• She says::I think

1. holiday::cheer
   
2. fault::finding
   
3. beep::horn
   
4. bubble::burst
   
5. needle::thread
   
6. fare::trade
   
7. treat::pudding
   
8. express::train
   
9. webcam::XXX
   
10. capital::city
    

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Software patents in the EU: proposal dropped
That's fantastic news. We can all breathe a sigh of relief again. Until we get thrown the next cue ball to deal with!

Well, I finally got around to installing and getting my two IRC bots online. It's been nearly a year since I removed Serena (procrastination, it will be my downfall!). I have however run into an unforeseen problem.

Every previous incarnation of bot I've had, has been hosted on a shell (i.e. someone else's PC), and I've just connected to the shell and controlled them from there. Now that I know my own Linux box is stable, I thought it would make sense to host them myself.

Wrong! It's actually more complicated.

Although both I and the two bots are behind a firewall, in order for me to communicate with them, I have to issue my commands by pushing myself out of the firewall and then attempting to make a telnet connection back inside again. (yeah, backward or what?)
Not surprisingly, my firewall is pretty much saying "on yer bike" and refusing the connection. DCC doesn't work for the same reason. (I apologise if bits of this don't make sense, it would take too long to explain - just understanding the gist of my frustration will be enough - thanks)

Round one to the firewall.

I can't believe I'm still ill with this cold / influenza bug, or whatever it is. Lucky for work I'm now on holiday as I wouldn't have been making very good attandance.
Up to now I've had everything but the sore throat. I've had aches, shivers, coughs, catarrh, sinusitis but up to now, no sore throat, though I did spend a couple of days with comedy voices.

Well that changed last night. Last night the back of my throat became tight, as if I was fighting an allergy and tender to the point that the mere action of inhaling was causing me to cough. How ironically cruel is that?
For two hours I tried hopelessly to sleep, but the minute I started to drift off, I began my coughing fit. Nothing helped, I had Strepsils and Veno's, but nothing was making any difference.

Finally, I managed it, but awoke again in the early hours coughing for England.
I went downstairs and put the kettle on and reached for the only constant I had - a packet of Lemsip. (I've never been that convinced about Lemsip before, after all, it's just honey, lemon and paracetamol isn't it?). I thought "what the hell?" it seemed to stop me coughing before, maybe it was a fluke, but at that point I had nothing to lose. I sat in my dressing down, on the sofa with a couple of over-sized fluffy pillows and drank. Remarkably, it soothed my throat to the point that my natural relflex to cough had been suppressed and I slept again. When I eventually woke up this afternoon, (I know, shameful!) my throat wasn't as tight either.

I'll be making sure my cabinet is never out of Lemsip again! It's helped with everything that's been thrown at me so far!

• She says::I think

1. Perfect Gift::Beautifully Wrapped
   
2. Santa::Ho Ho Ho
   
3. Lucy::Locket
   
4. Buckets::Pails
   
5. Recital::Choir
   
6. Stamp::Duty
   
7. Teacher::Tutor
   
8. Matchbox::Cars
   
9. Spit::Roast
   
10. Feeling::Touch
    

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At last, dunkers of the world are finally being recognised in society!

Check out this 'dunking mug'

A question needs to be asked, "Will the hot liquid in the mug melt all the chocolate on my digestives or not?"

World's tiniest P2P application.

TinyP2P is a functional peer-to-peer file sharing application, written in Python using just fifteen lines of code!
(Each line has 80 characters or fewer. The first line doesn't count -- it's a label for human readers and is ignored by the computer.)

Bad news for MT bloggers

Comment spam has become such a problem for Moveable Type that some hosts have disabled comments on people's blogs. See the article here. Obviously this is going to cause a problem for millions of bloggers out there who rely on MT for their comments.

Now I don't know if this information is of any use to you, but I use independent comment hosts that give me a lot more flexibility than the default option. The popular choice is Haloscan, but I've found Enetation to be more to my liking.

It didn't start off well yesterday. I woke at 4:50 and couldn't get back to sleep. Now wide awake and unable to swallow properly I stumbled downstairs.
I ached, therefore I was ( just) and I had a pathetic little cough.
Someone had come in the night and swiped all my energy away from me. Everything felt a little heavier, even the mug of Lemsip. Surprisingly, I had an appetite by 5:45, so I had a little porridge and on the good advice of my mother, I attempted to "sleep it off".

So... did I wake up feeling refreshed and ready to "seize the day"? well, no, not really. The aching had gone, which was a bonus, but that stupid cough was still there and now I was thick with mucus. Also, (and I'm convinced viruses have a sense of humour here,) my brain felt like it had had a spin in the blender and thus coherent thought had been suppressed. I could now also pass off a very convincing 70s "Tunes" advert.

Today I woke up and found that I had a voice that could jump 4 octaves, seeming with a mind of it's own. Making me sound squeaky and ridiculous. By mid morning and a couple of lozenges later, I almost sounded human. However my stomach is now sore and hurts from the pathetic coughing of the last two days.

Still, looking on the bright side, I should be over this by Christmas. I've been ill to some degree every Christmas for as long as I can remember and life wouldn't be cruel enough to gave me a double dose - would it?

Slightly inaccurate, as it implies I have visited the whole of North America! LOL.
Still.. it was a fun (and painless) excercise!

Create your own visited country map

When the technician asks if you have carried out specific tests to isolate the fault, repeat vermantly, "We've tried everything!"

*headdesk* "Arghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"

Thank you for being so wonderfully helpful. You can't help me ergo, I can't help you!
Have a nice day!

School county education department prepares special image on DVD to clone onto all the school laptops in their area. DVD works like a charm. Manufacturer updates their DVD drives.
Cloned image doesn't work on the new improved DVD drive.

*headdesk*

Sheesh, it's only Monday
Countdown T-3 and I'm outta here!

Four German artists, an abandoned building and a whole heap of imagination and you get this
Prepare to emerse yourself for the next hour as you enter 99 Rooms
It blew me away, let me know what you think.
(Requires sound and "Flash")

Not sure how I managed to miss a week, but here goes.........

• She says::I think

1. Plot::Monkey
   
2. Farce::Joke
   
3. Unexpected::Tales
   
4. Siren::Horn
   
5. Ben::Nevis
   
6. Freshman::Week
   
7. Quicksand::Artax
8. 24 hours::Jack Bauer
9. Spunky::Lively
   
10. Vicious::Circle
    

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After sucessfully avoiding the obligatory "Office Christmas Party" for the last four years, I have been bulldozed into this year's social gathering. I have such a loathing for them. Yeah, call me "bah humbug", I dare you! It's not that I don't like Christmas, or getting into the spirit of goodwill - far from it, I love Christmas (apart from the buying presents, stress aspect of it). The reason a hate Office Christmas Parties is because of the whole culture behind them.

People expect five things from the "work's do".

1. Cop of with a colleague
2. Get trollied
3. Watch a workmate make a very public ass of themselves
4. Get stuck at some point in the evening with the office "letch" or "bore"

None of these things are appealing. Maybe I'm a sad, old git, maybe so, but it's my choice to be a sadass. I just don't do "socials", work or otherwise. They are either "gnaw my own leg off to stay awake - boring", or cringeworthily embarrassing.
God help me get through Friday night. Someone pass me the Valium, please.

I've just got back in touch with a good friend of mine. He emigrated and subsequently got married (never was one to do things by halves!). Anyway, when he lived in Warwickshire he had a little family of cats. Can't remember all of their names now. At one time he had 4. 3 Devon Rexs and a Sphinx. Pogul was the Sphinx and the Rexs were Korky, a little black chap that looked like a lamb and a tri-colour.

Why am I telling you this?

Well my friend wrote to tell me that the 'family' had changed somewhat, one of the things that happened was that Korky got run over. I probably saw him last about 4 years ago and I cried when I read the email - yes, I blubbed like a baby. Four years - you'd think that I'd be a little detached about him by now, but no. I don't think I'd have been more upset if it was my own cat. It's odd how you can be so attached to someone or something that you are no longer attached to!

• She says::I think

1. Delightful::Company
   
2. Impact::Crater
   
3. Consolation::Prize
   
4. Donation::Blood
   
5. Blue moon::Astronomy
   
6. Grinner::Cheesy
   
7. Smoker::Smolder
   
8. Muse::Wistful
   
9. Tweet::e-Pie (sorry)
   
10. Guitar::String
    

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I remember seeing this site about 6 months ago. I'm amazed, but not surprised it's still going strong.

Pity the reluctant "celebrity".

33 Reasons why you shouldn't post your picture on the internet