Gears Blog

Hot rocking Rick Astley moves

Fri, 09 May 2008 16:12:11 GMT

Ber-lumey. Has it really been that long since I posted last ? Yes indeed it has, so here's some mad loon doing a rather respectable job of dancing along to Rick Astley - ala the Rick Astley video (here's the original if you want to compare).

It's strange what people do with their free time.. :)

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Facebook in real life

Fri, 02 May 2008 15:07:21 GMT

This is very good. Sure, I'm on Facebook, but it's not like "real life" is it ? I mean, you probably wouldn't go to the pub with everyone on Facebook every day would you?

However, what if Facebook was real - what if everyone tried to communicate the Facebook way? Perhaps this would happen..

Link - YouTube.com

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I just paid £70 for a weeks worth of petrol. GULP

Fri, 02 May 2008 09:09:58 GMT

Here's the receipt for the tank of fuel I put in this morning. It's actually £2 CHEAPER than it should've been because I had a voucher to save 2p on every litre. I'm going to have to start looking at a Diesel motor soon, especially as I do mostly "extra urban" (motorway) journeys. My car is doing roughly 36mpg, but a diesel should give me 50-65mpg. Unfortunately, although I don’t want to change, I'm going to have to - this petrol will only last me a week (I do roughly 400 miles per week) and £280-£300 per month is just too much cash to spend to get to work and back! :(

Oh, and if anyone asks why I'm not using public transport it's because I can't. I've used the Government's Transport Direct website to see if it's possible. Although it can be done, I'd have be out of the house for 5.30. In the car I leave at 8.15.

Link - FlickR Photo

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Is it wrong? I think so

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:51:56 GMT

Right, I've got to blog this. It's just wrong. So, so wrong. Am I weird for thinking it's wrong? Well, let me tell you about what just happened. Perhaps you will agree.

Today I'm in an office building. There's lots of companies inside and it's all very posh. However, I've just gone to the gents toilets and something just plain wrong was happening. I walked in and, instantly, I'm hit with a smell which was perhaps worse than a failed science experiment involving sulphur, wet dog hair and cabbage. Someone was in the cubicle, so I quickly made my way to the urinal in order to breathe some air from the window before I passed out.

But that's not the weird bit. This guy was on the phone. He was on his mobile chatting away with one of his colleagues about firewalls and trace routes...

"Yes mate, I've done a trace to that IP and it works fine, so I know there's no problem with routing.."

He carried on waffling while I stood there. Is it just me or is that weird? Who the heck answers or makes a call while their trousers are around their ankles? It's just wrong. It shouldn't be encouraged.

I couldn't wait to turn the hand-dryer on. Hopefully it would (a) let the other person know he was on the toilet while talking to him and (b) the air from the dryer would perhaps blow the smell away from where I was standing.

It's not right though is it ?

(Oh, and "toilet cubicle" = "stalls" for anyone in America) :)

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Poddy !

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 22:56:55 GMT

It's not often - if ever - that I discuss my mates on here. However, there's one guy I've lost touch with and just found on facebook. Back in the day, when I was at college, he and several others made sure that beer was appreciated and loved. As for me, I never touched the stuff... honest.

So it's great to see him alive and well. This is Poddy - I'll not mention his real name, but this picture pretty much sums him up. Sometimes I wish I could still do that much drinking :) We used to finish work at about 4pm (we worked for local supermarkets at the time) and have a few drinks in the afternoon. Then, after going home to eat some grub, we'd go straight back out again and get absolutely trolleyed at the nearest bar, pub or club with the rest of our mates. After stumbling in at 4AM it was usually a rude awakening at 6.15 to go back and do the whole thing again. Ahhh those were the days :)

Respect to you Mr Pod!

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Don't park your car in London

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:35:17 GMT

Have a read of this forum post. It shows some rather over zealous parking wardens in London attempting to take a car away that had gone just 10 minutes over it's allowed stay.

A flat-bed truck turns up and attempts to quickly pick the car up, however things don't exactly go to plan as the car tips wildly forwards and hits both the truck and the front of the car. According to the post the traffic warden attempted to polish out a large crease in the roof after the trucks drove off - then slapped a second parking ticket on it after the guy controlling the crane completely gives up and dumps the car back where it started.

Most Brits will no doubt know that London is not a car friendly country (neither is most of the UK right now, with fuel costing £1.20 a litre), but these pictures - available in full here, show an extra degree of idiocy from the local parking wardens. It appears that the wardens waited to take the 56 plate Merc, then almost trashed the car in the process.

Lesson for today? If you're planning on going to London, don't drive!

Links - Forum post - Gallery

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Netvibes having problems again

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:28:55 GMT

What's happening with the guys at Netvibes.com? It seems that every evening, just as the US comes online, netvibes.com (an excellent online news reader, aggregation tool and start page) suddenly falls off the internet. Over the last few weeks I've seen messages like this stating that "New servers" are being put online but I think they could possibly be coming victims of their own success.

:( Doah.

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Good morning officer....

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:12:13 GMT

Here's something you don't want to see in your mirror. :) It's the Police... :)

Before we pulled over (to let them get by) I took a photo. Don't ask me why, I think the tiredness is kicking in and I'm going a little delirious ;)

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Do you know your English language?

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:07:41 GMT

I don't normally publish forwarded emails here, but this is a fantastic one and well worth publishing. It highlights the sometimes crazy construction of the English language. See how you do! Can you read these right the first time?

01) The bandage was wound around the wound.

02) The farm was used to produce produce.

03) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

04) We must polish the Polish furniture.

05) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

06) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

07) Since there is no time like the present , he thought it was time to present the present.

08) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

09) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row .

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

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Yet another excellent DailyMash article

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:08:37 GMT

Yes, I do keep plugging this site, but it is rather ruddy excellent. Here's another fantastic post from the guys at The Daily Mash. Get it onto your RSS reader!

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The Credit Crunch bites

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:19:31 GMT

Well, let's face it. We're all screwed. House prices are slipping, fuel prices are rising, electricity costs are going up, food costs are soaring, firms are laying off staff and we've already heard the phrase "Credit Crunch" two hundred times. To be honest I thought it was a new type of chocolate bar but alas no.

The future, it seems, is looking a bit crap for the lot of us. It hit home for me when a neighbour - who's trying to sell their house for £199,995 - reduced it, after 6 weeks, to £189,995. The property is in a great location, on a nice estate, and it's still not selling. Worst of all, they paid £187,000 for it...... 3 YEARS AGO.

I went to the petrol station today too. It's something I've not done for over a month because I've taken quite a bit of time off work with baby Billy coming along. I was shocked at the fuel prices - £1.20 per litre for Diesel and around £1.12 for petrol per litre. This is getting mental. I probably told you some weeks ago about the guy who put over £100 of fuel into his 4x4 - this will probably be me in a few weeks time if the prices keep going up. If you work it out to gallons, it means that petrol now costs around £14,000 per gallon (ok, I'm too tired to work it out).

That's it, I'm off to live in the Caribbean.. hopefully in a hut without a mortgage!

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Blimey! A blog post!

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:32:20 GMT

Here I am. Yep, still alive. For me not to post in my blog for nearly four weeks is a bit strange, but I have very good reason. This is baby Billy. Our son.

There's such a lot to mention regarding the birth but, like most of the massive things in my life, I spend quite some time enjoying and not enough typing :) Billy was born after a long labour on March 27th. He's now progressing really well and we're doing a sort of "tag team" to keep the late night / middle of the night / early morning feeds flowing on schedule.

I've learned quite a few things these last few weeks, and they are...

1) Never, ever, make jokes about childbirth. What I saw Emily go through is NOT a joke!
2) Sleep is very much over-rated.

3) You can never work a baby out. Is he hungry? Hot? Cold? Has he filled his nappy? Nope, he just wants to barf milk on your shoulder. :)

I'm quickly learning that yes, it is hard work but yes, it's very much worth it! :)

I want to thank everyone who's emailed and posted in the forum wishing us all the best. It's warmly appreciated.

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Come see my cockpit

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:41:10 GMT

The new "big bird" in the sky is the Airbus A380. Due to todays' security concerns you'll never get to visit to cockpit (sorry, I should say Flight Deck) of a plane, so it's well worth looking at this 360 degree view from gillesvidal.com

The array of screens, buttons and computer kit is just amazing.

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Safari 3.1 Now available - Time for a browser change?

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:29:34 GMT

The Internet browser market is now more crowded than ever. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari to name just a few. Safari was, until recently not something I used daily. Firefox is my current browser of choice but now, with Safari 3.1 available, I think I might change my mind. It's blazingly quick and pages look so sexy, clean and smooth. Absolutely bullet fast, plus there's a whole heap of other improvements. Have a look, see what you think for yourself.

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Rainbow - The early days

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 17:50:15 GMT

When I was young I used to watch Rainbow. It's a classic kids TV show, but I certainly don't remember the pilot. Here's the first episode, complete with a rather scary-looking Zippy and Bungle.

It looks like Bungle has stuck his head in the tumble-dryer...!

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Check out my new jumpers

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:38:33 GMT

Here's Beth and Brian Willis. Their dogs died recently, so to remember them they kept the hair which had been combed from their pedigree dogs and spun it into a yarn. This then got knitted into these rather "interesting" tops.

I bet they stink in the rain...

Link - Sky News

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English - Learn the language

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 13:22:44 GMT

Oh the irony....

I've sent this out via email to quite a few people, two of which replied with, "Ha, that's funny - they spelt Engish wrong"

...hmmm. Should I worry ? :)

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Beautiful photos ?

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:25:13 GMT

Here's a photo taken by an American photographer called Kyle Cassidy. He went out to ask "Why do you own a gun" and snapped the shots for his book.

The Washington Post states...

"Each picture in Armed America could be a pro-gun advertisement - or an anti-gun poster. That's what makes the book so riveting."

I doubt many people outside the US would have the same opinion, but they certainly are excellent photos. These are the normal, everyday people who own guns. Take a look at the gallery for more.

Link - armedamerica.org

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Still my favourite website

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:57:07 GMT

TheDailyMash is rapidly becoming my number 1 "coffee break" website. I don't know who writes it, but they're extremely good at what they do. Top work guys!

Here's a couple of my favourites...

- Brits react to the Budget

- The Queen has problems opening Terminal 5

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Googled for the HTC P3470 recently?

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:25:24 GMT

I've just done a search for the HTC P3470 on Google and got this.... :) We seem to be above HTC themselves in the search results!

(BLUSH)

:)

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Storm damage - exclusive photos (yes, again)

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:34:24 GMT

There's been a lot of coverage about the mighty "storm" that's currently blowing across the UK from the Atlantic. I'll admit that I've tried to make light of these storms, suggesting that a bit of wind shouldn't be enough to scare the whole country.

Last night though we had some quite strong wind and rain. At 4AM I woke up and heard a crash in the garden. I figured it must've been something serious, but nothing could prepare me for this level of damage..

So, take care out there guys.

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Storm! Panic! Run away! Alert! Alert!

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:05:51 GMT

If there's one thing that gets on my nerves it's over-reacting to stuff. In every news bulletin and newspaper today and yesterday the headlines seem to concern "the worst storm of the winter", which is now hitting the UK. The result? Well, down in the South and South West a few branches fell off trees, we had a bit of flooding and some damage occurred to buildings (mainly sheds).

So .. err..

For TV and newspapers to stir this kind of panic is ridiculous. On Sunday, a day before the storm "hit", news programmes warned of "the devastation" that could occur and, in one local bulletin, a woman was interviewed and stated that she "wouldn't be taking the kids to school" because of the warnings.... in her 4x4..

What the hell happened to "Great" Britain? We seem to be running scared whenever a snow flake falls or some wind and rain dares to blow through our neighbourhood. :(

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The leader of the free world is a mental person

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:51:45 GMT

Let's not forget, this gentleman still has his finger on the big red button marked "huge nuclear war". With the US and several Allies still at war and America slipping head-long into a massive recession, the President dances like a fool...

I think we can all sleep safely now.

Oh, and all this footage is real - they've just added some music over it.

Link - YouTube.com

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ITV! I can save you!

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 13:27:28 GMT

ITV is posting some poor profits today. I think I know why. I've been doing a bit of research and, after careful analysis, it appears that the majority of programmes are s**t.

Let's take "The Palace" for starters. It's a drama based on the Royal Family.. not the real Royals, this is just some family that ITV have made up. It's s**t.

Next, ITV are about to launch "Rock Rivals". This is an "innovative" idea which, apparently, will have you on the edge of your seats. It's a drama about a TV music talent show, however there's a twist - you get to choose which actor gets booted off each week. Oh, the excitement. They've even filmed different endings, and you get to go "behind the scenes" to see what the judges and contestants get up to. Now, I haven't even seen this, but based purely on the trailers I've seen, I'm safe to say it's s**t.

Everything else isn't too bad. Ant and Dec I'm fine with, Harry Hill is cool and Dancing on Ice manages to pull in more male viewers than ever thanks to Holly Willoughby and her "will it fall off or not" dresses.

Top stuff. Just bin those two shows and ITV will be fine. Job done.

Oh - just remembered... Echo Beach and Moving Wallpaper. Bin those shows too, they're appauling..

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Bit windy this weekend, wasn't it?

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:13:11 GMT

Take a moment to think about the pilots who fly large passenger airlines in these winds. Here's a landing at Hamburg airport during heavy crosswinds which didn't exactly go to plan. The Lufthansa Airbus from Munich struggled through 155 mph gusts of wind upon landing...

Here's how it should be done, courtesy of a BA pilot in a fat 747-400. Absolutely perfect landing! :)

Link - Sky News

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