Archive for July, 2007

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EDS – Business Services

Sunday, July 29th, 2007

Back when I worked for the British Government, we had a saying whenever our network went down. We used to say it all the time… Our system completely went down at least once a week between 9am and 6pm… You want to know what it was?

“It’s EDS again. I don’t know how they keep this contract.”

I just saw an advertisement on American TV for this company and I was pretty shocked, I didn’t realise that the company was so large. Their advertisement said that they help the London Transport System and it was a typical “that’s what we do” style of corporate advertising that actually gives no information about what they do or who they are.

Well I’ll tell you that from my experiences between 2003-2004, EDS were not capable of sustaining a stable network of computers to a central database, when it worked it was slow and it often crashed completely.

It is extremely annoying to see this company is expanding. I just hope they’ve improved themselves.

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I am very rarely this angry…

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

I waited nearly two weeks before I emailed the makers of this religious card so I wouldn’t be as angry, but I just can’t help it. Read the card by holding your mouse over the image (or click: Front | Back).

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The most stupid thing you’ll ever read…

Saturday, July 28th, 2007

The United States is planning to help bring peace to the Middle-East by making a $20bn arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

Am I the only person who thinks this is absolutely idiotic? I know the USA is in a lot of world debt after fighting the war for a few years, but $20bn won’t even make a dent into that total and will surely raise tensions in the Middle-East.

I realise that in World War II, the USA armed the UK (a friend) to help it defeat a common enemy and in that situation, this type of thing worked – but there’s one huge difference in this deal…

Iran is not an enemy of Saudi Arabia – they’re an enemy of the USA, so arming the (current) friend in the Middle-East will not overpower the enemy, it will merely bring more arms into an area that does not need them.

Haven’t the USA learned anything from the fact that Russia were defeated in Afghanistan by Russian-made AK47’s? Haven’t the USA learned anything from the fact that lots of the weapons killing their soldiers now in Iraq are made in the United States? Just because Saudi Arabia is a friend at the moment, that is no need to ship arms to them because – there is NEVER a need to ship arms to anyone anymore – it is WRONG. I can see a time, far in the future, after all the oil is gone from Saudi Arabia, when the USA won’t need it’s friend anymore, where U.S. soldiers will be fighting against individuals carrying part of this weapons deal…

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On the Lot – Zach – Time Upon A Once

Tuesday, July 17th, 2007

This is an absolutely beautiful and extremely original short film.

I’ll say it again: Zach better win this…

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“Thank God” for the Legal System

Sunday, July 15th, 2007

While the Pope is busy telling everyone that Roman Catholic’s are members of the only true church and religion, his “true church” based in Los Angeles is busy paying out $660M to people who were abused by Catholic Priests. That abuse was carried out under the watchful eye of God, no doubt.

Here are just a few of the recent large settlements:

2007 – Los Angeles, California. $660M (for over 500 claims).
2007 – Los Angeles (again), California. $114M (for 86 claims).
2007 – Spokane, Washington. $48M (for 150 claims).
2007 – Portland, Oregon. $52 (for a minimum 175 claims).
2006 – Covington, Kentucky. $84 (for 360 claims).
2004 – Orange County, California. $100M (for 90 claims).
2003 – Boston, Massachusetts. $84M (for 552 claims).

The following all tried to claim bankruptcy but miraculously (excuse the pun) some managed to “settle” for amounts they could afford and stopped bankruptcy proceedings afterwards.

Tucson, Arizona.
Spokane, Washington.
Portland, Oregon.
Davenport, Iowa.
San Diego, California

I think it’s utterly absurd for the Pope to be putting his name on documents like the one I mention in the start of this post, one church is just as insane as another, take this as an example of Islamic insanity and this as an example of insanity in an “untrue church” (as the Pope would say)…

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He works in mysterious ways…

Sunday, July 15th, 2007

A woman plunged to her death on an amusement ride at a Christian music festival.

Of course, nobody who would attend such a thing would see this as anything other than “God’s Plan.” Let’s see if the family sue the people running the ride, or the festival itself because, if they do, they are denying the existence and “power” of God to determine this woman’s fate.

Me? I think she died in an accident, caused by either human error or mechanical failure. Er… That’s it.

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Iraq = Monty Python Land?

Thursday, July 12th, 2007

Now this is funny, but, when are we? Is this really 2007?

Much like “She’s a Witch – Burn her!” Iraqi Civilians are blaming British soldiers for bringing a “man eating Badger” and releasing it to create panic! What sort of a world are we living in? No wonder they used to believe that Minister of Information…

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Exactly my point…

Thursday, July 12th, 2007

I think it’s really cool that they found another baby Mammoth, preserved in ice, but doesn’t this also make my point about Global Warming in a most excellent way?

Scientists believe that Mammoths were made extinct when the world around them began to warm (it says that in the BBC video available on the page linked above), yet the animal died 39,900 years before the invention of the automobile, 39,800 years before polluting factories were erected in the north of England – well, basically – 40,000 years before man started to pollute.

So why is Global Warming suddenly our fault if it’s a natural process of the Earth? My ears pricked up recently when a meteorologist on a local news station here said that “technically, we’re still emerging from the end of the last Ice Age.”

I also wonder about all this Hybrid Car talk… People in the USA are buying them because they need to buy less petrol and it works out cheaper. The problem I have with that is, once everyone has a Hybrid (but still needs a little Petroleum), won’t the price of that little bit of petrol be raised to match what they’d be paying for a full tank of the stuff anyway? I know if I was running an oil company, that’s what I’d do…

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Live Aid

Sunday, July 8th, 2007

WTTW11 here in Chicago showed the Live Aid concert from 1985 tonight after the Live Earth one. It was so cool seeing Phil Collins, Queen, Bowie – all the really great people who played at that concert – and what a concert.

I get the idea behind Live Earth, it’s about getting the message through to people. The problem I have with that is, why do we need Live Earth to hear that message? We’ve all heard of Global Warming, right? Generally most people believe we’re causing it (though I am not one of them – not until they start digging up cars with cavemen, explaining the end of the Ice Age), so why aren’t those people who genuinely believe doing everything they possibly can?

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How to format and reinstall iTunes…

Saturday, July 7th, 2007

I recently bought a new system after selling my laptop and found myself with a major problem. After searching for quite a long time on the internet, I couldn’t figure out how to move my iTunes songs over to the new machine – and couldn’t find help on the ‘net!

After reading that you cannot re-download songs you have paid for onto the new machine, I only saw one option: Export.

All you need to do is save the iTunes folder (on my machine) located at:
C:\Documents and Settings\Tim Wheatley\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
I saved it by burning the contents to 3 DVD’s in data format.

Then, in iTunes, go to the “file” menu and “export” the library.xml file, making sure that you save that somewhere safe also (preferably on the data DVD’s).

Now, copy the iTunes folder back to the same location on your new PC:
C:\Documents and Settings\Tim Wheatley\My Documents\My Music\iTunes

Then simply go back to the “file” menu and select the library.xml file to “import.” After a lot of sorting and “checking” iTunes will be just as it was on your old computer, even your playlists, subscriptions and purchases will be available.

Obviously if you alter the path where your iTunes library is installed, you are going to need to open the XML file with Wordpad and do a find and replace on the file paths.

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