Toms View of the World

So, what really happened to the Beagle 2 Mars probe back in 2003??

It seems that Hollywood has the answer after all… that’s right, giant alien robots (what else)

[thumb:492:c:s=0:l=g]This evening brought a quiet evening of walking with Tiger Bay Ramblers (TBR) up in the hills just north of Cardiff - whilst it was exhausting, and right on the limit of my current fitness levels, I’m really glad I did it, and I got a handful of nice pictures as the sun went down…

Well, I’ve been ill since Saturday now, some kind of summer cold/flu thing - bad enough to keep me off work for a couple of days - just the usual sore throat, bunged up sinuses and headaches, but combined with my hay-fever, it’s been a very unpleasant few days, with only a couple of hours at a time where I’m properly awake - the rest of the time has pretty much been spent lying down with a thick/thumping head

I’ve had to be careful, so that when I’ve had to go out (e.g. to the supermarket), it’s in the “window” when the medication is working, and I’m back home before I start feeling really bad again… but I’m slowly recovering…

I’m hoping to make it back into the office tomorrow… at least being off my food (to a degree) should be helping the latest attempt to lose weight!

(yes, this post is pretty much a blatent cry for sympathy…)

As a programmer-come-techy-geek little things like this sometimes make me smile…

An error message from the installer for the Beta of Office 2007

So it seems that another popular animated series from US network “Fox” has been ressurected after it’s premature axing…

Yes folks, the adventures of the crew from Planet Express are set to continue in 2008 as US network “Comedy Central” have commissioned 13 new episodes of Futurama from the original writers and cast.

Excellent!

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds34328.html

Of course that should be “Windows Live Messenger”

The release of the much beta’d Windows Live Messenger is now available from the MSN Messenger website - and very pretty it is too…

However, I can’t really see what makes it so much better than 7… all the “little annoyances” are still there - including the “tabs” configuration - it’s “all or nothing” - I can’t just show a few tabs, I have to have the ones I’m never going to use, as well as the ones I want. Come on guys, how long is it going to take for this to be put right!

Removed since Beta 2 and never reinstated was the “rollover” expanding of contact details - shame really, I liked that - again, it’s either no details, or show all the details for everyone.

Of course, there are quick links to the new features of Spaces, Phone Calls and MSN Today (which, again, I’m never likely to use, so why can’t I hide them?)

I suppose I just want something that lets me chat to my friends online (sometimes with my webcam or headset), without trying to sell me Sky TV, VOIP phone services (why, Messenger can make video calls already on it’s own!), sign me up to a social network, sell me Dating and Personal services, animated icons, animated backgrounds, lottery tickets, whatever “Meegos” are, provide paid music downloads, mobile ringtones and something called “insider club”

Of the tabs that are available (17 by my count - there’s a scroll button there are so many of them), I can only see myself using the National Lottery, eBay and Contact List ones, and if it worked with Firefox, the Live Bookmarks functions - but I don’t becuase I have to have all the others displayed, and there’s no way to sort them, so the ones I want are at the top, or ideally, the only ones available.

Microsoft could have done so much better… (and yes, before you ask, I did submit the “hiding tabs” request to the Beta suggestions)

Here’s hopeing the much awaited new version of Messenger Plus can resolve some of these problems!

Can anyone say “we spent so much on the Cybermen and Black Hole episodes” that they needed to make a really cheap episode without most of the major cast members…

At least the “Torchwood Files” got a couple of mentions!

So, is Elton the next assistant, or will he not reppear?

update - according to confidential, this episode was necessary ‘cos they were filming it alongside the previous two, and had to include very little of the Doctor and Rose, ‘cos they were busy making the Black Hole episodes!