May 2006

My son spent most of yesterday at school learning "about God".

He learnt about how God made the earth and the clouds and the air and the land and the animals and the snickers bars.  And he also found out that Adam and Eve were the first people on the earth - and that's where we all came from.

In a way, it is probably easier for children to grasp that God made the world and people and plants rather than trying to explain evolution to them.  I have told him in the past that we were apes a long time ago and about "The Big Bang" but he still asks questions like "so you were a monkey then?" or "Were we monkeys when we were little?".  He also fails to grasp the Big Bang theory, but asks the right questions such as "what was there before?" or "where did the bang come from?".

How can you explain something like the Big Bang theory to children?
Fucked if I know!

Comfortably numb…..

That's how i'm feeling at the moment.

I rang my boss and told him I would be accepting the offer of early voluntary redundancy that I received last week.
I signed the letter and sent it in the post too. So the jobs almost done.

They now have to agree "financial concurrence" and if that goes ahead, my last day of service to this company will be either this friday - or next week sometime. Well… maybe. Depends on how long they take to pull the paperwork and red tape out of their arses.

So. I shall soon be unemployable unemployed and will be seeking work.

Any bins need emptying anywhere?
Any plates need washing up?

The offer is on the table.
Got it through the post this morning.

I know you are supposed to do something that scares you everyday (according to the adverts).

But I am scared.

Oh go on then….
You should'nt have….

Don't miss my first nonGeek Guide on using uTorrent over at Geeklimit!

I have been meaning to write this for a while.
Coronation Street, Eastenders and Sky+ helped me achieve this goal! 

New Week’s resolutions:

• Stay off the internet at work
• Read more of my book
• Ride my bike to work each day
• Drink more water than coffee

And if you think I broke resolution number 1 already, you are wrong.  I posted this using BlogJet – a locally installed blogging client.

It’s cool – check it out!

I just had my first Skype conversation with our commonwealth friends, down under in Perth. Our two children went to school together for a few years and we became quite close.

And who ever invented Skype needs to be shaken by the hand. A piece of software that allows the two kids to attack each other with karate punches and toy guns across the globe?

It's what the internet was invented for!

Sony have had their Pre-E3 conference last night and have given more details and demos of their upcoming Playstation3 console.

In my opinion, Sony are going to wipe the Xbox360 and Nintendo Wii off the floor with their new console but probably only based on the established user base they already have. Also, Sony and the Playstation have always seemed to appeal to younger gamers more than the Xbox so they will immediately have the upcoming generation to rely on buying their console.

They have also stolen copied used the same motion detection techniques that Nintendo are planning to include in their new Wii console which leaves Microsoft as the only “next gen” console maker not to have this capability - yet.  Microsoft are due to launch details of their external USB HD DVD player at the E3 conference too though - whoppee!… not.

The “Sony Hub” will take on the might of XBox live too but contrary to early information, it will not all be free and will probably follow the same pricing structure of free access to somethings, but pay-to-play access to multiplayer gaming.

The real kick in the nuts for this console is going to be the price which has been announced at the conference too.  The console will be launched worldwide in early November and will come in 2 flavours, one with a 20gb hard disk and one with a 60gb hard disk.  Pricing will be set at $499 and $599.  Expect that to translate to £499 and £599 here in the UK.

Would you want to pay nearly £600 for a console?  And as we have found out with the Xbox360, the games are’nt cheap either with some of the recent flagship titles like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter retailling for nearly £50!  How much are the Blu-Ray based games going to be on the new PS3?  £70?  Reports on the capabilities of the PS3 versus the Xbox360 are also revealing that they will be more similar than first revealed and it may become difficult to tell the consoles graphics apart.

Sony will win.  I have no doubt about that.  But if Microsoft drop their console price then things may be different come christmas 2006.  And if Microsoft can realease Halo3 at the same time, things will get really nasty and all sorts of name calling and hair pulling will ensue.

I blogged a little while ago about the chap who was attempting to raise over $2k in donations to get himself a brand new iMac.

He has just recently ordered his machine for £2606.66!
Someone even donated over $1k to enable him to achieve his goal.  Pretty amazing really!

But i'm not greedy.  Just a Mac Mini would do me fine.  Or one of the original iMac's…

Anyone got one kicking around that they don't need?