Damn you Bloglines

Arrhhhh!!!

Why is bloglines failing me? I like many others love the convenience of bloglines for keeping all my feeds together, and I therefore keep up to date with all of the blogs that I follow. But for some reason it has started to rebel against me. I know I have a lot going on in there, but I am sure I am not a power user if such thing exists.

It has been totally overlooking some people’s posts, even dropping feeds altogether. Why bloglines why! I trusted you! And now I what shall I do … I am not about to start doing things manually, but my work blocks Google reader, does anyone know of any other decent ways to keep track?

P.S. If you feel I have been ignoring you lately, I apologise and blame it all on bloglines! Give me a kick and I will ensure it is back in there 🙂

xkcd on the money again!

As is often the case with xkcd, the gem is in the alt text

We need a special holiday to honor the countless kind souls with unsecured networks named 'linksys'

Now obviously I am not admitting to doing this as it is illegal in this country but … I love you Mr/Mrs Linksys! 🙂

Meet Emily

Everyone names their iPhone right?

Emily and I have been together now for 4 whole Days. I am not normally the kind to kiss-and-tell but I figured I would let you know how we are getting on. While I would love to claim that we have fitted together like hand and glove in a symbiotic merging of man and machine, it is more like a reasonable first date, where we are still doing that getting to know you type dance. The good news, seeing as I am now committed to 18 months with Emily, is that she really is good fun!

I will now do the Ross and Rachel faux-pas of listing my likes and dislikes.

Being that she has a girls name, Emily knows everything 😉 . I therefore now have the benifit of google-assisted-intelligence, and can give “definitive” answers to questions in a trice (Joe Hart is goalkeeper for Man City).

She also allows me to access Twitter (My bothersome employer seems to thing it would reduce productivity and thus blocked it). Emily also checked FaceBook where there was a message booking me for a wedding next year … so she is actually making me money, I am not sure Mrs Geek is buying that one though.

And as shallow as it may sound Emily is gorgeous. The bubble interface to texting is so good I can’t believe nobody thought of it before. How did text messages become popular before bubbles. Video playback is AWESOME. I now have a mobile platform on which to keep up with my episodes of diggnation and TikiBar TV

Also after a day of negotiation (don’t believe the Macs are effortless hype), Emily syncs wirelessly with my Mac at home through the magic of MobileMe so it is just possible that Emily may actually be able to keep me organised in terms of appointments etc … A job Mrs Geek has had the burden of for way too long and I am sure that this is one thing she will be glad to offload.

However, in an attempt to appease RC, it is not all roses and buttercups though.

First, I think Mrs Geek is getting a little jealous… not of me having an iPhone you understand… but of Emily monopolising my time (You know giving it a name and writing about our “relationship” may not help with this either)

Also Emily seems to run out of energy sooner that I had expected and I now have a whole bunch of accessories that I need to buy for her.

Also, I noticed that when hi-jacking someone’s wifi and answering a question with the iPhone instead of my iPaq, instead of looking at me and my super human powers of Geekyness as was the old way … I get a look of distain as if to say “Poser” … I defiantly think I preferred being a Geek!

Emily’s biggest problem however, is that in the UK she is tied to O₂. I don’t want to be premature in writing them off, but their 3G coverage it would seem is a little patchy… but they promise this is due to get better, and to be honest Orange’s 3G was not exactly ubiquitous.

One Happy Geek

Well iPhone day is here!

And after a rather convoluted 4 hour process I am now in possession of a 3G iPhone.

I will leave you with my unboxing photos to show you that I really am a geek. (It also achieves the effect of mocking my best mate Guy who failed to pick one up)

As you may have guessed, this post was written on my new iPhone.

I want one … Please

OK, enough pregnancy talk … well at least for one post.

How do apple do it? Every time Steve Jobs stands up and gives a talk he comes up with a way to make me part with my cash. I longed for an iPhone last time around, but I talked myself into the fact that I didn’t need it due to its limitations such as lack of 3G, no third party software etc.

So what do they go and do? The fix the problems AND drop the price! They have even thrown in GPS for good measure. Now I would write this off as simply being the next step on the path of any product, it gets better with time. But the new iPhone is being launched at pretty much the exact same time as the contract on my existing phone runs out … that to me sounds like destiny calling (Work with me here … somehow I have to convince Mrs Geek that it is meant to be).

More minutes, texts and mobile tinternet … I’ll start practicing now … Please please please please please please please …

Console Envy

Guy (My obviously over-paid best mate) happily informed me today that the X-Box 360 has just come down in price again.

It is apparently now ONLY £249.99.

Just another thing to add to the wish list (To be honest it is well below the IPhone and the MacBook Air … but a Geek can dream)

Actually now that we have another child on the way … How much do you think I could get for a second hand, slightly soiled, rather noisy 7 year old on e-bay?

I’ll keep you posted

My new cause for salivation

I am not sure how they do it, but the people at Apple have me not just desiring their new product, they have me coming up with reasons as to why I absolutly NEED a new laptop. Before this week I was unaware that I wanted a new laptop, however that must have been a foolish oversight on my part, which Apple have now corrected. This phenomenon has been nicknamed the “Steve Jobs reality distortion field”.

For those of you that have not seen what they announced this week, it was the thinnest laptop in the world.

The MacBook Air.

Check out the advert

Now the thing is, I used to be practical. I wanted the most powerful PC that my money would buy, but about 2 years ago I caught the apple bug. I justified it in that I wanted a Mac Pro which has power coming out of it’s beautifully designed vents. I also told myself that all serious photographers use Macs. But it is a slippery slide once you get bitten by the Apple bug. I would love to say that it is the fact that OS X is better than windows, which is possibly true, but I fear it is nothing quite so sensible.

I am more and more pulled along by the beauty of the objects. The IPhone, although flawed in many serious ways, has me looking at my current phone as if it has some kind of disease.

Now I find myself being wooed by the beautiful stylings of the new Macbook Air. I can’t claim it is for anything sensible. It is purely the beauty of the object. Style over substance.

I have yet to come up with any reasons that actually get past even my distorted reality let alone my wife’s thrifty fiscal control. I am working on it … I’ll leave you with this image of divine beauty