In the news

Beware - techie stuff below !!! :-)

When I come in from work, I'll usually do a round trip through various news sites. I can't really do that at work (in lunchtime of course) because our archaic browser (IE6) either goes BANG or flat refuses to open the site. That's even sites like BBC, which will crash at random, or Metoffice, which flat refuses to load at all.

Ok - random news stuff :

Facebook phone app attempts to seize your mail.
I'm on Facebook a fair bit. It's possibly the best way to get a message to me with a chance of me responding wherever I am (phone supports it). But the Facebook people have been getting more and more obnoxious with what they do with other people's data. This one is the latest from them and they do it without asking for consent or even informing you what they're doing. Which just increases the NerdRage. And as we all know, NerdRage goes viral incredibly quickly.

My phone seems untouched by the latest stuff from the app but I don't use my phone for email anyway. I can receive my normal email and Googlemail from it but can't send due to ISP restrictions.

Microsoft - Overclocking causes BSODs
Well - duh ! But that's only the title of a rather confused article. Parts of it suggest that if you get a machine from a good name, it'll last longer. Not necessarily ... My last laptop (an HP) died within a year of cooler failure and the extremely bad design meant it was easier to get a new one than it would have been to fix. (Think entire laptop rebuild). But they do have a point - I build my own custom PCs because it allows me to build in the reliability that gets lost in OEM cost cutting. And I would always tell people to avoid PCWorld / Currys / Dixons etc own brand machines.

On overclocking - this is where you take a standard machine and persuade it to go faster. My current desktop runs at 3.5 Wibblies. I could probably make it go at 5.0 Wibblies (1 Wibblie = 1 GHz). But it's not worth me doing that because :
I can't trust the overclocked machine is getting all of its sums right
It shortens the life of the machine

The article agrees with the shortened life thing. I like my custom build PCs to just sit there on the floor doing their thing. I REALLY don't want to have to replace a £160 cpu inside 6 months because I cooked it through overclocking.

Steam ... (not an actual news story)
What's with Steam lately ? Stability seems pretty poor right now - it just blipped me offline yet again. Good thing I'm not gaming at the moment.

BBC - I'm ignoring most of what's on BBC.

Most of what we see there is people with hyperinflated wages misbehaving themselves. Like seeing bankers yet again making news for all the wrong reasons. This time it's Barclays, who I will do ZERO business with because a good few years ago they called me an idiot in a letter that was begging me for business. Big mistake. There's plenty more competition out there from banks that have respect for their customers and value them. Barclays, however, have an attitude problem.

June - UK's wettest on record
Hell yeah. I think we've had more cricket called off this year due to weather than we've actually had chance to play. How many games have we actually played ? I can't actually remember. Anyway. We've have continuous rain today, next game is supposed to be Thursday and I think I'd be physically ready for it (after bugs + leg) but I don't think there's much chance of it happening.

Gamespy has ... nothing of interest.
I'll keep an eye on Gamespy because they occasionally notify you of big things happening in the gaming world. Trouble is though, they are part of IGN so if you do read something on there, have major doubts as to its accuracy. Think of them as the Sunday Sport of games journalism. But poorly written articles that you then peer review against other sites is better than missing out on news totally.

Ooo eck - it's Tomshardware time ...
Mouse introduced with finger cooling fan
This really should have been announced 3 months ago. Like - April fool's time. I can see their idea but ... very, very silly.

Aside - what have I done to my left shoulder ? OW. It's felt like I've jarred it from since like 5.30pm at work. It's still functional and I don't have a clue what I've done to it but it's ... distracting. The shoulder joint is complaining, as is the elbow. Urg.

Particles that Oxygenate Your Blood
Very interesting. Said the crazy person who can see all sorts of Mad Scientist applications for this one besides the medical ones. An emergency injection of these might see divers with broken respirators have enough time to get to air.

That's it for now. I need FOOD. And none of that nutritional pizza. Cos that's just plain Wrong.