Won't Get Fooled Again

Roger Daltrey doesn't like Twitter. I heard him say as much on BBC Radio 5 Live the other day.

Perhaps it was this that brought to mind him singing 'Meet the new boss, same as the old boss'.

I was prompted to upgrade my copy of Opera by a slightly scornful message telling me my copy was over a year old. You may be aware of my previous difficulties with my favourite browser - forgive me summarizing if you have - but I am now unable to use the 'Edit HTML' facility of blogger in the browser. Used to work fine and dandy, then didn't when I came back.

Having done the upgrade, I was even more disappointed that on my arrival back here in new improved Opera 10.10 I get the same spinny ticker. Meet the new browser - same as the old browser. Harrumph.

Hotmail doesn't work with Opera. It freaks, then I've noticed it plays up in Chrome too. Zynga's Cafe World is even more buggy and error-prone (if that is physically possible) in Opera than any other browser that I use.

Has Google fallen out with Opera, or is it just me?

My PC has taken to suddenly powering-off recently. A worrying new turn considering I am pot-less and this is our main machine. More on this later, but I think it just an awful coincidence rather than a symptom of the Opera malaise.

It's fine in Firefox - though I haven't test 3.5.8 quite yet, this post will be edited in said browser prior to publication.

So, here I am, now in Firefox rather than Opera. I still don't like it as much, but at least it loads all the right pages. I'm sure I'll still use Opera for non-Facebook and non-blogger browsing. If the list continues to grow (Hotmail, StumbleUpon, to name two more) will I be able to justify using it?

With regard my mysterious powering off. When I began writing this piece it was about 11am. By that time I had experienced several power-offs.

The last time I got this sort of misbehaviour it turned out that the fan on the graphics card was clogged with dust. I found this after examining each component one at a time. It was too soon to be repeat but it was making a hell of a racket.

I recalled the BSOD reports since the most recent MS update.

I wasn't seeing blue, I was seeing red! What was causing the sudden death?

Despite the 'no serviceable parts warning' on the side of the PSU I had this apart and cleared out the wads of dust, repeating the same with the main fan and graphics card for good measure.

So far, so good. Touch-wood, no black-outs.

Who knows, I might even be able to write the post I came back to write in the first place!

My ten year old PC, replete with Xeon processor, Rambus Ram that I can't expand and a SCSI drive - both ludicrously expensive and only marginally more prevalent than the bowel movements of the proverbial nursery gelding, continues (fingers-crossed) to survive.

Sure as hell can't afford to replace it, that's for sure.

Welcome to the disappointment.

Bobo the Footballing Clown

Where was I ?

In much the same state as before really, because even on a different PC with a different OS, 'Edit HTML' still refuses to work on Opera, making a sad NoozeHound.


Something else that makes a sad NoozeHound is comedy goalkeeping. Well, it didn't make NoozeHound sad when ManUre had comedy keeper Fabian Barthez (or Bobo the Footballing Clown as I renamed him) between the sticks...

Perhaps it's something to do with having 'F-A-B' in the name?

Excuse the awful 'point-at-the-telly' quality but it's better than the idiot screaming 'Portohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh' in the commentary in the other available clip.

This lot would probably be pretty pants between the uprights as well, so maybe there is something to not being FAB-related for goalkeepers.

So, Monsieur Wenger, even if Pompey come offering a keeper with Reed Richard stretchy arms and Inspector Gadget springy legs at a fire sale knock-down price, if he is called Fabian Fabianski or anything remotely FAB-related, either run very quickly in the other direction or be fully aware of the bag of hurt you will be buying into.

Welcome to the disappointment.

Dark Stuff

I am mightily pissed off.

I had written this post. Tinkered with it. Previewed it. Tested the links then lost it when the browser opened the link from the preview and left the page.

When I returned to Blogger it was all gone. I watched the saving button flash into action saving a now empty page.

Mightily pissed off.

Now I have to eat my tea and go out to watch the Arsenal game...

More later, maybe.

Huxley/Orwell Mash-Up in the World Wide Web

Wotcha.

Look at me, back here again.

I think I'm starting to get bored *with Facebook. Too much time on my hands and the responsibility of keeping other people's games running may well be a contributor. Not exclusively I suspect...

The repeatedly frustrating performance of Zynga games in whichever browser (they can crash all of the non-fruit-based offerings - I don't use the the grey one) despite perpetual interface changes.

Facebook's cavalier approach to their users, both their privacy and their taste in interface. It's all rather getting beyond a joke.

StumbleUpon did the same thing. There was a very long discussion, widely condemning the new interface which they too, simply ignored.

Google blogs and their draconian deletion of some music blogs over what appear to be spurious legal issues.
My Tweets (the message is frequently in the music) were all very law, freedom, silence, Big Brother that day.
Now Buzz. I turned it on. I turned it off. I discovered something.

I am not a social animal. On Facebook, I have used chat twice in a year. I don not IM. I communicate with FB associates (I have very few RL friends I speak with) only about game activity.
I sometimes comment, it rarely expands into communication.
I have very few gmail contacts, fewer I would be likely to Buzz with. You can email me if you really want. The links around here somewhere.
I 'installed' Wave too. It seems I'm not alone in not having a compatibly life-style for this product.

I don't walk about with a camera. I have one on my phone but the pictures are, frankly, crap. I do not have a Flickr account or Picassa. I don't go on boat trips or go shopping with friends.

Shopping. Oh how I loathe shopping. Adding to that delight the prospect of accomodating the purchasing requirements of somone (even someone I like) else - anathema. The sentence I originally thought of ended in 'right off'.

If these things are 'coming from the future' I fear I am going to be awfully side-lined in the brave new world.

To compound my troubles, Blogger won't show me the HTML. I always have to edit the spacing in the HTML because otherwise there are huge ugly spaces. Google have opted for the ugly spaces by denying me the HTML editor.

Welcome to my disappointment.

(* I am firmly of the belief one can only be bored with something never bored of something. It grates on me immensely)