Removing intel graphics tray context options

If you manage a bunch of desktops (like I do), you always have one or two idiots that decide to fiddle. In this particular case, the Intel graphics driver updates force a context-menu in the right-click on the DESKTOP and this gives the kiddies the joys of rotating the screen and freaking out the other users who are none the wiser for it.


Thankfully, Intel has given us an option to remove this context-menu, even though I'd prefer it even more that they didn't default install the darned thing. Check out this page (or google for the title above) and you should find the REG file to update the registry and stop those kiddies from messing with your screens.

The day that was the mark of the end of the week that was the first week or something...

I don't even know why I'm posting this post, but I guess these are the days that mark the hourglass sand-falling moments of our lives, or something...

AND BEFORE ANYONE judges me for posting while I should be working, I am waiting for an image to do its thing, so I have some time, okay?

First off, let's start at the beginning. Today I did a daily reading with Kat this morning, and it was Psalm 127. Brief, pointed, but a little scary :) God can be a little more obvious to us than we would prefer, sometimes! If you want to know what I'm talking about, go and read the Bible you heathen!!

On another point, there is much else going on in the world today that warrants attention, and here are just a few that caught mine eye (and don't justify any attention at all :)):

1. Harry Potter 6 (AKA Half Blood Prince) is absolutely ghastly. I mean, honestly. I am not a fan of Harry Potter by any stretch of the imagination (and it takes a big stretch to enjoy his films, or probably even the books, which I also vehemently refuse to read because they sound like bollocks), but I picked watching it over "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" (please withhold your applause for later).
   
   Basically, the movie was almost three hours of utter boredom with a mild dollop of teen-angst and relationship blunders in the middle. Kat found it hilarious about the overly-obsessed girl running after Harry's sidekick, because it reminded her of our youth and a certain Stephanie pining after me. Yeah, whatever. Apart from the typical teenage / high-school antics (which were entertaining) the movie felt utterly predictable, boring, and sensationalist with a very wafer-thin plot and twists that should rather be called twosts because you can't ever figure them out from the clues in the movie (I called it predictable, didn't I? Wow, that's a twost in my review if ever there was one). The main problem is, I skipped HP5 and went onto HP6 and still figured out after a few minutes that my favourite actor in the franchise (Alan) wasn't half as bad as he makes out in the movie (oops, did I spoil it for someone?)... but anyway, go and waste your own three hours and figure it out for yourself - don't say I didn't warn you! I give it a four out of ten, because I'm in a good mood, and because I had tons of Waterfall Cinema popcorn to keep me sane.
   
   
2. Prince Adam, Princess Adora, Trap-Jaw, Man-E-Faces, Mer-Man, Stratos, Battle Cat, Zodak, Ram Man, Orko, Moss Man, Gwildor, Eternia... oh, by the power of Grayskull (sic)!
   
   Yes, if you're old enough, you'll be smiling at least a little bit right about now. I did some nostalgia browsing (ah man, nostalgia ain't what it used to be) and decided after having watched all these spin-off movies from a currently imagination-challenged Hollywood that they were bound to be making another retcon / reboot of another old movie based on a successful toy-line or series. Didn't that happen with, um, most of the recent movies? Lord of the Rings (wow, that's a risky movie - the fan base is tiny), Spiderman (ditto - would anyone really buy into a mutant spider guy that can fight villains in New York City), Star Trek (ditto - I don't know guys, ten previous movies and more than five spin-off series tells me this is a risk we can't afford to take), Transformers (ditto * 2). They're mostly just redeux versions of classic 80's movies or series when the lack of CGI back then meant people had to be daring and take chances on movies, and not nowadays cash in on an already-established franchise and just chuck in copious amounts of CGI to make it look amazing, and get the kiddies frothing to watch it years in advance thanks to loads of viral-advertising beforehand. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA IS AN EXCEPTION BECAUSE IT WAS CANCELLED BACK IN THE 80'S AND THE STORY NEEDED TO BE CONCLUDED, OKAY??? Anyway, I digress. Where was I? Oh yes...
   
   He-Man is coming back!! I must admit, despite the reservations I have that it will stick to the canon, the cast sounds exciting - Jessica Biel (Teela), Brendan Gleeson (Man-at-Arms - I wouldn't have anyone else, except maybe Arnie), Mickey Rourke (Ram-Man), Dwayne Johnson AKA THE ROCK (Stratos), Frank Langella (again as Skeletor), Anne Hathaway (Evil-Lyn), Gary Oldman (Trap Jaw), Andy Serkis (AKA Gollum) as Mer-Man, and last - but not least - Ron Perlman as BEASTMAN (what movie is complete without Ron Perlman). Sounds exciting - now all we needed was Chris O'Donnell as Orko and we'd be set.
   
   
3. I don't currently have a point 3. I think I'll just promote TWITTER or G.HO.ST or something - check them out. Enjoy your day. FRIDAY!!!

Stefan Terblanche is so fit...

Rumour has it, Stefan Terblanche - at the age of 34 - has been the fittest player in the Sharks squad for over two years. While I was in Mozambique this past week, a bunch of us started lamenting why the Springboks lost their final test to the Lions, and almost in unison we all said Stefan Terblanche should have been in the team. We were all so adamant of this, that we pretty much consecutively cited the fact that he is regarded as the fittest player in the Sharks squad for over two years now. After a while, we got a bit silly, and I jotted down all the comments that came up - good and bad - and have compiled them for other people's enjoyment. I do not censor these comments, so some are absolutely terrible but they're there to honour the hard work of the men that served in the front-line of joke brewing!

In fact, Stefan Terblanche is SO FIT ...

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, he broke the bleep test. The bleep test only has twelve levels. Stefan got to level fifteen, so they wrote it onto his jersey.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, SMS stands for Stefan's Messaging Service

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, SOS actually stands for Send Over Stefan

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Stefan can tell you how long a piece of string really is.

• That chicken. That road. Stefan knows why.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, he outran the Energiser bunny.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Stefan can send E. T. home.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Stefan can also see dead people.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, MTN stands for Mobile Terblanche Network. You get four complimentary tries with your first national contract.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, MTN provides fullbacking on all drops during your call.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Stefan Terblanche drop-kicked himself out of his mom's womb.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, every time his mom felt him kicking in her tummy, she got three points.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, when Stefan goes for a conversion, the nation of Islam is converted.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, when Stefan's tries are converted, everyone is converted.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Superman's S is a tribute to his mentor, Stefan.

• Batman managed to get to level 14 on the bleep test. Batman cheated.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Chuck Norris' middle name is "stefanterblanche", pronounced Chuck stefanterblanche Norris.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Stefan Terblanche's name spelt backwards is still pronounced Stefan Terblanche.

• WWSTD

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Subaru Impreza WRX STi stands for Stefan Terblanche Inspired.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, In the French Open, the final point is translated "game, set, stefan".

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, all sainthoods begin "St" in honour of Stefan Terblanche.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Vernon Koekemor's daughters are named Stefan and Terblanche.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, he has started a fitness academy. It's called SA Champs. Stefan's Academy of Champs.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Stefan's Academy of Champs isn't just an academy. It's a nation. When Great Britain heard about the Academy, they renamed themselves to simply Britain.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, the sequel to 300 is simply called Stefan Terblanche. It's only a rough version of Stefan's life, since the true story is too epic and would span six feature-length movies. The CGI to recreate Stefan's abilities on the big screen hasn't been invented yet.
  

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, When Neil Armstrong first landed on the moon he tripped over a rugby ball which had the initials "ST" on it.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, when the Ford Focus ST was first revealed, Ford was sued by Stefan because the ST was misleading people into thinking Stefan had a lower top speed than he actually does.
  

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Bill Gate's first company name was MicroStefan but he later had it changed to avoid a lawsuit.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Cate Blanchette is a stage name in honour of Stefan. Her real name isn't relevant.

• Stefan Terblanche is the epitome of fit. He can get through any gap. When he was three months old he could get a round peg through a square hole.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, in the US elections, Obama voted for Stefan.
  

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, not even a dentist has been able to find a hole in Stefan's defence.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Stefan has more toe than a roman sandal.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Osama's next target is Stefan.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Iraq never really had WMDs. The CIA wasn't wrong with their report though. Stefan was simply visiting Iraq at the time of their assessment.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, were Stefan to ever snore, he'd break the sound barrier.

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, the Ghostbusters call Stefan.
  
  
• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Stefan solved Fermat's Last Theorem with Stefan's First Theorem.
  
  
• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, Stefan would save the cheerleader.

  (UPDATE 20/07/2009: It seems our trend is catching on; some dude I met for a few hours the night before has just SMS'ed me some more... woohoo - we've started a movement outside of our friendship circle!!)
  

• Stefan Terblanche is so fit, he can breath above and below water.
  At the same time.
  
  
• The 'Awesomeness' motivational poster in Barney Stinson's office is a photo of Stefan Terblanche.
  
  
• Stefan Terblanche taught Lance Armstrong how to ride a bike.
  
  
• Stefan Terblanche is The Stig.

Back in RSA

I've been home for about 24 hours, and it really has been a bizarre reverse culture shock.



I arrived home to an empty house and felt quite awkward switching on the lights, boiling water in the cordless kettle, and using a toilet that flushes. Most distressing of all for me, being able to turn a tap and not only have water, but drinkable water!



The television was an issue I had to resolve with some prayer. I didn't simply want to veg out as soon as returning home, but based on the circumstances (my illness and exhausted physical state) I felt it was forgiveable.



The loneliness factor was quite obvious to me. Having spent pretty much every waking (and sleeping) moment with the team, it was quite an adjustment to come back to an empty home.



One other thing I've picked up - Zulu people, in general, are insanely aggressive when compared to their Moçambiquan counterparts, whom in contrast are very humble, reserved, and QUIET. Zulu people generally tend to be loud and determined, whereas the Picoco people are simple and community-focused, always helpful and allowing us to go in front of them in a queue etc.



All-in-all, living off pap and mealie meals for a week, having to pump water for washing, having bucket-baths around an old and used long-drop out in the cold midnight air, waiting for a gas kettle to boil drinkable water in the mornings, being grateful for a full moon to shine some light in the evenings, and long-dropping all seem to have helped me yet-again realise how fortunate we are on this side of the border. I'm not going to cut off my hot-water supply any time soon, and I'm sure in about a month I'm going to be mostly back to normal, but one thing I am going to change is I'm going to grow my own vegetables!



The experience always changes you; one week with the poorest of the poor, you can't help but be changed. Right now I'm struggling to accept the "entitlement attitude" so many jerks have in this country; they need only sniff what's going on over the border and then they'll change their tune!

Mozambique Mission

Two days into the mission "technically".

Started 530am on Saturday, and got going +-8am. There were delays (team waiting for the treasurer), VW TRANSPORTER needing oil, getting tyres pumped, etc. We were last in the convoy but made stop 1 earlier than the team getting the ZA stickers.

Our first casualty was Egg-poo being denied access to Swazi. Sent home.

The stretch from Swaziland to Moz was attended to by my co-pilot while I slept. When I awoke I didn't recognise the surroundings. Kinda did. Kinda didn't. Wasn't sure but we carried on. Eventually we found a sign saying Siteki to the right. I recognised the area but told the convoy to not turn. When we finally arrived at the luxury resort I realised we were going the wrong way. One of our team insisted Lamahashe was the right border, and another asked for directions to Goba border post, and both confirmed we were going the right way. I enquired about the description of this border post and soon concluded we were going to the wrong post.

Turn around. Backtrack. We arrived at Goba post at about 7pm. My Portuguese got us going so it was good. Rafael's Spanish also did wonders. We were through. Cellphone started to work again, and I got a host of smses from the others who'd gone ahead wondering where we were. I sms'ed and said we were heading to the YFC house. The girls in the car behind were getting frantic because they were exhausted by now.

I got us to the YFC house from memory - having shown everyone where Pikoko was on the way - only to receive an sms from Shannon saying we must go to Pikoko.

I pulled into YFC house and found Lauren and Debbie and Wes who were surprised to see us. At the moment I showed up, Debbie had just been asked to phone me because I was lost, so then we all went back to Pikoko in convoy and made it home and in bed by about 11pm.

I'd managed to get the team through Swaziland (once we ascertained we were lost), through Moz border. To YFC house, and then back to Pikoko.

On Sunday I had an early start (745am) and took us to the cemetery in Matola where we picked up Chico and headed to Elio's church.

Service started at 9am, and I got to finally do my sermon at 1145am. Hectic. We finished by 1230pm and have just come home.

Stay tuned for further updates.

Mozambique 2009

Since 2005 I've been going to Mozambique for church missions. I have always loved the experience even though it's physically, and emotionally draining. The spiritual side is amazing, so that makes up for it. Mozambique 2009 is upon us, and I depart TOMORROW for this momentous mission!

As with all missions to Mozambique, there's been a last-minute scramble by yours truly to get everything into gear. This year, ironically, has been the least stressful preparation for me, and maybe that's because I'm now a five-time veteran or something, or because I know it's going to be arguably the toughest mission I've been on yet. You see, this time around, our leader has decided that the only way to REALLY experience community with the people we're going to work alongside, is to live alongside them. That means, of course, that we are going to sleep in the community, eat with the community, and work with the community.

Why is this such a big deal?
There's no running water. There's no ablutions. The water you pump isn't drinkable. There's mosquitoes with malaria. There's nothing. Absolutely nothing. Oh, and there's this witch. The Witch of Pikoko. This "lady" and I had a very intimate encounter last year, which ended up in me being rescued by a Land Rover that DIDN'T STOP MOVING and me bundling into it with explosions and gun-fire and curses and spells and all sorts. But that's for another time.

For now, if you want to know what we're up to, or want to pray for us, here's the itinerary:

Also, I'm preparing to preach this year. Something new for me in the sense that I'm preparing in advance, so there's a lot of responsibility and expectation on my shoulders. The sermon notes can be seen here; http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddptrndx_31gh429bfc

Please feel free to pray for the team, pray for the sermons, and for good health and effectiveness. And also for the ones left behind, or for some reason or another couldn't go on Mission this year - and for those that are spouses and family of the missionaries.

Thanks guys! A te prossima semana!

SA Rugby calendars

If you're like me, you want to know the rugby calendar ALL the time!

Apart from the good old GOOGLE calendar option, there's a nice HTML option for quick access via cellphone or work PC;

Guitar Hero World Tour Battle of the Bands System Link South African style

This past weekend Kat and I hosted our combined 60th Birthday party and it was a Battle of the Bands (Guitar Hero World Tour style) party.

What a mission to get this baby set up. One would have thought two XBOX 360's could just simply system link and get going, but that is not the case. Add to the mix the South African lack of XBOX Live, and you've got a few more hurdles to overcome. Fortunately, Oltman and I had some deft fiddling skills and we cracked the problem, and managed to have everyone jamming BATTLE OF THE BANDS style for the evening - great fun! This is how you do it...

Basically, you can run the XBOX 360's on the same router, one internet connection. You cannot system link them (but we'll work on that). It requires XBOX Live to do the matchmaking.

What you do is:

1. Get two XBOX Live GOLD accounts (presently you can get a one month subs for 1GBP, which is a bargain - and we are on the UK server, so you need a UK credit card to enjoy this benefit).
   
2. Next, you hook both onto XBOX LIVE in Guitar Hero World Tour.
3. You then sign in each instrument you intend to use, either with another local XBOX Live GOLD account, or as a guest (in our case, we had Graeme Norval, Graeme Norva(2), Graeme Norva(3), etc. and Brattex, Brattex(2), etc.). We had four signed in on each box, three as guests, and one as the GOLD account.
4. You then invite your friend to play.
5. Friend accepts invitation.
6. You should now see eight names on the roster.
7. Select START MATCHMAKING.
8. One band will be highlighted a yellow colour (or a different colour, at least) so you can tell one band from the other (although in our case the names gave it away anyway).
9. Then you need each instrument to select PREFERENCES, DIFFICULTY, and choose their difficulty. In our case, each instrument was a different player with different skill and each round was a different band, so we just had one person controlling on each XBOX and selecting the skills for each player.
10. For example, the drummer selects PREFERENCES, DIFFICULTY, chooses BASIC, and then hits BACK.
11. Singer then selects PREFERENCES, DIFFICULTY, chooses EXPERT, and then hits BACK.
12. Guitarists (one at a time) does the same.
13. There is ONE cursor for all the players, so as long as a specific instrument changes difficulty, it only affects THAT instrument.
14. When both teams are set, then someone hits "go to SETLIST" (or whatever it says) and then it randomly chooses one player from either band to choose the song to jam.
    
15. ENJOY!!!

Hints:
Make the controller / singer the one that signs in as the GOLD account, because then at least they can control everyone else quite easily, and just bark out orders to the rest (this works when you have multiple bands playing different rounds).
We managed to quit during a song and get back to the foyer without having to restart matchmaking - at least, I think we did :)

We used two XBOX 360's, full drum sets, WORLD TOUR, two GOLD accounts, and a 4-port ADSL router (and used 38MB for the entire evening). Presumably you can achieve the same feat with a 3G modem hooked up to a laptop running ICS and connected to a hub, or such.

I've just lost gamer points and achievements!!

Can anyone explain this to me?
(Update: I read http://uk.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=25958198 and it explained why I lost them :()

I hook up my xbox360 to xbox live for the first time in five months, and it asks me to sign up for an xbox live account, so I enter my old one, and it says "do you want to retrieve your gamertag" or something, and naturally I say yes.

Now I see most of my achievements have disappeared as well as my gamer points??

No Civ:Rev score (in fact, not even a record of it), no Bioshock achievements, no Lego: Indiana Jones, what's happened???

Update: I downloaded an old profile that was stored online and overwrote my existing profile. Strange thing is, I never changed xbox 360 consoles!!??

Blackberry Curve 8900 new GROUP features for contacts

(DISCLAIMER: Anything to do with my new BlackBerry may be old news for some, but since I've moved from an 8707v to an 8900 the leap has been massive. I'm presuming this is all around new stuff, but if not, don't flame me)

Sweet BlackBerry goodness!

When I ran my import from my old BlackBerry 8707v to my new BlackBerry 8900 Curve, I didn't get my mailing lists / groups imported, and to my frustration I had no idea why.

Having attempted to create a new group / list today, I have now got a better idea as to why it may not have worked, and I can assure you it's more for good reason than for bad reason.

When I started my new group, I opted to add a contact, and was very surprised to discover that I could add either their number or a PIN or an email address. That got me thinking, and I tried to add the same contact twice, once with email, and once with a cell number, and voila! It worked!

This means with the new BB OS v4.6 I can have one mailing list, and if I choose to compose an email to the group, it ONLY sends to the valid email addresses, and if I send an SMS, only to the valid SMS recipients, and a PIN only to the valid PIN recipients. What a joy!

Upon trying this out, I noticed that the group SMS service also shows individual progress meters for each recipient of an SMS - so you know who's getting it as they get it - SWEET!

I've now managed to send an email to my group, and it says "not everyone can receive an email" and I click OK, and it sends out the email, IGNORING the SMS recipients. Vice versa for sending an SMS to email addresses in the list.

Some may argue that it should be smart and send it all at once to the proper recipient, but I prefer it this way. Now I can have one mailing list which has everyone's contact details and depending on how I want to contact the people, I can reach them via PIN, SMS, or email. The only snag is that you have to manually capture a single contact multiple times if you want to add their various contact details - not so bad because then at least if they have three cellphone numbers attached to their contact details, you only need to add the one you SMS, and not have the phone think it should SMS them three times (once to each number).

Webpage typo's that are just ... awkward

Wow, did I just get a fright. I wanted to log on and check the latest score update for the IRELAND vs. PAKISTAN T20 cricket match (go Ireland) and did my usual "cricinfo" ctrl+ENTER and left it to load. Coming back a few minutes later, I discovered something a little less than expected...

Lo and behold. No T20 cricket score. Instead I landed up in

International Circumcision Information
Reference Centre

(http://www.circinfo.com/)

Now THAT was unexpected.

Tiresome tyres - how to save some cash on your tyres

Buying tyres can be an entirely tiresome task - not to mention costly - BUT it doesn't have to be! Follow my list of tips and you can easily find yourself saving up to 30% off the cost of your replacement tyres! I've always followed this method with great success.


What you'll need:

1. Access to the YELLOW PAGES (or similar)
2. A checklist
3. About half an hour of time (but the satisfaction of knowing you've saved about 30% on each tyre should make up for the time spent)
4. A basic knowledge of your tyres

What you need to do;

Confirm the size and type of tyre you have. Briefly, a 155/80/13 means it's 155mm wide, has an aspect ratio of 80% of the width for the height from base to hub-cap, and it's a 13" wheel. So a 175/70/13 is 175mm wide, 122.5mm from base to hub-cap, and it's a 13" wheel, and so on. Go check out the car bible site for more information on tyres here.

Armed with the brand, type, and size of your tyres, you can now phone a few tyre places. I just did a trip down memory lane along the old Old Main Road (which is now Josiah Gumede or something), and then looked up the contact details of those tyre places in yellowpages.

First place we contacted told us about R550 for a tyre including balancing but not wheel alignment. REMEMBER TO ALWAYS CONFIRM IF IT INCLUDES VAT!

The second place I phoned gave me about R500. I then phoned a third place, who offered a different brand, but about R400. I then phoned some more, and told each place "so-and-so offered me the same tyre for X, can you help?" and slowly got each next shop (generally speaking) to offer a better price. I didn't make any commitments, and took my lunch break to head over to the cheapest place I could find (you don't need to book an appointment). On the way I decided to stop in at another tyre place and just said to them "I'm on my way to Y and they're doing my tyre replacement for X per tyre... can you do the same?" and they looked it up on their system, and said yes they could.

The end result was a shorter distance to travel, my tyre being replaced at R350 (yes, that's right) and my having saved R200 per tyre since the start of my day.

So, the key with tyres is simple - shop around! There's a whole bunch of tyre shops on Old Main Road in Pinetown and they're all competing with each other; they have to cycle their tyre stock as often and as regularly as possible, so they'll do what they can to secure the deal. It takes about twenty minutes at the most to have the process done, and you can often save a good deal of bucks on it. I'm sure other towns have the same sort of thing as Pinetown, so you should be literally spoiled for choice. As we go up in tyre prices, if I had replaced four tyres for R550 each, that would have cost me R2,200.00 for the whole lot, whereas with my savings, that could have been reduced to R1,400.00! R800 saved! If you can't be bothered about that sort of money, give me a shout, I'll sort out your replacement tyres with my own cash, and you pay me whatever your first quote was :)

A few quick tips of places to phone and ask (and their comparative pricing) to get you started if you're in the Westville or Pinetown area:

Hi-Q 031 7020351
Pinetown Tyre & Exhaust 031 7027386
Wheel 'N Steel 031 7025308

The sun, as reserved for smoking diners.

Today we spent the afternoon with my mom as part of the closing ceremonies for Kat's 30th birthday weekend.

We attempted to go to Piggly Wiggly's but they were closed, so we moved up the hill to the crest, and popped in at Woodrose.

I love the Woodrose experience. Chill outside in the sun, enjoy the atmosphere, and indulge in a lovely woodrose salad, or maybe a beef curry & rice, or if you're as daring as I am today, both!

The only problem I experienced with our plan, was that the outside area is also the dedicated smoking area. What does this mean for my culinary decadance?

Well, essentially, legislation is in place to protect patrons such as Kat, my mom, and I from being exposed to the cancer-causing effects of the nasty nasal-intruding stench of cigarette smoke. In principle this is great, but practice is a whole different beast: What this means for restauranteers is that by-and-large it's cheaper for them to simply allocate their already established outside area for smokers, and keep the non-smokers inside. It's a cheap and quick *legal* solution, but it does mean the non-smokers (by inference of the non-smoking habit, generally the more considerate of the two categories, but that's a moot point and not worth entering into now) are restricted to dining inside a stuffy establishment, while the *smokers* get to lounge outside in the lovely warm sunshine, and enjoying the "fresh air". Ironic, isn't it? The non-smokers are essentially the more likely to want fresh air, and yet the only fresh air available is now allocated for the smokers, who don't GET fresh air!

Let's think about this, smoking inside a smoking section gives you plenty of "free hits". Smoking outside just spoils the only pleasant air around the restaurant. Why should the smokers be granted the "exclusive use" of the fresh and open air? A smoker may argue that making it a non-smoking area denies them of some proprietary right, but that's not true. Surely it should be a smoke-free area, and if smokers want to enjoy it, they swallow their cravings, and go and sacrifice for a few minutes, rather than the reverse for non-smokers? It makes little sense to me that the non-smoker should be exposed to an element that is out of their control (tobacco smoke) if they want to enjoy the outside dining experience, whereas if the reverse happened, the smoker would be exposed to less harmful elements by having to go cold-turkey for about an hour if they chose to go outside? Essentially, smokers should make the choice - smoke inside, or dine outside smoke-free! The reversal of circumstances would leave little choice for a non-smoker!

That being said, it remains a smoker's heaven at the moment and non-smokers are the ones having to either forego the beautiful outside dining experience for the benefit of clean air, or risk a coughing fit and smelly meal in the comfort of "fresh air" outside.

Regardless, our meal was still great and I still vote the woodrose salad the best meal I've tried on the menu!! Highly recommended!!

Portable SWF player

I've recently faced the task of setting up our LAB machines to be able to support SWF files for a Mathematica workshop to be held in the forthcoming weeks. The problem is, why should I now deploy SWF support on the LAB machines just for one workshop, and face a lifetime of headaches from kiddies playing their favourite (and noisy) movies ad infinitum? Enter, the portable SWF player...

If you go to http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flashplayer/updaters/9/sa_flashplayer_9_debug.exe you should find just what you're looking for - a portable flash player! Enjoy :)

The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Wow. I really don't believe it. That game really works!

Check it out:
Kevin Bacon in New York Article on ECR blog

And then check out how the game works:
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon WIKI

Then see why it works...

You see, the article reads "blah blah blah ... The thief made off with Bacon’s BlackBerry."
Do you see? Do you? Kevin Bacon - like me - has a BlackBerry! How small is this world??

Mmmm... I just realised, I can start a new game - "Six Degrees of the New York thief" ... I bet we have something in common too now ... if only I could figure it out ...