Dead Phone And SLOW Internet

Came home this evening to find my landline is as dead as a dodo, and even worse my internet is grindingly S-L-O-W.

It's taking ages to do anything so I'm not going to be able to do a lot.

I have reported the line problem to British Telecom through their website. I got a message saying they will attend to it on 2nd May and may need access to the house. MAY need access is not good enough, I have to go to work and cannot take a day off on the off chance they MAY need to come in... They need to give me a time and date and stick to it.

Anyway, have to see what happens on the 2nd..

If you don't see me around as much you'll know why, using the net right now is like the bad old days of dial up!

What Am I Doing Here..

About to get ready for work I suddenly remembered something I needed to do online.

Put the computer on and realised the wireless connection was not working so had to restart the modem/router.

By the time I had things up and running I couldn't for the life of me remember what I had put it all on for!



This happens quite frequently and then I end up wasting time getting engrossed in other things only to suddenly realise I'm running very late, so quickly switch off.



THEN when it's too late I remember what it was I put it on for.

I'm sure the same will happen today!

Google Thinks I'm An Automated Virus..

Occasionally when I am at work I may need to look up something on Google - but more often than not I get this come up:



This is what it says, (I know the image is a little small)

We're sorry...

... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spy ware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.

We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spy ware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

If you're continually receiving this error, you may be able to resolve the problem by deleting your Google cookie and revisiting Google. For browser-specific instructions, please consult your browser's online support centre.

We apologise for the inconvenience and hope we'll see you again on Google.

I think that's really odd... There are definitely NO viruses on our work computers!

Look At This Girl..

Look At This Girl..


Give her a moment to arrive and she will follow your every mouse move!

Realistic or what?!

Photoshop Express - Am I Missing Something?

Am I missing something I wonder, some amazing button I've not noticed?

Any frequent visitors will know how much I love tinkering around with photo editors, so obviously I had to try the all new Photoshop Express

I got all signed up, looking forward to it's predicted amazingness but what did I find - nothing amazing whatsoever!

OK I know I have the real Photoshop here, so I am a little spoiled but I also frequently use online editors such as Picnik and Fotoflexer, both of which I personally find a whole lot better than the new PS Express.. I'm quite disappointed as I expected it to be the Daddy of all online editors and it's so not..

Unless that is I really am missing this wonderful amazing function button!

Have you tried it? if so what do you think?

This Is A Fun Art Generator

Something to while away a stormy Sunday afternoon.. Viscosity - The modern art generator.

Lots of options here to play around with, and some people have amazing creations..

Mine is just a bit boring, but who knows I may go back and improve..



If you create something you'd like to keep there is a link to download it as a desktop wallpaper which is rather nice!

I discovered this site at Digital Inspiration where you can also find a useful tutorial video for Viscosity!

EatLime File Sharing

I've been looking at what I think is a fairly new site today, EatLime..

It's a file sharing site, not like Limewire where you search for things to download but it's a place where you can upload any files and then send a link to a friend, which they click and than can quickly download the file and it is very fast!





I know you can send files through Instant Messengers and email but this is incredibly nice and easy to use, as well as being speedy.

I've uploaded a couple of songs which you are welcome to download to try it out.. HERE

I guess some would be reluctant to do this, being afraid of downloading something malicious, but generally I think this site is aimed at friends sharing, trusted friends sharing!

A Trojan Horse Scare!

Over the past few days odd things have been happening on my computer.

Things opening by their own accord, like iTunes, SnagIt, just popping up when I know I had NOT clicked the icon at all.

This led me to thinking.. what if my computer was being taken over by some hacker?

I immediately switched off the internet and started to run the anti-virus and spyware scanners.

It wasn't long before I saw I had not one but two Trojan Horses - great..

One of them in a file which came with the computer when I had bought it, I'm surprised the anti-virus never noticed this before!

Anyway, it seems to have all been sorted out, they went into quarantine and have now been finally deleted.

Just a reminder of how careful we must be and to myself, make sure I actually do run these checks regularly and not only every few months.

Save Scrabulous!!

I've always enjoyed playing Scrabble, even though I rarely win. Sometimes I play it online in Facebook where it's known as Scrabulous.

However it's now under threat as it's a violation of copyright. That's such a shame as it has such a following, with 1000's of games played daily.

If you enjoy the game and have Facebook you can join the Save Scrabulous Group

For full story at BBC click image below -

BBC NEWS | Technology | Facebook asked to pull Scrabulous

Kwout, An Easy Way To Post Screen Shots

via kwout

I discovered this clever KWOUT on the above page. It's a tool which cuts out a part of any web page so you can add to your blog or even Flickr quickly and easily.
Just add the bookmarklet to your browser, click it when you are on any page you wish to quote, in a few moments a screenshot will appear, you then highlight the area you wish and click cut out..it then generates the code for you to copy and paste, or if you have chosen to upload to Flickr it authorises and uploads in a flash! very nice :)

I used Kwout to add all the the screenshots in this post.

via kwout

Recent Comments Widget

Just added a widget which shows recent comments in the right hand sidebar...

I like this - don't know why, but I do..

If you'd like one also, you can get it from madtomato.

(for blogger users)

Manchester, Shoutbox and Sofa's

I feel so tired this evening, a kind of dull slightly miserable tiredness. Must be that time of the month again... sigh..

Just had a call from my daughter, she's stuck up in Manchester as the car she's in (her friends car) is having problems and can't be driven. Manchester is about 205 miles from London and 266 from Brighton where she is currently living. She was up there attending a Kanye West concert, shame she didn't manage to get tickets for his Brighton concert, but she was a tad too late. So now she and her friend have to stay another night up there, and hopefully will be able to get the car fixed in the morning.

This morning before work I added yet another thingy in my right hand sidebar. It's a shoutbox. I know I have the plugoo which connects to my msn, but I do like trying out new stuff, so it's there for now. See what happens and then I'll decide which one to keep, or not. So, don't hesitate to leave a message!

At last, I am now sitting pretty, on one of the beautiful new sofas. We got a 3 seater and a 2 seater and they look lovely, made the place look so nice and cosy, won't want to go out anymore!

Definr - Incredibly Fast Dictionary

I frequently need a dictionary these days. My poor old brain fails me on spellings (although I have a spellchecker) or meanings of words. I often think of a word I'm sure fits my needs but just feel I should check it's appropriateness.

Now I've come across Definr - and incredibly fast dictionary. It starts to guess the word you are entering which can be useful and it has a Firefox search extension, so it's always quick and easy to do a check!

New Flickr Uploader - Yay!

New Flickr Uploader - very nice, so far, so good :)

Links below for downloading..

For Windows

For Mac

Help Forum if you happen to run into any problems.

Thanks to Amit at Labnol for this info!

Anyone Ever Seen Me On A Blogrush Widget?

I've been using Blogrush for a while now and see the widget displayed on many others blogs.

However I have NEVER seen any of my posts showing up on any Blogrush widget. I have seen many familiar names on others widgets, but not mine...

So I am wondering has anyone ever found me through Blogrush?

Has anyone ever seen any reference at all to my blog on a Blogrush widget on any other blog?

Or is it so cleverly set up that you don't see your own anywhere?

Just interested...

Wanna Join The Cliq?

Yesterday I joined CLIQ. I was invited by Diana from 134u.com

It's another of those sites that gives you a widget (which I have placed in the left sidebar) which shows posts from other blogs in your particular Cliq.. Therefore getting you new readers and finding new blogs for you to read..

I don't think I can explain it as well as Diana herself so if you are interested then either visit the Cliq page or 134u.com

I'm not sure how good this will be or if I will even keep it, but I'll just watch it for now.

If you're interested in joining please drop a message at Diana's blog as she is the leader of this particular cliq which is at present private - invite only.

If you prefer leave a message here for me and I will pass it on for you.

It doesn't cost anything and it's fun to try new things.... uhhh ohhhhh, I've started filling up with widgets again!

Looking At Who's Looking

Call me peculiar that's fine, but I love looking at who's looking at my blog - that is page stats.

I use HitTail which shows me how visitors have found my page.

I use Feedburner which gives all kinds of info.

But yesterday I set up to use Google Analytics and I find it quite fun. It gives graphs, pie charts and lists of just about everything from the country of the visitors, the browser they are using right down to the screen resolution they have!

Ok, I'm sure it's all rather useless info unless you have a website which is there purposefully directed at a particular group of people for sales maybe, but so what, it's free and it fascinates me!

So, if you're at all like me (Is there anyone like me out there? I doubt it..lol) then it's easy to set up. You just have to copy and paste a little bit of code into your blog template (be careful to save your template before you do this just in case you mess it up) then wait about 24 hours for the info to start showing!

A Smooth Flickr Slideshow

Another lovely way of displaying your (or anyones) Flickr photo's..



Slideoo.com

Tags That Think

Just added yet another widget to my left sidebar, right at the bottom at the moment. Yeah I know I've got too many widgets already but I've got to try them out!

This one is Jiglu, which is, "a super-smart engine that pieces your site together, intelligently tagging and linking your web content"

"Jiglu plugs into your site to automatically create intelligent tags and links for your web content. This means that people can dive straight in and read what they want - your most popular blog entries or even stuff buried deep within your site."

I don't yet have an opinion on this as it's so new to me, just have to wait and see...

Offensive Messages Not Welcome Here

Logging back on to check my mail this afternoon I noticed I had a message waiting from Plugoo.

This is the little widgety thing in the right hand sidebar which allows anyone to leave me an off line messsage.

Now usually these are nice messages from nice people, but today was rather different. It was a totally disgustingly horrible unrepeatable message from someone with a very sick and sad mind.

I do not deserve to receive such awful messages, but then this is the internet, where anyone can be anyone and some weirdos get a kick out of being offensive and rude.

So whoever you are, I feel sorry for you, sorry you can't find anything better to do in your sad little life..