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Todays update is a video update

Evening all, Hope everyone is well.

Car repairs came in at under £200 so I am impressed....

Heres a video to remind me - and you - what the hell this life is for!

Happy Travellin'
OverlandSi

http://overlandwannabe.blogspot.com

Fwd: Food

Just on a fabulous train ride into london. Already late as usual. One point to note really today... Food production!
When on earth did we get to the stage when chickens are sucked up and blown out of a tube! These are live chickens... Not yet dead.
I know that we as the human race are growing, that we all need to eat, but how much suffering do others need to feel?

This has of course all stemmed from a television programme, as is so often the case in our modern lives. In fact it was possibly one of the best documentaries on for a while, no commentry. At all. No stupid sensationalist idiot banging on about this and that, just your thoughts and opinions and the images of, well mostly, suffering.

Now don't get me wrong, i am not planning to become vegetarian, but i wish i knew a lot more about the exact condition that animals were in before i ate them. And not just at the supermarket, but at fast food outlets, restaurants, even to milk in coffee. If we knew more i am sure more people will make ethical choices, and no I don't mean becoming vegetarian, just choosing ethically produced meat.

Now i had better get off to my direct marketing conference, where no doubt i will have the chance to collect more data about more people than ever before and use it to your benefit of course.

China vs. Tibet with the rest of the world

Clever buggers aren't they!

China has now managed to create a fantastic propaganda opportunity. It hosts the Olympics and every nation around the world is shown effectively arresting or silencing Tibetan protesters.

So now can you imagine the scenes on Chinese TV - Britsh and now French protesters being arrested, of course that means that China is right - that Tibetans should just shut up. m You see Tibetan people now Britain and France have arrested people it is ok for us to do it.....

So it is a bit of a pickle.

Next stop is the blame game. Well China of course is at the bottom of all this, but then again lets not forget that Western views always favour the smaller oppressed guy against the giant monolith.. David and Goliath appears to always be a favourite with the media. For this reason I am staying well away from the whole China vs Tibet thing. (yes I know this is all to do with it but I am focussing on the way it has been construed and how it could be used by China)

So next to blame is the IOCC - who decided that China should have a shot at the Olympics, despite poverty on record scale, despite mass pollution and despite their controls on the media (only recently the BBC website has been "allowed" by Chinese authorities, perhaps they knew that the Tibet protest were coming and knew what reaction the Western police would have to take!!)

So the IOCC goes and sticks the Olympics in turmoil and then just does nothing - puts no real pressure on China and just allows all this to happen. I personally cant wait for the games, will be a waste of time really though as every television network will use it as an excuse to film "expose" documentaries.... They might be interesting though

Probably more interesting than the games themselves.

Noorie - Hindi Remix - Drum N bass - Aaja re

mm funky - im now posting some good music as i dont have time for anything else

FW: Friday versus Monday

He He, fantastic!

Bye Bye HD-DVD

So finally after months of speculation the finals of this generations beta max vs. VHS battle is over and HD-DVD has not come out the winner.

ENGadget.com reports that Toshiba - the main big brand supporter of HD-DVD is to call a halt to its HD-DVD production. >link

So it's Blu-Ray then for us lot... So all those that bought Playstations are ok and will win. Although I do feel a little let down, there was no real battle, no high street 50-50 split with people having to make a real decision. Just those that bought a Toshiba with HD have now lost out, and Toshiba (obviously) have no plans to reimburse those that are left with effectively a useless bit of technology that will be obsolete.

Altohugh I am sitting here smug, glad that i waited for the end to this and knowing i paid over £200 less for not having HD-DVD,or should that be I did not pay £200 for something now obsolete less than a month after i bought it.

It's been coming for a while -

Warner's decision to go to Blu-Ray
Walmart stops selling HD-DVD
Guardian report from CES 2008
Times online early explanation - highlights some of the pitfalls of HD DVD
Early lead for Blu-Ray

*UPDATE* it is officially over - read press release here

Will Google take over the world?

That's quite something really. But in terms of online market share Google is alread huge.

So, what can you do with Google already?

• Google Searches
• If you are not well listed on Google then you are loosing 80% of the UK Search Market and business
• Google Adwords
• Pay to display your website and business higher
• Google Checkout
• Allow all the people that have come to your site via Google Searcha and Adwords to purchase fom your site
• GMail
• Send all your emails with Google, even sort out all your Adwords and Checkout Items
• Blogger
• Add all your thoughts here please!
• Sketchup
• Design items for clients or design items to place in Google Earth
• Google Earth
• View the world, place Sketchup items in the 3d world and mark up where your business is and allow people to plan a route to you
• Google Analytics
• See how many of those Search Engine and Adwords visitors stay on your site and where they go
  
• YouTube
• Put up videos of your business for free and be found in Google Searches.

WOW! thats a bloody lot of stuff really and i'm pretty sure i have missed something out.

So what's the problem?
Privacy - Google now has loads of details from me for hundreds of things. From my email to my business checkout. This information would be superb for any number of companies - who would be prepared to pay Google a very handsome sum for it.

So why do i still use Google?

Simple - It is fabulously easy. Integrated - everything links. Microsoft are crap at this, seriously - they could do so much more, plus having to load up each program drains memory. It would be great to simply run music without having to have the huge memory consuming media player runing and for any of you who have read my other posts will know that i think Vista is little more than a facelift for an ageing product.

Plus - Until Google start to use my information in a manipulative way i think i will be staying as I am.
Love integrated and effective products that take up only as much memory as the browser you're using? Love Google!

Google will take over the world, but it will be an integrated takeover

An Answer to Englands housing problems?

Lets think like Tokyo - we have a housing shortage, yet at the same time thounsands of people cannot afford the houses that are available. In my town alone there are 1,000 empty homes yet there are not enough? seem silly, also stupid in fact. the fact is s that in England houses are boring, all look the same, seriously they all do.

So i have seen the future of housing ladies and gentlemen and here it is!



Quite damn ingenious! It is a real solution to the housing shortage in the future. Seriously, it is not some clammy lil tiny shabby box - ok it's small but everything is there. And I'm sure in the real houses of the future that it will all be electric - or is that not "green" enough for future housing?



Stylish - affordable and only takes up a tiny bit of space! You could fit four of these future houses into the space of just one current shambolic heap of boring design!

Microsoft Surface

Look more Technology from Microsoft.

This has been hanging in the background of rumours and images and videos etc for quite a a while. Looks rather good and fun - and unlike Vista actually different.

I'm having a nightmare here. My Nokia Mem card will not be read by my laptop and i have billions (possible exaggeration) of images that i want off of it. Also my dear phone has decided to be an arse, BUT rather than let me upgrade it online myself Vodafone UK actually have to take it back and upgrade it themselves, tell me there are no real problems and attempt to charge me for the work.

But anyway back to to Surface.

First things first.... it has a kinda post-millennium purple colour scheme that of course has to be that best part of it. Then you have the applications Microsoft want to use this for. In fact Surface is no longer just a computer it is now actually part of the furniture (Some of you might argue that it already has been for years).

But this is real huge sized furniture like - a table.

Now has Microsoft thought about what this puts them up against?

Whilst they are computer people they are now going to take on IKEA, or will we see a flat pack version of surface, available from Swedish merchants everywhere?