http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/24/charles-arthur-blogging-twitter

This was an interesting piece I read on the Guardian’s web site recently, about the fact that blogging from the normal people was dying on it’s flabby arse simply because thinking up stuff to write about to an audience of about 2 or 3 people who are more than likely your parents is hard and the wonderful thing about the likes of Twitter, is that you can write stuff quickly and not to think as much about writing as you only have a small space to fill.

You know what? He has a very good point.

And in fact I am beginning to wonder about something more fundermental: When are we all going to get bored with Facebook, Twitter and all the other soical things about the interweb?

After all it’s only a matter of time before some keys are dangled before us, leading us to the new place we all have to sign up for before it’s too late. It happened with Myspace some time ago when Facebook came onto the scene, and other sites are sort of in a state of limbo, not getting any bigger or smaller.

We humans basically are a fickle race, going on what’s good before getting bored and wandering off to play with ourselves, in the process making God cry. You could also argue that yes, as more and more pressure comes onto us to succeed in everything we do, cooking for 57 people on a budget of £4.50 like those cookery shows tell us, making sure we are earning 6 gillion squid every 3 seconds or we’re nobody, we’re often forgetting why we are doing all that crap.

My job for instance, allows me, though not as often as I like, to write, to blog, to question why that tomato left in the fridge looks like the baby thing from Total Recall, and more importantly, to share things with other people in a different outlet that wasn’t truely possible unless I killed Jeremy Clarkson and stole his column in the Sun.

It’s important to myself that even if no-one is reading this, that something creative is done sometimes, rather than vegitate on the bed, watching endless news from Sky about How much we’re going to die next week. And perhaps that is what people are losing; the point in doing anything like this, writing, sharing, comminicating with others with something not limited to what someone else has placed on the web for me to abuse.

I view the likes of Twitter as an extra for me to use to write little bits in case I do not have the time or indeed as working in London has shown me, the energy to write about things of the day which I see. But it can never be a true replacement for proper writing and I can be sort of OK with what I have placed here for all to see. Not often I can say that, but this is one of those times.

Come on people, do something better than: In Office Bored, already played with balls. Now what?

It’s been a trying week for many people out there, with the dirty politicians in Broken Britain trying to smooth over the gaping hole that is their credibility, more jobs on the way to the scrapheap of cost-cutting, North Korea and Iran showing us all how humans clearly should behave, and now more than ever it’s literally every day we are seeing how cruel life can be, it’s become important now that any event gleans a funny side from it, no matter what it is.

And that’s before we even start on the jokes about Michael Jackson, and to carry on the general theme of this, here’s a hugely inappropriate picture designed to annoy people to write hate mail in to Ooh Sometimes:

What? No-one writes to me any more except to tell how to get women into bed….Wait, that’s a good thing, but anyway back to the post.

For the past few days, a great sorrow and bizarre joy has swept people who would rather not worry about anything else, with heavily cut and pasted tribute footage rushed onto the networks and the family questioning everything about the 50-year old’s demise. There have been people dancing in the streets, people were upset…at spending money and not getting it back for his O2 concerts…err…

The radio stations all started blasting out every single song he ever did, and all shops were compelled to my increasing misery down Oxford Circus to the point, I wanted someone to make my ears bleed, just so the red liquid flowing out would block out any more of it.

Glastonbury of course has come at the same time, and Jizzy tissue and others have all seen fit to pay tribute in their special ways, Lily Allen’s way was wearing a glove, 50 cent released tracks made of up of nicked bits of other music, vendors instantly cashed in with T-Shirts saying people were at Glastonbury when he snuffed it….the list goes on and on, and well…..enough.

I’m going to be slightly serious here, maybe to the depth of the Joker from the last Batman film and beyond so here goes: You don’t f**king care as it hasn’t directly impacted on your life so stop pretending. Ok, except for those people who paid too much for his tickets, but then again they are all getting money back so mute point.

Now I’m saying that and I can imagine there will be one person reading this who will say how dare you, he was everything to me, tell me where you live so I can kill you now. But allow me my last breath to spout this out….

Yes, He made good music, that cannot be denied by anyone, but the sad fact is, people were watching him for the circus he turned himself into and as for his death, I’m amazed it didn’t happen sooner. With all the surgery and the way he was acting at times, you wonder if he wasn’t going to burn down Neverland because he became curious about fire, and no-one then could blame it on the boogie….yes, I went there.

So a man who made some of the best music the world had ever heard, but then went loopy due to things in his personal life, and leading to well….something the telegraph has felt uneasy about: Telegraph article

The man writing the post felt that this is the way people deal with un-nerving events, make everything a joke and it all feels better. Just Dominic Cavendish who wrote the piece feels ill now.

Well fella, as sad as it could be to see if this is the current human condition, to have very little moral sense, you do have to pull back a wee bit. How people deal with things is in their own way and what anyone says or does as a result is all up to them.

But then again, Michael Jackson was not helping himself for some of them. Read these and I challenge you not to smile even just a bit.

Q: What’s the difference between Michael Jackson and a grocery bag?
A: One is white, made out of plastic, and dangerous for kids to play with and the other you carry your groceries in.

Q: Why did Michael Jackson place a phone call to Boyz-2-Men??
A: He thought it was a delivery service.

See, these wouldn’t exist unless he had done something to start it all off. And with the media circus that came round, there wasn’t anyone who didn’t want to pay tribute, only perhaps to get the chance to cover MJ’s songs at a later date, and quelle surprise, Sony are releasing the songs to make more money.

Jokes are one thing mate, profiteering from death is quite another and perhaps that could have made a better premise for your piece, if you wanted to examine the “morality” of humans.

So there we have it, the end of a man that will be remembered for some music and fiddling with kids that was never proven in court, with jokes remaining for years afterwards. What an utterly bizzare legacy to leave behind….

And once again, we have to show the world’s best TV test card to illistrate the fact that during the past week or so, I’ve been away from computers in general actually, even the ever updated Twitter feed has been absent from my profound natter.

The thing with working on computers all week and most of my time on the damned things, even I tire of staring at the endless screens with things broken and look for something else to stare at, which lead to the long weekend back in North Wales with family and friends, while also staring at Megan Fox slow motion running through parts of the second Transformers movie. In essense I was being the Lord of Leisure offline.

Not a bad choice, I think you’ll agree. But the film was….well…you’ll just have to wait.

So moving forward we’re going to keep our eyes on the prize over the weekend as we come back with some new material, and possibly some more audio ranting out of context about things.

It couldn’t be going on too long with all this nonscense about things with lights, bits of script coding, and looking like a reject from the 70’s without placing some pictures from my time in Madrid. Yes, inbetween sweating in an office and sweating in a very posh hotel, there were a couple of oppotunites to look around briefly, so here for your dining and dancing pleasure:

Photos, only without the old folk’s voice telling about each picture in soul-destroying detail.

This view was taken from the top of a garden bar on the roof of some pub with the sun slowly drawing in on the second day. The view from the roof of the hotel at night was fantastic and you could see all around, and it was a good place to sniper people working in the government building next door.

For some reason, House got tired of mocking people with illnesses and decided to sell lemonade in Spain. Righto then.

And here we have an excellent example of Spanish design; some water pipes sticking out the ground. It’ll look nice when it’s finished….

And here we have an example of what one of Madrid’s fish bars look like. Though from the outside, it looks like you would catch a disease from looking at the sign.

It was something to stand up, talking over everyone else while stuffing your face full of various bits of seafood. But I will have to say this, the food was so good, I wanted to take it somewhere, get to know it all better, find out what movies it liked….oh dear, I think we’re drifting onto the world of food porn.

And what possible visit to the seafood place be complete without a picture of two numptys wondering what the hell to do when a camera’s on them?

Ahhh……nah, I can’t think of anything.

Well that’s the thing with the visit away, it was mainly about Business, which detracts from any touristy stuff you could do in the limited time we had, but at the very least, I got the jist of what Madrid is all about.

Life is slower, people have more time for you, and a short lunchtime is an hour. Sometimes, a man has to wonder what it’s all about. Fair play to the spanish!

Well I guess I haven’t really said everything that happened, so let me quickly wrap things up so I can return back to the black and charred mess that is the Underworld, this trip was also the very first time I had ever flown with BA to anywhere, and stayed in a really posh hotel, drank overpriced water, had Starbucks for breakfast, and spanish food in the evenings, basically it was all good! I want MORE!

Yes, look at it: The ultimate in PC hardware in a presentable…err….mess one day last week:

Yes it may look like the setting from Mad Max without the huge budget or Mel Gibson, but think of what dwells within.

3TB of storage, Quad Core Processor…..almost make you weep with the sheer number of dodgy xxx-rated filth you could hold, even in HD….and now that is mine, all mine etc (can’t be bothered with the evil laugh) and the bright side is, that at last GTA 4 for the PC remains playable at an average of 37 frames a second as opposed to 20 before.

But there are times where the game still slows to 21 frames on occasion. Dear me, they really could have done a better job with the conversion over to PC couldn’t they? Almost makes me want to review the game in my old self-destructive manner…. In fact that sounds like a plan! Quickly, to the thing that controls the thing on the telly!

There has been some hiccups to be fair, like playing with BIOS settings to make the thing go faster only for the PC for fail to work at all. Ah the forgotten joys of playing with computers….Yeah, you’re right, there are better things to do.

Sorry for the downtime today, this was due to stoage issues at the webhosts end, which, as you can now see is all good. Cheers all and I’ll now commence more of the inane prattle you’ve all come to expect from the Lord of Leisure!

 

 What happens when boredom and booze mix: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Well seeing as I had already wasted 5 minutes doing the thing and I can’t think of better things off the top of my head to say, please enjoy my ramblings which are geeky and silly and I say naughty words in this too, so if you don’t know what they are, ask your mummy and daddy. Right, where’s my bottle….

I suppose with all the comments and updates I had been making with Twitter, something was bound to set things off.

In fact one particular comment has taken a life of it’s own….You see in a stupid and geeky moment, I ordered a new Intel Quad Core Processor and two 1TB drives, basically to replace what drives I have already but apprently in the sphere of the internet, that amount of storage means only one thing.

The following is all the updates from the Facebook profile I keep after the purchase was made known.

Nigel Parsons at 14:04 on 09 June
Demand some overtime! (or ask really really nicely)

Alistair Clare at 14:06 on 09 June
nerd!

Russ Hollinshead at 14:06 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Nerd!

Russ Hollinshead at 14:07 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Wow. Uncanny.

Maybe we do have a point.

Alistair Clare at 14:07 on 09 June
Indeed.. any one would have thought we were sitting next to each other and timed that well

Russ Hollinshead at 14:08 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Who needs 2TB of storage anyway? That’s a lot of porn.

Alistair Clare at 14:08 on 09 June
He has a point man.. that allot of porn there!

Russ Hollinshead at 14:09 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Yes. Erm, where did you get such storage… I may have a need for such things afterall.

Alistair Clare at 14:10 on 09 June
Nice!!! You could share it between the both of you.. think of the possibilities…

Russ Hollinshead at 14:10 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Are you suggesting Paul is the porn napster?

Alistair Clare at 14:12 on 09 June
No comment

Russ Hollinshead at 14:13 09 June via Facebook Mobile
But why quad core?

Alistair Clare at 14:13 on 09 June
Watch many thing at once… hard core! hehe

Russ Hollinshead at 14:13 09 June via Facebook Mobile
As in an orgy?

Alistair Clare at 14:14 on 09 June
*shocked and speechless*

Russ Hollinshead at 14:14 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Electrostim and ballgags. Never had you down for that Al.

Alistair Clare at 14:15 on 09 June
Well.. you know….

Russ Hollinshead at 14:15 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Yes. Give them back.

Alistair Clare at 14:15 on 09 June
Sorry man… need to get them cleaned first

Russ Hollinshead at 14:16 09 June via Facebook Mobile
I’ve promised them to Paul next. I don’t think he’ll care.

Alistair Clare at 14:16 on 09 June
True.. always thought he was a bit grubby

Russ Hollinshead at 14:17 09 June via Facebook Mobile
And that’s just his mind.

Alistair Clare at 14:17 on 09 June
Indeed… very true.. hence the need for 2TB!

Vaheed Shadi at 14:17 on 09 June
Fast porn….why else??????

Russ Hollinshead at 14:18 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Fast porn? That’ll be the lube.

Alistair Clare at 14:18 on 09 June
Is there any porn fast enough for mr hughes?

Russ Hollinshead at 14:19 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Gone in 69 seconds?

Alistair Clare at 14:19 on 09 June
That’s optimistic…

Russ Hollinshead at 14:21 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Actually you have a point. Is this device just going to be full of thousands of 2 minute epics? (And that’s including the plot)

Alistair Clare at 14:22 on 09 June
sounds like most things nowadays….

Russ Hollinshead at 14:22 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Why when I have plumbing problems do I never get a big breasted sex mad swedish nymph girl turn up with a spanner?

Alistair Clare at 14:23 on 09 June
Because Paul has not uploaded that episode yet

Keith O’Neill Edwards at 14:37 on 09 June
Is all that machinery just so that Windows runs at a reasonable pace????

Russ Hollinshead at 14:39 09 June via Facebook Mobile
No! Keep up! Its so he can store his porn. I would have thought that was obvious by now…!

Nigel Parsons at 15:05 on 09 June
btw. I cant believe how much porn u watch Paul! But it will not be a good justification to the boss for the overtime

Paul Hughes at 15:35 on 09 June
Basically my friends, with a 16MB connection and time at home, there is nothing beyond my reach….pun intended.

Russ Hollinshead at 15:50 09 June via Facebook Mobile
A life maybe…?

Alistair Clare at 15:53 on 09 June
*harsh*

Nigel Parsons at 16:05 on 09 June
I have never actually spat out my drink when laughin at something – until ur latest update Paul. Well, it was either laughing at something or repulsed by something. Bit of both.

Alistair Clare at 16:06 09 June via Facebook Mobile
well my friend… Even at 16mb.. Thats allot of ’surfing’ to be done to fill that up. Just be careful it doesn’t drop off!

Russ Hollinshead at 16:09 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Isn’t this just for the archives…? God knows where he is putting the incoming stuff…

Russ Hollinshead at 16:10 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Is Paul trying to get a localised copy of the Internet or something…? Have you tried hookers? Could be cheaper…?

Alistair Clare at 16:26 on 09 June
All I can say is that it sounds like Paul is in for a busy night…

James Morgan at 16:57 on 09 June
you’re gonna have a right arm like mike tyson mate

Russ Hollinshead at 17:10 09 June via Facebook Mobile
Blurred vision, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel…

Alistair Clare at 17:57 on 09 June
Life is not looking good mate…. arthritis will set in before the weekend at this rate!

Keith O’Neill Edwards at 18:25 on 09 June
He’ll be calling in sick for the rest of the week…..

Alistair Clare at 18:36 on 09 June
RSI

Moral here for all this: Sometimes the best comedy comes from the internet. And as it turns out, the best porn does too….err….

I mean, it has been yet another week without so much as a “How’s your father?” or “Stop putting that in my ear” comment and with the excitement barely contained after the taste of Spain or something else equally repeating on you a few hours afterwards, you might be wondering if I had gotten distracted again by shiny things or better yet, discovered how to make gold out of bin bags.

Well my friends, I had spent most of last week, seemingly to the lament of quite a few people judging by the Facebook and Twitter responses I received, in Madrid, working away beavering on yet more Office 2007 goodness.

Not content with mastering it the first time round and writing about it for all my sins, here was a fresh challenge to adopt what I had done before, but for those without Admin Rights, and still containing all the bits from before, with the added requirement of making sure no-one could have a play while all of it goes on.

Because the Computer Weekly thing ended some time ago, and some might be wondering how this epic tale will unfold, allow me to add some ray of sunshine onto this new area and the way it’s been engineered:

Calls to VBscript from KIX mainly as I’m scared a fair bit of VBscript (it seems to take far more to do the same damned thing as one line of KIX but there we are) and registering the AutoitX.dll (available from this site: Autoitscript.com) on machines which then allow you to use this code (as an example, think the syntax is good…err…)

Set oAutoIt = CreateObject(”AutoItX.Control”)

oAutoIt.BlockInput on

With that and using the run as option built into the AutoITx.dll as well, you have a truly handy way of getting round pesky little things such as the lack of Admin rights and stopping people from playing with their machines while you’re trying to do something wonderful.

If you package the resultant script as an EXE using something which packages scripts as EXEs…..creative sentence there, it would be a pretty handy way to automate a customised install such as what Office was for use with extra parts.

The only problem would be you would need an admin level account to use for the execution of said program, and that as we all know, if you leave that out in the open, you potentially could find yourself with people abusing that account to do as they please. Guess that is always open to debate whether you should use this method, but if you don’t have a better deployment method for distribution or a small company, it could be the answer.

Yes, My life truly is this exciting….