dom.blog

You can’t really fail to realise the Halloween skin this website is (reluctantly)wearing. The truth is – I hate Halloween! It’s the dullest holiday you can imagine, and no, I do not consider hyper little kids running around in crappy costumes eating sweets to be fun. So why the CSS mucking about? Well, it’s a bit of dry run for Saturnalia. (That’s the original Pagan term for the winter festival we generally celebrate around the 25th of December. No – I’m not Pagan.)

If you like calling people names, this gave me a laugh.

It tells you something about Bush that his website is now blocking non-US visitors. Ah well, I guess all the Americans voting from abroad have yet another reason to support Kerry now, huh?

I urge everyone to bet money that Bush wins. That way, if he does win at least you will be slightly richer and can buy a drink to halt the depression. And if Kerry triumphs, consider it a donation to the cause!

Michael Moore will be on Question Time tonight, if you can be bothered to stay up to 10:45pm.

And Doctor Who has a sexy new postcard.

I’m Dominic Self, and I approve this message cause I ain’t got nothing better to do.

Released today, Photo Story 3 is a little goodie from Microsoft free to XP users, allowing you to create your own photo story slideshow thingies. Paul Thurrot will tell you what it’s all about here and you can download it right now from the Microsoft website. I’ve tried it myself – it’s basically Windows Movie Maker for photos.

One extra thing though – pirates need not apply. You need to validate your copy of XP (yes – again!) before you can download. Sorry!

Update – I’ve used it a bit more, and it’s really well designed for the job. I can see myself using this where in the past I would have used Movie Maker and got worse results. Thanks Microsoft!

As you can see from my site, Patchou’s Messenger Plus is one of my favourite freeware apps. As a new version comes out, I thought I’d say a few words on the rumour regarding malware bundled with it.

When you install Messenger Plus, a free add on to Windows and MSN Messenger, you are presented with the choice to install an OPTIONAL sponsor program. It’s from C2Media (boo! hiss!) but, as far as I have read, only installs advertising features – no spyware. I don’t know, I’ve never installed it.

In the install screen, you are presented with a big picture of the toolbar, the words ‘Sponsor from C2Media’ in bold letters, and a choice of either “I accept…” or “I refuse…”

Neither option is selected for you. However, even if you do accidentally install it, simply uninstall Msg Plus and then reinstall without the sponsor. Nothing is left behind.

Messenger Plus! is free, and I respect the fact that it’s basically one guy’s work and he puts a lot of time and energy into it. Spreading round rubbish like ‘Messenger Plus is infested with spyware’ is basically libel, especially when Patchou is very approachable – you can chat to him via the forum on his site.

So that’s it really. Messenger Plus is great – and it’s clean. Just remember to read it!

Right, here we go again… [sobs]

“Dom was the person I thought took the best to blogging, but he seems to have tailed-off recently. Maybe it’s the weather, whatever, it’s over to pictorial blogs for some!”
Nic

TAILED OFF? Right, that’s the best incentive I ever heard to get back blogging. I do wish Blogger had categories though

The US Election is close, only 9 days now. I can’t stress enough how important it is to the whole world that Bush loses (he can lose to a dead dormouse for all I care.) I recently read a really stupid article in The Times by some woman who, despite being a life-long Democrat, was voting Bush. And why, pray tell? “Cause the terrorists would want Kerry to win.”

Bullshit! The terrorists would want BUSH, someone to pit the US against the world, someone to hate, someone to get fired up about. And if there’s one thing I’ve learnt about Kerry recently, it’s that he doesn’t seem to get many people fired up. Perfect

Talking of which, be sure to catch ‘The Power of Nightmares’ on Wednesdays, BBC2. Yeah, we all know fear (duh) is used to control us (double duh) but it’s nice to see it spelt out every so often. And it’s GREAT to see ‘Have I Got News For You’ back, the Andrew Marr episode was great on Friday. Oh, plus ‘The Corporation’ is finally out in cinemas here now-ish. Another must-see for me.

My GCSE ICT Coursework – a Database – now kicks some serious ass. Honestly, it’s beautiful and it runs on the Desktop (kinda) without an ugly Access window. Worryingly, I’ve stayed up to 3am working on it. On more than one occasion. Yikes.

And now, a more serious note. It’s been on my mind a lot over the last few days. Robert Symons – a teacher at my school – was murdered defending his family and property from burglars recently (more news here). I really didn’t want to seem to be trivialising it on a blog, but now I think he deserves to be remembered, even by those who hardly knew him. Robert Symons, you will be missed.

So, is that post long enough for ya Nic? Might as well please my only reader!