Stuff Archives

I was filling my car up with petrol the other day and noticed the Google Camera Car pass by. I just looked on the Google Maps Street View and found myself filling up at the local Chevron station. I'm somewhat obscured by the post, but there aren't many people with Challengers filling up at that station and it's obviously me.

Here's the link, but I'm not sure how long I'll be on there as I'm sure they're constantly updating the site. Google Rag

And here are some screenshots for when the actual images online of me go.

This was a video played on a course I just attended. I found it very interesting so thought I'd share. Would probably have rather seen the facts in the middle be about facebook as opposed to myspace, but I guess the video got outdated by the time it was released.

(Unfortunately the video is no longer available https://youtu.be/4TKbIidbyhk)

Interesting the things you come across when you end up randomly browsing the Internet. I was doing a quick search to see how many birding species there are in the UK on the basis that I thought it would be similar to the US. But I was wrong. There are apparently over 10,000 species in the world. Nearly 1,000 in North America and about 550 in the UK. These number vary a bit depending on which site you go to which is why I've been a little vague in the numbers. Anyway, one of the sites referenced a “Sammy the Black Winged Stilt” which apparently lived at Titchwell from 1995 for some period of time .... then further down the list, someone mentioned that there was a YouTube tribute to Sammy .... and one thing leads to the other and next thing you know you're watching some random video .... so I thought I'd share.

.... Oh! I had toast for breakfast this morning.

(Unfortunately the video is no longer available https://youtu.be/OSpy9TnTftw)

Yet again, I appear to have been caught out by the old “more than one airport in a city” gag. This time the honor belongs to Chicago, last time it was Houston. Now, I've just arrived and that means that I did indeed go to the right airport on the basis that the plane took me there. The problem is that I arranged to meet a colleague here to travel to the hotel together, but he went to a different airport. In fairness, I figured out on the flight over that there were two airports and I did a search when I landed to see that there were no direct flights from San Jose to Chicago Midway which likely meant he was going to the other airport. I think he also figured it out too and there was no harm done, it just seems that I've fallen foul of this a couple of times now.

OK, moving on, one thing that amused me was that there was an announcement for a “Richard Balless” to report to customer service. And I always thought a dick and balls came together.

I suppose this was bound to happen sooner or later given the amount of traveling I've been doing recently ..... And in the interest of public service, here are the tips from me lessons learned.

1. If you're going to a city with more than one airport, take note of which one you're flying from. Arguing with a ticketing agent (or ticketing machine as it is these days) doesn't get you anywhere and they won't produce a plane just for you if you are at the wrong airport. At least the good news is that I didn't have time to check in online, otherwise I'd have probably queued at security before I'd realized I was in the wrong place.

2. Taxi drivers can be incentivized to get you to your destination in time. Even after you've been told you can't make it. About $20 does the trick.

3. Make sure you really want to be in a taxi with an incentivized driver. Be prepared for lots of horn sounding and creative use of pavements/sidewalks etc. On the bright side, this can help with a fear of flying. You'll be so scared from the drive that the thought of the plane crashing is actually rather relaxing.

I have to say, this was the closest I've been to missing a plane and still catching it, which was good as it was the last flight out and I would have been stranded for the night. I've missed a couple in the past, but have always managed to hop on the next one.

I'm feeling a little bit upset with Microsoft right now. The computer I use at home for the TV, this webserver and my home email server was running Vista and I upgraded it to Windows 7 in order to accommodate a new TV tuner that required the updated operating system.

I bought the upgrade and performed the install a few months back and everything was fine and dandy.

Then ... the hard disk crashed. No idea what happened to it, but it wont read and I (still) can't seem to mount it (computer won't boot when it's attached). Annoying, but these things happen. So, I switched some drives around and then re-installed the operating system.

Now here's the kicker. I used the Windows 7 upgrade disk to install the operating system given that this is what I need on the machine. No problems with the install, loaded perfectly without any issues.

And everybody lived happily ever after .... at least for 30 days anyway.

A message pops up on the screen telling me I don't have a valid license for the operating system. I enter the license and it tells me it's an upgrade license and not a clean install license. OK - makes sense, but I can enter the Vista key and then the W7 key .... hmmm, no way to do this, so phone the help desk.

The help desk was incredibly unhelpful, although I'm not necessarily going to blame the individual I was talking to as they're working within the bounds they're told to. The result was to tell me that I have to install Vista first and then install the upgrade on top as I only have an upgrade license. Now, the fun part is that I'd thrown away the Vista recovery disks thinking I'd no longer need them. I explained this to the person I was talking to and they told me I had to go back to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and get the Vista disks from them.

I will give credit where credit's due - HP provided me with excellent service for the machine and sent me the recovery disks and we're now up and running fine (after re-installing Vista and then upgrading to W7 - what a memorable weekend that was).

Microsoft .... not so much. I find it hard to believe that I couldn't validate my license keys and get something that would work for the machine. There's no piracy going on here - I'm trying to use a product that I have a valid license for and I have to go through this ridiculous procedure of re-installing one operating system and then upgrading the next.

I've got quite a number of Microsoft products form Operating Systems to XBoxes. I keep getting told to look at Linux and the Playstation. Maybe it's time to listen.

Wow!! I've just caught up with the Premier League results and I have to say I'm somewhat shocked. That was a real trousers and pants down, let's get out the paddle and administer a thorough spanking. Man United 8 Arsenal 2. I haven't seen any interviews, but my guess is the only thing Wenger could say is “please sir, may I have another.”

I know there have been some big results like Spurs 9-1 thrashing of Wigan, but that's Wigan and they don't have the resources of Arsenal. Also, full credit to Wigan for taking the thrashing and then bouncing back - at least not letting it destroy the team. Being a Leicester fan, you have to take your beatings every now and then. They're going to happen - just move on and focus on the games you can win. But this is Arsenal. A team that's used to sending the message, not receiving it.

Based on the little I see, it seems as if Arsene's plan is to sign younger and lesser known players as opposed to Chelsea and Manchester City that seem to want to compete over who can spend the most money. Maybe I can get William signed up to play for them next week .... he couldn't do any worse.

Why am I sat at the airport (Phoenix) listening to some muppet give directions on how to get to the gate? Literally, this guy's on a phone talking to someone else describing the walk down the concourse and what bars/restaurants the gate is near. Next he says “I'll stand in the concourse and maybe you'll be able to see me”

We're at gate A5!

It's easily identified. It's got an f'ing great sign above marked A5. It's between gates A3 and A7, opposite A6. Obviously the gate designation system the airport came up with is not adequate enough. Gates can only be identified by a frantically waiving muppet in the middle of the concourse.

Maybe I'm just a bit stressed. Maybe it's a good job I'm going on holiday this week .... provided I can find the gate to that plane.

I've been traveling round the country staying in a different hotel more or less every day. Last night I got in from Dinner, took the elevator up to my floor and stood there staring as I couldn't remember which room I was in. I'm actually quite impressed I remembered the floor. Anyway I thought there must be some top tips to learn from this traveling and I thought ... ah yes, there's a good one from that morning that resulted in a nasty mishap. Today's traveler's tip is:

Don't leave you hemorrhoid cream next to your toothbrush at night.

On the positive side, I did have minty fresh farts all day long.

And here was me thinking that EastBayRag was my only claim to fame. I was doing some research on places to go for a trip in the UK and what birding opportunities there were and came across this excellent site:

Fatbirder

I feel that it was written with myself in mind.