Upgrading the Wireless network

I have just placed an order for new Wireless router & cards from Expansys:
D-Link DI-624 AirPlus Xtreme G ADSL Router	44.21
D-Link DWL-G122 11g Wireless USB Adaptor	22.09
D-Link DWL-G650 108Mbps Super G XR CardBus Adaptor	24.64
All prices are EX-VAT

First Look: Microsoft's iPod Killer

From Disinfotainment

First Look: Microsoft's iPod Killer, the iBob

A covert informant at Microsoft sent me a top secret picture of Microsoft's forthcoming digital audio player, the "iPod Killer."

Visit the above site to see the exclusive image...

Tiger Woods - The Swing

Nike have made a movie of Tigers swing using a military grade camera capable of 4000 frames per second:
http://www.nike.com/nikegolf/swingportrait/index.html?promoID=tw

Holiday is getting closer...

Just over three weeks to go now... Flight Tickets arrived yesterday, taxi to airport is booked (for 03:15 !!) I spoke to the agent in Turkey yesterday, and arranged the taxi from Bodrum airport to the villa

I just need to get my spare cellphone unlocked (so I can fit a turkish Pay-as-you-go SIM card, for use between us on holiday) and get international roaming enabled on my phone - so we can call home.

Firefox 2 - *Very* early version

I have downloaded and installed Firefox 2 Beta 1 today... It seems to have installed alongside Firefox 1.5.04 quite happily, so not too much risk in using it.

The one obvious change, which I really like, is that when you have several tabs open: The close tab icon in ON THE TAB, not all the way across the other side of the window! In fact - JUST LIKE IE7

From the bit-tech news site:
Firefox 2 Beta 1 has now been released to replace "Bon Echo" as the beta version of Firefox. Once all the bugs are ironed out and new features added, we should see a final release of Firefox two circulating by Q3 2006. Going a bit further ahead, Mozilla is also hoping to have Firefox 3 ready for Q1 2007, but this is not confirmed.

So what new features can we expect from Beta 1? Well, as with Bon Echo there is the new spell checking function which appears in text areas, particularly useful for forums. Close buttons for each tab, rather than being on the top right corner of the window, under the address bar. There is also a new security feature, anti-phishing which cleverly detects whether a website is a fake. Release notes can be viewed here.

For all you Firefox fanboys out there, Beta 1 is available for download in the usual many languages here.

New Toy

It's another MP3 player...

The iRiver H140 is a nice little machine, but the 40 GB HDD is starting to become too much of a limitation, and having started using the 4 GB Nano for the Gym I have taken a liking to the apple hardware and that scroll wheel... at least when it's running Rockbox!! In addition the H140 is starting to look, and feel, a little bulky.

So on Friday last week, I treated myself to a 60 GB Black iPod Video - it's rather nice :-)

Today I got around to installing Rockbox on it (I have been away all week in Maidenhead on a training course) and am currently starting to load it up with music. Once I am happy that it's all working OK, I may well put the H140 on e-bay and be rid of it.

As the nation held its collective breath...

... during Englands World Cup penalty shoot-out on Saturday evening, so did the BT national phone network.
Calls on the BT network during the quarter-final match against Portugal were down more than a third on what they would be at a normal Saturday tea-time.

But as the crunch game moved into extra time and then penalties something even more dramatic happened.
Colin Penney - duty manager at BTs national network management centre in Oswestry, which monitors traffic on the network said: Once the teams started taking their penalties, call traffic fell more than 80 per cent. It was around the same as we would expect to see at 12.30am.

With the final Portugal penalty and the end of Englands World Cup 2006 dreams there was a sudden surge in demand as the nation called friends and family to commiserate.

The figures for the previous England game against Ecuador were certainly marked but these were very dramatic, said Colin. Who knows what might have happened if England had got through to the semi-final and even the final? Well just have to wait another four years to find out.

Now That's What I Call a School Trip

Amy has just bought home a leaflet for next years summer school trip...

7 days covering three American cities: Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York... In the process taking in such sites as the Empire State Building, Liberty Island, Ellis Island, The Lincoln Memorial, The Liberty bell and Ground Zero

All in a grand total of £875

I wish they ran trips like that when I was at school!!