that? Report: BBC SPORT | Football | League One | MK Dons 2-1 Hartlepool Tuesday: Back to work on the push bike. Microsoft Patch issues ahoy! Great... Technorati Tags: mk dons, easter, football, hartlepool, walk, eggs, chocolate, jack daniels, cards, dog

Google Calendar

As per a wish in my recent gripes about Whats Missing From Gmail, the Google Calendar has now been released! Shame it still does not appear to be bolted into Gmail though...

April 06 A-List

Its about time of the year that I did another A-List. A detail of my favorite software that I am installing/using these days. It's probably not going to be much different from the previous list, but here goes... OS: Windows XP Media Center editon with Office 2003. Installed this version of Windows so I could stream video to my Xbox 360. Virus/Spyware: I have ditched the Symantec AntiVirus 10 and the Giant Anti Spyware (now known as Microsoft Defender) and am using ZoneAlarm Security Suite. Since having this installed I have had nothing unusual turn up on the PC, only cookies. Even with Symantec and Giant installed before, if I ran a scan it always found something, but ZoneAlarm seems excellent! Plus with the ZoneAlarm firewall built in you can't go wrong. Browser: Firefox, firefox, firefox!!! Get it! This is a no-brainer really. Since using this my spyware infections have literally dropped off the planet. I have also installed the FasterFox extension which makes it even faster! I also have the Web Developer Toolbar installed into Firefox which makes checking and testing CSS changes in my blog all the easier. It also makes me into a god when helping people over at the Blogger Help Group. Torrent Sites:

• Demonoid
• Mininova
• ISOHunt

I still use torrents frequently and they are the three sites that I use most often. I have started using uTorrent to download torrent files as I found that the webs most popular torrent client, Azureus was big, bloated, built from Java and made my router hang all the time (despite its numerous awards) . uTorrent is small, runs from a folder with no installation needed and is fast! I have also found that on my 2mb ADSL line, if I limit my upload to 18kbps on each torrent, the download speed goes up like a rocket (seeds pending out course). I am thinking of doing a basic "uTorrent users guide" soon - so watch this space. P2P Apps: None. Yep - thats right - none! I have given up on using these. The last time I was bothering, Warez was still my favorite but now that the torrents have really picked up and downloading stuff does not seem so important any more, I have stopped using it. Bookmarks: Some new bookmarks that I go to each day are the Del.icio.us popular links, my Bloglines subscriptions and the Digg.com homepage. There is always something new and amazing on there to look at over lunch. I have started using Del.icio.us more to store my bookmarks now. With Firefox's Live Bookmarks feature, they are available immediately regardless of if I am at home or work. Recap: Away Goal: ZoneAlarm, uTorrent, Del.icio.us, Digg, Torrents Own Goal: Symantec, Giant Antispyware, P2P apps, Azureus Technorati Tags: a-list, symantec, zonelabs, zonealarm, spyware, virus, microsoft, defender, bittorrent, utorrent, azureus, firefox, media center, fasterfox, delicious, bloglines, digg
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iSwitch

I was just reading my RSS feeds at Bloglines and noticed this one via Gizmodo. Help me become a switcher! Basically, a bloke in the US wants people to donate money to him to get an iMac worth over $2000! Now thats a cool idea. Shame my version of the same thing, that I started back in Janurary 2005 did'nt get any attention from anyone! The US may be the most powerful country in the world, but it's also graced with the loudest and laziest people. A message to my fellow "would be switcher"...

GET A FUCKING JOB YOU LAZY GIT! Flipping burgers for minimum wage makes more sense!

Maybe I should revive my idea and start a rival blog to see who wins first? Nah.. too lazy. Technorati Tags: apple, mac, imac, switcher, paypal, donate, blog
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Nildram

Does anyone have any experioence with Nildram as an ISP? I am still with AOL who I went with after moving house and having to cancel my BT Internet account. Instead of just moving the service from one house to another, they insist that you cancel your account and then re-apply at the new house! Even though the previous owner of my new property was also with BT Internet! Also, at the time, AOL were (pretty much) the only provider with no download limits, which BT were just bringing into force. My "downloading" action is no way near as bad as it used to be though. Nildram offer up-to 8mb broadband with a 50gb per month download limit. I think it should be enough for what I need I suppose. Although, my mate has a ratio on torrent site where his upload is over 1 Terrabyte! His download amount is something pretty scary too! Might see what ISP he is with. Can't remember off hand although I set it up for him. So. Any experience with Nildram , let me know. Or can you recommend a good ISP that won't release the dogs on me if I decide to download more that 1mb a month? Technorati Tags: AOL, internet, ISP, nildram, broadband, BT, BT Internet Add to: Technorati Digg del.icio.us

In the bank!

It was another of the annual horse killing events yesterday, otherwise known as the Grand National. We did a family sweepstake and all put a pound in and got 4 horse each, drawn at random from a hat. We also all put in real bets at the local betting office. Just a few pounds here and there. Luckily, after my horse Numbersixvalverde won, I netted the £20 family sweepstake and my wife won £24 from her £2 bet at 11/1 odds. Sweet. Now, what shall I spend my £20 on? Any ideas? Technorati Tags: grand national, horse racing, horses, numbersixvalverde, betting EDIT: Just went and got FIFA06 for my 360 from the Birmingham branch of CEX. Only £28 second hand!

Xtrememac Airplay

When I was in New York, I purchased a XtremeMac Airplay FM transmitter for my iPod and have been using it in my car to and from work each day. The thing is tiny and the quality is pretty good - although I have doubts as to wether the signal is in stereoscopic sound or not. When I shuffle to some Beatles tracks, that should tell me. There is also some background hum and hiss from interferance which gets worse when its raining. The signal is better when plugged into my nipple. Well... what I mean is - when it's in my shirt pocket and my metal endo-skeleton is acting as a signal conductor. It also makes me look quite "star trek" when changing tracks - but makes me look all "cheap porn nipple caressing" when increasing the volume! Generally the product is very good and I am impressed with it. I was even more suprised to find that ipod ubersite, iLounge gave it an A marking and said that it was even better that the iTrip, which was the device I had been planning to get. I decided to get the Airplay as I was also purchasing an XBox360 Play-n-charge kit from the same shop and it seemed to be the best option at the time. The Airplay's frequency can be manually changed in .2 increments between 88 and 109FM so you can quite easily override everyone who is listening to Radio1 on the way to work with some techno from the likes of the Plump DJs. I was even able to broadcast "Dare" by Gorillaz from downstairs in my home, over the top of my sons radio whilst he was listening to Classic FM (100.3FM) at bedtime. Having Shaun Ryder in your dreams is not good for a six year old's mind. My advice: get it! Oh.. hold on.. it's illegal in the UK. Sorry Officer... And yes, DriverChris, you can have that "POS" Belkin back next time I see you. Technorati Tags: ipod, airplay, fm, apple, nipple, star trek