Every Program needs a "bugger off" button

Computer and internet technology is a brilliant thing. You can get anything and everything at the click of a button, anywhere you are (as long as you're logged on/connected) at your personal convenience. Well actually that's a lie, that last bit about 'your personal convenience'. It's more like an inconvenience! Oh sure I'm not talking about ll those nice things you can have, communication methods right there, academic information easily and readily available, non-academic information readily available, everything, even fluffy toys that look like the HIV virus are available at the click of the button; everything so convenient. But I'm not talking about that.

What I'm talking about is this: Every now and again we are told that to 'access this' or 'enable that function' or 'listen to this advert' and 'make this connection more secure' we are required to download some program or other. And I'm not even talking about the bogus Downloader-Dialer-Trojan stuff. I'm talking about those readily recognisable genuine programs one seems to need running in the background to make life with a computer oh so smooth. Shockwave flash, Media player, Quicktime (of all things), Direct-effing-X, Adobe Acrobat, you name it.

Fine! you install all these things in the hope that you can get what you want now just to find that all these programs have decided that they now take up a prime spot on your computer; the system tray; and that right from the word go!

I DON'T WANT THEM THERE!!! I HATE THEM!!! THEY CAN BUGGER OFF!!!

What's worse, to stop them doing that I have to open these programs (which I downloaded so I wouldn't have to have anything to do with things), leaf through their 'Preferences' section (of which they may have about seven), come invariably past a "do you wish to register?" entry at which point I fell like punching the program concerned into the stone age for suggesting that I wished to give away all my personal details in order to receive an abundance of e-mails every day (...back to the point), and find and untick(!) the box that says "open into system tray at windows start up". Why on earth would this box be ticked in the first place? If I didn't tick it, then I don't want it to be bloody ticked! I don't want this program to run in the background when it's not needed!It clogs up the process, uses up memory and is good for just about nothing anyway as long as I don't run any applications that depend on it; and even then it takes about, uh..., five seconds longer to start the application without the thing already in the background, big smegging deal!

And that's why I think that all programs need a "bugger off" button that shows up right after installation which deletes and overrides all the default autoplay, standby, tray icon and background settings and generally restricts the program concerned to only run when when it's absolutely necessary.

And now I'm going back to work again, but it needed saying.

on the theft of mental property on Facebook

Yeah

So i basically had a leaf through the terms and conditions implemented on Facebook and had to say that I was actually quite unhappy about them.

Facebook is basically this great big contact site, where you have a profile page and everyone else has a profile page and you can join networks of people living in the same region or going to the same school and then you can find your friends in those networks, provided they are on Facebook. You can fill in lots of details about yourself, anything any friend of yours might want to know that he/she doesn't already, you have loads of space to upload photos onto, you can share pictures, links, thoughts, basically anything that can be written into a text box, with anyone who's on Facebook.

As I said, I had a leaf through the t&cs because a friend of mine thrown off the site for allegedly using a fake name which, considering that you can find stuffed animals on there, is a bit ridiculous. The bit I take issue with is the passage outlining your rights to anything you write or post on F - or complete lack thereof. Facebook have arranged things so that you automatically forfeit all your rights to what is essentially your own mental property from the moment you post it onto the site until the moment you take it off the site again - which let's face it, is not going to happen because you either stay on it till you drop or you get bored of it in which case you don't want to spend any more time on the site deleting everything.

The problem of course with t&cs is that you're supposed to have read them before you hit the OK button which no-one ever does and that's why online services keep getting away with so much $hit.

I think that mental property should be respected even on the internet

Adrian on politics

I could say; "politics suck", which is about as bold and meaningless a statement as you cannot, or should not, make about a complex concept such as politics. Bold because it's not very constructive and doesn't give any clues as to why it would suck if it did, and also because it's very easy to say without actually committing oneself to very much.

But the fact remains that I don't like the way the political situation is turning out in the country. Starting with the fact that what we basically have here is not a democracy - full stop. Because let's face it, the only thing people in this country can vote for is a anarchic ruler who can pretty much decide what he wants and even when he's challenged in his decision all he's gotta say is something like: "I think this is good", or "no, it is important and it's the right decision", and everyone will just agree with him eventually, if he just keeps insisting on that long enough. Some political system! And the government doesn't even half care about the people living in this country as long as they pay taxes. One of the few things this government is good at is collecting taxes and reinforcing tax laws wherever it can. What for? For a war that nobody in this country supports?

What we have here is a democratic dictatorship. And when it comes to elections, what are actually the choices? Abysmal, that's what they are! Only three parties to choose from? Let's break it down then. We've got the current government party who haven't done a very good job over the past three(!) candidatures. (why the hell did they get re-elected I ask you?!) We have the opposition party, the conservatives, who have ruined this country before and will doubtlessly ruin it again given the chance. And what are we left with? The Liberal Democrats. Well they're a bit of a joke, aren't they?! I mean, before last elections everyone got the feeling that, "wow, they are the REAL alternative!" They give us the facts as they are, they don't lie and they're finally a political group who will admit that making good politics WILL COST MONEY! And then they suddenly start squabbling about leadership. "He's been a good leader but he's got an alcohol problem that hasn't so far stopped him from making good politics!" and "oh no, he's had a relationship with a rent-boy, no we can't have that for a prime minister!"
Yeah you really blew your chances there. Not just for this last election but also for the coming one because people will remember. That's why the conservatives don't get in.
You could have been the real alternative, standing as one behind your candidate. Showing that he was the one to do some decent politics.

So if the Liberal Democrats won't get in and the Conservatives don't get in either, what does that leave us with? Oh yeah, the Labour Party, whoopee! And that's why they always get back in again, not because they make very good politics, but because they are consistent as a unit and because the only alternative would be the Conservatives.

And that's why politics suck!

on irrational phears

Do you get that? You lie in bed and all of a sudden you think up a situation where something unthinkably scary and dangerous happens to you!
like...

• that you might get attacked by a shark while swimming in the ocean
• or that you might get too close to the edge of, say, the White Cliffs of Dover and end up falling to your death

And it's not so much the problem of thinking up these situations, it's also that I then go on vividly imagining them which really puts the shiver on my skin. If it's something to do with heights my soles and palms will start tingling really uncomfortably.
For example...
This morning I thought about the effect of one tectonic plate suddenly deciding to sink down on one side, being pulled under its neighbouring plate and leaving a huge opening for hot magma to flow out pretty freely on the other side. what chaos would that create in our modern society! Then I thought where would that be possible? Aha, Los Angeles! (I think) But then I'm thinking what if you were lying on the beach because the sand had gone really warm over the past few days. And so you'll be lying there while all of a sudden the sand melts into the ground, being melted from below by his magma stuff, and you're still lying there! Except, that you'd be dead. And then I thought, well, you wouldn't really feel anything would you becuase the temperature is so hot it will burn your nerve ends before they can send the pain signals to your head and then your eyes...(very graphic imagination follows)

Anyways, I think about stuff like that. And sometimes it's really annoying because all you can do is shake yourself about violently in a n attempt to get this uncomfortable feeling off you.

The one with the Cliffs in Dover is another original one (i.e. I didn't just dream that up for this post). I want to go and see them becuase they amaze me. And becuase I know there's afootpath going along the top I though "uh I want to get really close to the edge and then look down!" WHY??? I mean, I'm affraid of heights as it is. Only thinking about it makes my plams go funny.

Maybe this has got nothing to do with fears and can just be blamed on an overactive imagination. Somtimes I wish I could just lose those weird thoughts, but then I'm thinking 'at times an overactive imagination is pretty funny'.

Oh the power! Muahahaha...

on Telephones

Yesterday I found myself wondering in bemusement about the development of the telephone. One of the simplest devices, present in nearly every household and let's face it, we take it for granted. It's so simple nowadays to just give BT a call and ask them to connect you, which they do in less time than it takes for anyone to spell antidisestablishmentarianism.

The telephone had long been invented when I was little, we had one at home, and it was no big deal really just to pick up the handset (according to Wikipedia (?)) and dial the number for a relative or friend who lived on the other side of the country, or the world for that matter.

Speaking of dialling... The only reason why we call it dialling today is because old phones like the one above. Before those came along you had to phone the operator and ask them to "connect" you. I wonder therefore what we'd call it today had the dial not been invented?! What if mankind (or telephonekind for that matter) had gone straight to buttons?

I remember back when I was a kid we had a phone similar to the above, which was possibly white, but I can't be sure. And I remember it being a huge event in our family when we got one of them combined Radio/Tape-recorder/Telephone jobies. It wasn't so much the fact that these three devices were combined but the thing had a green button with which you could put the the whole conversation on loudspeak via the radio speakers and the built in microphone meant that you could put the handset down. I remember pleading with my mum to use this Telephone for certain calls rather then the other! Ah... those were the days...
Then mobile phones came along and for quite a while I refused to get one. I was convinced, and I still am to a certain extent now, that unless you could also brush your teeth and so on with it, it was an unnecessary evil. And why would I want to phone people when I'm away from home? Only being able to phone from home simply meant that life had to be organised. With a mobile phone you don't have to organise anymore, which is also why those miserable subjects who don't manage to switch their phones off before lecture get phonecalls during lecture when person B on the other end should damn well know that person A has got lectures! I'm so turing into a grumpy old man.
But, in the end, I got myslef one of them mobile things, and it didn't last long. They're just not sturdy enough. I think they should hold out more. I think it's wrong to replace a phone after half a year just because it's not brand new anymore. It's not reasonable and it's not economic cause you're spending money on not only something you don't really need but also something that didn't need replacing EVER twenty years ago. Yes I know, grumpy old sod.
Phone booths have started dissappearing with the invention of the mobile phone. At least in Switzerland they were very quick to take them out of service for not making the telecompany enough money, I'm surprised how many phone booths in Britain seem to be surviving.
Of course now technology has moved on again with the availability of the internet. In twenty yeas time people will probably laugh at the download speeds that we used to have to put up with and still do. From the broad availability of this interconnecting network tool it's only a small step to establishing live phone-like connections over the internet. Since I'm away from home here in Britain and my parents we originally used to phone and when I finally got an internet connection we started using Skype. Why pay for something that you can have for free?! Lately I have taken this development one step further; phoning from computer to landline, or mobile for that matter. And I'm still amazed by this possibility. Having grown up with all this technology (we must have got our first computer in the late 80s) it still hasn't lost its wonder.

funny that...

on Bangor

Bangor is the place that I have been living at for the last three and three quarter years. After having spent all the previous time of my life at home this was a welcome change and I loved every minute of it. I use the past here deliberately because unless any kind of miracle happens, like, "I get a job that pays stupid amounts of money and which permits me to stay in the area", I shall have to move to a location that is more convenient. And really, the chances of a job suiting my preferences cropping up any time soon are slim in this area. But I shall miss it. Let's face it, more than 70% of my friends are here. OK some friends have moved back to other parts of the country but many are still her, the community is strong. Secondly, to one who has lived his previous life in a land locked country living on the coast comes as something of a revelation. It's not something I'll ever want to miss again, but that I fear I ultimately will.
I love Bangor for its beauty and is convenience. Having never been much of a city person, although I loved Exeter, I feel quite comfortable in this small-ish town that manages to cater for most needs at a convenient five to ten minute's distance from my doorstep. Who wouldn't want to live here?

Having been here for a long enough time it often strikes me as odd how few time I have actually been out of town and visited places around Bangor. I've been to Chester a fair few times, easily reached with public transport and thus a nice day out, but of the surrounding countryside I know horrifyingly little. I've been to Beaumaris across on the island and enjoyed Fish & Chips in the best chippy in the area (which sadly includes Batty's, which I regard as the best chippy in Bangor), I have walked across the Bridge to Menai Bridge - something which I only managed last year when my parent stayed over (!). I have seen Red Wharf Bay and its opposing shore, Llandonna beach, but have since then failed to go there again. I have also been on a beach near Holyhead which might have been Llanfwrog, but i can't be sure. On the main land side I have visited Caernarfon, briefly. Once because there's a shop I needed to go to and once because a friend invited us over. But I've never actually did any proper sight seeing there. I've been to Llanberris, just. And I have been to a couple of surrounding villages, the names of which I have forgotten, to visit friends for a party. Oh and I have been to Paenmaenmawr. Kite flying along the beach and to visit "the Friday", who lives there with his wife and two kids and who is a great mate of mine. But apart from that I haven't been anywhere! I don't know Snowdon, I haven't been on the Great Orme (nor on the small one for thatmatter). I have only been swimming once I hardly ever go for walks that are extensive enough to be mentioned. How sad is that? How uninterested do I seem in a place that which I claim to love so much? I should really get a live, go out and explore the place and actually get to know what it means to live in Bangor. I shall endeavour to do so THIS SUMMER. But before that there's still three deadlines to meet so I shall remain sad and live a life of solitude and secludedness with only my workstation to comfort me. And even that only when my wordcount will have risen sufficiently to considere it work.

Anyways, Five and a half hours of sleep is not good, and I'm hungry as well.

Adrian on drinks

Hi

I'm slightly dehydrated that the moment, which is why I'll start with water.

I like water and tend to drink pints of it quite regularly. Or at least I used to before I came to Britain, because the tap water in this country does just not lend itslef to be consumed in large quantities. Needless to say that this is because of all the chemicals in it. I wonder why the government does not realise that chemicals are bad for human beings? probably becuase they think that going down the supermarket and buying a bottle of water there is an easier sollution than them spending millions of pound on a sollution of the problem; i.e. a replacement of all the copper piping with plastic piping. But that's stuff for a government rant and I'm not going to go into that now.
Anyway I drink water a lot nevertheless and having it with squash overpowers the chemical taste of it, so I suppose I can live with that. I've also noticed that in different parts of town the water tastes different. How odd! In Caellepa for example the water tastes DISGUSTING! And I had to live there for a year.

Speaking of water, I can see the Menai Straight from my window. In fact if I were fit and able enough I could take a fifty foot leap right into it. Obviously I'd break all my bones and die in the process but then again I'm ot about to do that anyway.

To get back to the topic, The second drink that I could drink a lot of is Chocolate Soja milk. Tat stuff's absolutely gorgeous. I't quite addictive as well. And I think it works a bit like an energy drink. I sometimes get one of these small boxes in Health food stores and they totaly wake me up again. But if I get the chance I buy litre cartons. And I say "get the chance" becuase the store I buy them in selles them together with plain soja milk. the boxxes they stack contain 9 cartons of which only two are chocolate flavoured and obviously these are sold out within about one and a half days of them replenishing their stock. I don't know why they change this becuase it's so obvious that they sell hardly any of the plain flavoured stuff which means it takes them about a month efore they start filling up the shelf again.

Anyway, moving on to harder substances. I like my ale and I don't understand why Swiss breweries have never started making any! Maybe part of the problem is the fact that pub culture (or lack thereof) is different in Switzerland. People don't start filling pubs at four in the afternoon. They're go for a drink but they won't stay there. And I think for ale to be a viable substance to sell you need to get through a barrel relatively quickly and I can't see that happening in Switzerland. Not that we don't drink beer. In fact we're very patriotic about our beer. Well, lager, technically. But you see, the four main breweries are dotted around the country and people naturally form allegances with their brand. Needless to say that they all taste lightly different. Yes indeed, it's lager alright, but that doesn't mean it has no taste.
But here in Britain I like my ale and since I now live within tubling distance of my favourite pub I don't have to worry about supplies. I like trying new ales and I generally don't drink too much as I can't take too much alcohol in the first place. I maintain the convicion that alcohol is there to be enjoyed and not to get horribly legless on.

Which brings me to the phenomenon of the alco-pop. Alco-pops were invented to make people drunk. And they were not, despite what other people say invented to be a cheap alternative. They are not cheap, they contain a load of crap and the fact that they drink themselves like water means you get drunk really quickly having spent shitloads of money on them. I don't like them! If you want to drink a coctail, which is ultimately what an alco-pop is, then find yourself someone who is apt at mixing them and get them properly done. It might still contain cheap alcohol but at least you get the pelasure of watching barman coctail mixing skills.
I very arely dring spirits. A couple of years back I get the taste for rum and coke. Not the filthy clear stuff that tastes of nothing, but Dark Rum and Coke. Either on ice or without if the coke's chilled. Brilliant stuff that. I also like vermouth, which is a very cheap and possibly bastardised spirit, but sweet and with lime on ice it's quite nice.

There's one more variety of alcohol I haven't talked about yet. Homebrew. Amazing stuff that. I started home brewing about two and a half years ago. Unfortunately I started with a mead which I made far too dry but then everyone has to start somewhere. I have since then discovered the joys of the Blueberry wine, the Rhubarb wine and the Molasses and Ginger wine. I'm making Rhubarb wine for the second time now as it was gone all to quickly last time and people cried out to me for more. It is the single most gorgeous taste there is, I have to admit it. The Blueberry wine is great too, in fact all of them are quite nice brews. And they take so little to do. The only problem is of course the equipment and yeast and so on. If you don't have a supplier nearby you have t order the stuff in through the internet with costly effects. The other problem with fruit wines lies with the fruit you use and whether it's clean, contains any chemicals (from spryaing pesticide), or harbours any insectile impurities. Of course the sollutions to this problem is to be very thorough in choice and processing of the fruit.

But now I'm hungry. I'm going to have breakfast and then I'm going to work!

ta ta

Adrian on showers, and possibly exercise

Since I just had a shower I feel that it's the perfect topic to write about. I love showers, I absolutely do. Certainly more so since I discovered the secrets of the "Original Source" (there goes the advert. And I don't even get paid for it)showers have become a major event in my life. That is not to say that I shower as often as possible and sometimes twice that, no. I still sometimes dodge having a shower and go to bed or something knowing full well that my hair is already looking and feeling really manky it will do even more so the next morning, at which point I can really not postpone having a shower much longer. I generally prefer having showers to having baths. Maybe it's to do with the fact that I don't fit into most bathtubs and in order for it to be a reasonable bath you hve to sit there for hours thinking "It's not really comfortable, the water's getting cold, my knees are sticking out and right now I could think of a million other things to do that ar more urgent than having a bath!"

Also baths are more enjoyable if there's two in toe tub (nuff said on that note) (except, that there's even less space now)

But I guess with age (I'm not THAT old, yet) I have overcome the gender specific stereotype of "boys not liking showers", because I know when I was a kid I hated having a shower! Don't ask me why, cause the only explanation I can think of is that it takes time away from doing other things like playing. Even though I probably spent to previous four hours playing. I did have more baths then though, it has to be said. And I always had my bath toys. Not just rubber ones, but also plastic clockwork ones that would float on the surface and swim around. I guess this is why I am of the firm conviction now that every bathroom needs to have a rubber duck (at least).

Which leads me to wonder. Do other people have rubber ducks? And do they come in the bath tub with you whan you're having a bath? Or are they just ornamental, something for the party guests to smile over when they go to the toilet.

I thought I'd write more on that topic but I've run of ideas now, so I'm gonna switch over to my non-compulsory topic.

Exercise is something i do far too little of. Sometimes I'll do some push-ups just after I get out of bed, but that doesn't happen very often. I am painfully aware that I should really set aside some time for serious exercising something I intend to do as soon as all these deadlines are out of the way, but having said that it would probably be better for me, my morale, my health, my work willingness - take your pick, to be doing exercise right now instead of constantly arguing that I didn't have to time.

Exercise clears out the head. I know this and in my first and some of my second year I went for a run or to the gym just to airate my head and be able to start fresh on what ever I was working on. It is also a fact that wenever I get out of the gym, having spent approximately one hour there I feel completely relaxed and not at all sleepy. Perfect for doing a day's work.

Yeah I should really do that more often.

Now I'm hungry. I'll have some breakfast and then we'll see. Maybe I can do some work today. (I'd really need to as I've not finished something which is due in today)

daily collumn

Hi

I have decided that since my writing skills are sorely lacking and I can't seem to do any work for more than five minutes at the time before I get distracted I shall make the effort and write something every morning. Obviously the more I write the easier it will become and therefore I will be able to hand in some half decent work (even though this will be coming too late as most coursework I've got is due in this month).

Yep, you might have guessed it, I am a student. I'm studying Linguistics at Bangor University which is a place I grew to like over the past three and a half years and hence I stayed on to do a Masters degree in said discipline; a decision I am not sure I would take again as I might have become somewhat bored of the general academic process and the writing of assignments. Nevertheless I am doing this Masters degree and I'm not willing to concede failure because I know that I am not. I am quite an intelligent person, even saying so myself, but this year has been less than fortunate to me.

It all started out when I moved into this gorgeous house in early summer 2006. I was absolutely in love with it and didn't have a problem with the fact that I didn't know most of the people I moved in with; something you can get over very quickly in one night's drinking and general merriment. Unfortunately most of the housemates (some had moved out and some had moved in) turned out not to be students anymore by the time I started my MA so that the house started getting noisy every time I though I could do some work. the fact that most of the inside walls of said house were paper thin didn't help the matter.

There were good times as well though. I'm still friends with all of them and I wouldn't want to miss them for the world. Also, through some fortunate twist one of my (now ex-) house mate's mate came to stay for a week before she found a place to stay of her own as she just started an MA too. Needless to say that I wouldn't be mentioning this if it weren't for the fact that we started dating in October of the same year and are still going out, I'm as happy as Larry with her the same goes for her. Playing Sardines also comes to mind in connection wit that last house I lived in. Oh the fun you can have during a power cut!

Since then I have moved into a new place where I inhabit the attic room. The house is an equally gorgeous find with as awesome a view as you could ever wish to have it; especially from my double-window. Again I didn't know an of the housemates at the time I moved in but we get on very well, a fact that is underlined with the frequent partying gong on in our house.

With regards to work however the situation's bad. As my first deadlines fell in line with me moving house and all that I was able to get extensions, which I have kept, if only just, but unfortunately this also meant that I was working on assignments by the time the next semester had started. By this time I had decided that I would not put up with doing two things (i.e. pieces of coursework) at once as I was already finding it increasingly difficult to juggle life in a language I speak very competently but which isn't my mother tongue. Now, after another semester of academic struggle I am faced with deadlines again. Four of them to be precise and some would quite rightly say, "Well you'd better get a move on then!" which is precisely where my problem lies. I can't. I'm feeling incapable of doing any serious amount of work even though the assignment I'm working on at the moment covers a topic that is of personal interest to me and that I wish to pursue in the future.

Why then can I not work? Well, some would probably put it down to laziness as indeed the right out abandonment of work in favour of some cheap, quickly gratifying entertainment seems to be. However, I think it is not laziness that's making me unable to work but that a sequence of factors are all affecting the situation.

1. I am an activist. Something I have learned over the past few years is the fact that I learn things better and quicker than anyone IF - i find a useful application of the subject matter or if I can discuss the subject matter with someone else. That way my ideas are perpetuated and I will end up knowing stuff through collecting knowledge and making the right conclusions. If I don't get any interaction with the subject matter, other than what I read, this does not happen, or only very slowly. Therefore information my brain will store is information that is agitated and used. If it's not used it's not worth knowing. Which unfortunately at the moment means that I know almost nothing about Discourse Analysis, Bilingualism and Semantics and Pragmatics. And my Welsh language learning, which I do as part of my course is deteriorating as well since I don't really get to practice (on my own) and I don't really see how it's going to be assessed anyway with no exams or anything.
2. My work environment has to be right. I am still suffering from a bad start since my work environment at the other house was shite. Although I now have a work environment that would be favourable for me, being behind with work meant that I neglected doing much work since my last assignments because I was constantly aware of being behind. Vicious circle. And I am still annoyed about the fact that I had such a bad start in the first place, because I did have high hopes for this Masters degree.
3. I have, it has to be said, an addictive personality. As far as physical drugs are concerned I am only into alcohol and there I know my measure. I like my ale, I like enjoying a good pint and I don't do spirits very often. Getting drunk is not something i willingly set out to do for I am of the opinion that the aftermath is simply not worth going through. I don't smoke and I don't do neither hard nor other soft drugs. However, I do like my computer games, which is unfortunate because faced with deadlines I really can't afford to waste time playing the damn things. But this is the thing about computer games; they're instantly gratifying, in that they are simple to learn play and play well and they most invariably have a collecting factor to them. Where items can be collected, hoarded or sold off for lots of (in-game) profit, I'm there. But it doesn't even have to be MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game - basically World of Warcraft, EveOnline, etc.) even little applications such as Spider Solitaire or the Einstein Puzzle will be enough incentive for me to abandon work because they are simply more gratifying that writing down sentences I cannot form in my head in the first place.

So there you have it. Sucks even more because I am aware of all this but don't know what to do about it. And as far as humans go, it doesn't matter how many friends you've got, you're still on your own when it comes to things like this.

But I want to finish on a happier note than this, so here goes. My girlfriend will probably read this, but I don't mind.

I have not known love like this before I met her.