Recent Posts

5601

Living Room / FIFA to fly kung fu abbot to final

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 05, 2006, 07:11 AM »

FIFA to fly kung fu abbot to final
Wed Jul 5, 2006 09:28 AM BST
   

BEIJING (Reuters) - The abbot of China's ancient Shaolin Temple will fly to Germany to watch the World Cup final at the invitation of FIFA president Sepp Blatter, state media reported on Wednesday.

The FIFA invitation came thanks to the growing influence of the Shaolin Temple and Shaolin kung fu, Xinhua news agency quoted abbot Shi Yongxin as saying.

"Soccer is a team sport played under a civilised set of rules," the kung fu master said.

"It emphasises teamwork, fighting spirit as well as individual talents and skills.

Full story at http://go.reuters.co...amp;storyID=12742386

Maybe he can sort out the bad behaviour on the field

5602

Living Room / Man shows crowds fallen piece of his skull

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 05, 2006, 07:01 AM »

Man shows crowds fallen piece of his skull
Wed Jul 5, 2006 11:50 AM BST
RSS/XML           
By Bappa Majumdar

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - Hundreds of people are thronging a hospital in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata to see a patient holding a piece of his own skull that fell off.

Full story at: http://go.reuters.co...amp;storyID=12743769

5603

Living Room / Re: OpenOffice user - can you do me a favour please ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 05, 2006, 06:37 AM »

I am using WinRAR 3.60.

The thread you pointed at is over 4 years old - a bit worrying if there is still an issue.

Maybe I will just switch off scanning archives in NOD32 - it isn't really needed anyway.

5604

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: spring cleaning

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 05, 2006, 06:23 AM »

Oo er .. Mouser takes on eBay single handed

5605

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: warn if IE has been running for too long

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 05, 2006, 06:20 AM »

Fascinating idea that anyone would want to keep IExplorer active on the desktop for 48 hours. Why?

5606

General Software Discussion / Re: Will you upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 05, 2006, 06:17 AM »

The only real advantage I can see for the user in 2007 is the realtime preview (which is cool) of what changes will look like without actually trying them. But personally I would rather apply and effect and hit CTRL Z if I don't like it than pay a couple of hundred quid of a preview function.

5607

Living Room / Re: OpenOffice user - can you do me a favour please ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 05, 2006, 06:15 AM »

Ouch — 86Mb is "portable"?

-zridling (July 05, 2006, 12:28 AM)

Actually it is 168Mb by the time you have unpacked it (which you need to to use it) ... <G>

Don't try this on a 256Mb thumb drive

5608

Living Room / Re: OpenOffice user - can you do me a favour please ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 05, 2006, 06:13 AM »

Actually WinRAR failed to unpack it correctly (the apps wouldn't run - they just bombed after the splash screen started to display the progress bar without warning, or error). I unpacked again with DOpus context menu unzipper (much quicker) and it now works fine. I wonder if there is an issue with NOD32 and WinRAR ?

5609

Living Room / Re: OpenOffice user - can you do me a favour please ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 07:53 PM »

Been experimenting with Portable OpenOffice and have to say I am impressed. It seems to me to be much more responsive than the standard installed version - particulalry loading. In fact it seems to load faster than MS OfficeXP. Certainly double clicking OfficeWriter.exe opens much quicker on my machine than MS WordXP.

Well worth exploring (even if you don't use it on a thumb drive or similar - just unpack it to a folder and run it).

5610

Living Room / Re: OpenOffice user - can you do me a favour please ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 07:16 PM »

Writely needs registration which is currently closed, but ajaxWrite works a treat (and is much faster than zoho).

What are the security implications of these online editors though?

Thanks.

5611

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is so much software cracked?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 05:23 PM »

Who decides what is right or wrong? You do - you have to live with your conscience ...

Who decides the law - in a democracy you do ...

Slightly ploitical rant ... don't read if you don't like politics

Given that very few of us actually live in a democracy laws are usually decided by the rich and powerful and the rest of us nod at them every few years when we are asked to make cross to decide between two parties with identical policies on most things.

There is a huge difference bewteen legality and what is right.

5612

Living Room / Re: OpenOffice user - can you do me a favour please ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 05:17 PM »

Oo er ... it downloaded quickly but it is taking WinRAR an age to unpack it (longer than the download!)

5613

Living Room / Re: Where are the fonts

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 04:30 PM »

Sorry can't help it but http://www.google.co...amp;q=Freeware+fonts throws up loads of them ...

Personally my experience is that you tend to get what you pay for in fonts ...

5614

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is so much software cracked?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 04:16 PM »

Thanks for correcting my spelling of Ferrari ... what do I know

5615

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is so much software cracked?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 04:10 PM »

Is there any difference bewteen a piece of software and ...

... a piece of music - you sing someone's song in public you have to pay 'performance rights' unless it is very old (eg. you need a license if a school wants to perform "West Side Story" in public.)

... a CD/MP3 or a film/DVD ?

... how about patents? Use someone's idea to create your own product and you're in big trouble

... clothes design (yes I know all the designers get their ideas ripped off but is it right?)

... a building - can you copy existing new structures without the original architect's permission? (Probably - I don't know on that one)

... a book that you have memorized ... can you print it as your own? Actually is it OK to photocopy a book in the library from cover to cover. You haven't stolen anything - the original is still there after all, plus it probably cost more to photocopy it than buy a copy!

... a car design - can Ford just clone a Ferarri?

These are all in the same category you describe for software - just intellectual rights - but I'd guess most of them are protected (and have been since copyright and patent law was introduced).

5616

Living Room / Re: portable air conditioning - any good?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 01:59 PM »

My big problem is that the house is effectively single storey with the bedrooms pushing up into the roof space with Velux windows in the roof.

I can keep the blinds on the windows drawn (and they have a heat reflective surface which helps) but the expanse of black stone tile roof  means that the upstairs cooks all day. I could insulate under the roof surface in the loft to try and stop the heat getting in, but short of ripping out the sloping ceilings in the bedrooms, or removing the roof, I can't do anything there to add insulation as the space is inaccessible. (I am not allowed alternative roof materials - not even solar panels - because I live in a National Park and planning controils are very strict).

The only thing I have thought of is to have extraction fans in the roof to suck air up through the house - thus venting the hot air to the outside - but I am not sure how practical or expensive this would be.

5617

Living Room / Re: OpenOffice user - can you do me a favour please ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 12:01 PM »

Thanks tomos - some credits are on their way anyway

5618

Living Room / OpenOffice user - can you do me a favour please ...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 08:33 AM »

I have an .ODT dowcument that needs to be converted into Word format. Could some kind soul who uses OpenOffice load it and save it in Windows Word .DOC format for me and post it back here as an attachment.

It is in the attached ZIP file (the forum doesn't accept ODT files) ...

TIA

(sorry I don't want to install OO to convert a single 24kb file - with all the attendant hassles of the OO installation screwing all the MS Office settings).

5619

Living Room / Re: portable air conditioning - any good?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 08:05 AM »

Ditto here - I am dying in 30+C (and humid) ... just sitting here dripping.

Anyone know any decent air conditioning equipment in the UK at non-silly prices ?

5620

Living Room / Re: Salaries of Charity CEOs

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 05:41 AM »

It strikes me a similar to churches trying to raise funds to maintain buildings when the "Church" (ie. the establishment) is a hugely wealthy organisation. For example in England the Chrush of England is the second largest land owner to the Crown - and yet it expects people who have no relationship with religion to dip their hands in their pockets to maintain their cathedrals!

5621

Living Room / Re: The Anatomy of the Google Product Cycle

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 04:55 AM »

ROFL ... Probably truer than we know ...

5622

Living Room / Re: Salaries of Charity CEOs

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 04:51 AM »

The thing that makes me laugh is they will be appealing for funds ...

5623

Best Music Service / Re: tech crunch article comparing music services

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2006, 04:50 AM »

Anyone notice that AllofMP3.com seems to be morphing into alltunes.com ?

5624

Living Room / Re: Article: The Six Sins of the Wikipedia

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 03, 2006, 02:00 PM »

It's an interesting question ... I read an article a while back that suggested Wikipedia was at least as accurate (and more comprehensive) as Encarta and Britannica. It also showed the history of a page from inception (very brief sketch) to date (very comprehensive) complete with all the mindless graffitti and vandalism along the way. The good guys seemd to fix any vandalism within seconds !

5625

Developer's Corner / Re: VclSkin

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 02, 2006, 09:00 AM »

Thanks