Following stories like this, this and this in the press about mobile phone masts, the Sunday Telegraph today reports that the four main UK mobile phone operators are willing to pay homeowners �7,000 a year to conceal a mobile phone mast on their house. Apparently they can conceal it in your chimney, gutter downpipe or in an alarm-style box. They say that if your neighbours don't know it's there then there will be no complaints. Makes sense really and the thing is, I think I would probably do it if I actually owned this house. All this health scare business is a load of old bollocks really - radio and TV waves have been drifting though the air for many years and have never been linked to any health issues. The fact remains, there is no actual proof that mobile phone masts are in any way linked to effects on health, emissions from masts are many times less than those from mobile phone handsets.

• • • • •

 
Another weekend nearly over. Went to Windsor yesterday, met up with my family. Had a brilliant lunch of sausages & mash in a wine bar and went to see a mini-exhibition of my sister's work in a theatre. It was a nice day, even if it pissed it down all day - nice to see everyone and to see my sister's work. Grandma went home with Mum & Dad.

Also implemented the SMTP server upgrade yesterday. Did a bit of testing and it all seems ok. Just about to check it again. Hope it doesn't fall over, don't want 10,000 users all screaming they can't use email. Wouldn't look good.

Candi had a bad day at work today - some old bag who works there got all uppity when C tried to show her how to do something ("I've been doing this job for ages, who do you think you are etc"). She's so sensitive it really upset her, so she came home early, which was nice. Hopefully she will quit this week.

So we watched AI on DVD. (I picked it up for �7.99 for the 2 disc set from play.com) It was quite good, if a bit over-long and ultimately pointless. The special effects were...special! Loads of cool CG stuff. Funny how all Spielberg's films have such strange family dynamics...

I've been thinking about the web a lot recently. Well, I say the web, I really meant the Internet. Funny how not that long ago (when I started using the net) there were a bunch of applications and protocols that made up the Internet. These days when you say "The Internet" people automatically assume you are talking about something that you can view in a browser (or 'surf'. God, I've always hated that term). So where is it going? Where will the Interweb be in a year? Two years? Ten years? I think when you combine it with wireless access, via PDA or whatever superceeds it, you will have a fantastic technology which has countless possibilities. I'm too tired to think about it right now, but it's going to be cooool. Just hope we don't end up in Big Brother hell.

Check out these retro 'vinyl' CDRs. Nice!

• • • • •

 
Do Amazon really expect to sell many of these?

• • • • •

 
Quite a busy, boring day today. Didn't manage to achieve much, but did some preparation for a change I have just finished implementing - blocking mails into or out of work that contain offensive material. You know the kind of thing, swear words, racial terms etc. Received a big list from my boss that had all the words / phrases in... quite funny. Especially as nobody knew what a 'porch monkey' or 'wetback' was. And another thing, there is nothing to stop the user with 2 brain cells from replacing one letter and changing the offending word (eg 'fvck') or using another word that has the same meaning ('pork')... Ah well.. at least I get paid for it.
Seems The Company are pretty serious about preventing users from enjoying themselves at work - no pr0n sites, no swearwords, no joke emails, no web-based email, no non-Office attachments....what does that leave?! Glad I'm no ordinary user!

Listening to MP3s at the moment off my laptop hard drive - pretty crappy quality. Wonder if things will improve with the new PC? Hope so.

Found out earlier from my Dad that my sister's cat, Guinness, just died. I think I'll send her a sympathy card. He was a good cat, that one. Died from water on the lung, apparently. Not nice.

• • • • •

 
OK, so it's been a couple of days. Sorry 'bout that, but I've been busy. Drove 500 miles over the weekend, we went to pick up my Grandma who is staying with us this week. I've taken the day off work today, to show her around and stuff. We fed the ducks at the bottom of the road, walked into town, had a coffee then went for a long walk up the river. Just had lunch and we're both sitting down now, I feel worn out! Glad the weather has been good for her, it was so nasty yesterday I was a bit worried. Seven people killed by the high winds, trees falling on cars etc., When we were driving down last night I had to swerve a couple of times to avoid huge trees that had fallen across the road. Luckily it seems to have blown itself out now, lovely weather today.

So... what else is new? Well, I've received the wireless NIC for my new PC, but no new PC yet. I've contacted them and they reckon it will be another 14 days. Bit annoyed about that really, apparently Carrera only take about 3 days.

Candi is at a hair expo today, buying all manner of equipment for her new profession.

Random thought for today - you know that Walkers crisps promotion they have going at the moment? Where they say "there may be a �20 note inside"? (Yeah, may being the operative word.) Well, I eat a lot of crisps and I've never found one. Nor do I know anyone that has, or has even heard of anyone that has. I think it may all be a big con. If you have found a �20 note in one then please let me know, otherwise I will continue to believe it's a conspiracy!

Found a cool site about favourite icons for bookmarks and Blogzilla - a blog about same. Apparently you can use an animated gif which is waaaay cool!

Found another cool site - fear.com - strangely addictive. I must have submitted about 20, all things like "soon there will be nothing on TV except docu-soaps and reruns" and "King Charles and Queen Camilla". (I even scared myself there)

Read a sucky review of the new film Fear Dot Com. I will definitely be avoiding that one when it hits the UK. Booo! Shame on you Warner Bros! Booo! Booo!

I've seen a couple of way cool comedy programmes on Paramount Comedy - Thumb Wars and Thumbtanic. Check out the official Thumbs site. (Frankenthumb is on Friday). Might investigate - apparently they are out on DVD...

• • • • •