According to the BBC, smoking in enclosed public places will be banned in England from 1 July next year. In my opinion, this is excellent news. Why it couldn’t have been implemented earlier, I don’t know. How well it will be enforced is yet to be seen. I imagine there will still be the occasional few people who flout the rules and light up in public, hopefully these will be a minimum.
Happy Birthday World Wide Web!
Today, the Web turns 16. According to the W3C, “the first web server was nxoc01.cern.ch, later called info.cern.ch, and the first web page http://nxoc01.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html. Unfortunately CERN no longer supports the historical site. Note from this era too, the least recently modified web page we know of, last changed Tue, 13 Nov 1990 15:17:00 GMT”
I installed MS’s latest ‘browser’ offering this morning, Internet Exploder Explorer 7. On initial looks, it scores quite highly. The interface has been totally overhauled and is now much more user friendly and better looking. The implementation of tabbed browsing is pretty good aswell, bringing it into line with the likes of Firefox 1.5 and Opera. One of the first things I tried in it was looking to see how some of the websites I look after behave. My website was strange, IE now seems to respond properly to the css float: and positon: properties, so a small fix was made there to correct it. All in all, most of the sites I have made displayed relatively well with only a couple of changes required. Hopefully they will still look ok in IE6 aswell.
On the security side of things, I haven’t really noticed anything but the phishing filter but I’ve heard comments of some background things that have been changed to make it more secure than IE6.
So, if you haven’t already, I recommend you update to IE7. Download it here. I believe it is due to come out in automatic updates sometime during November. It’s about a 14 MB download, and install should take less than five minutes. I guarantee you will like it!
Today, 3rd October is the Day Against DRM (Digital Rights Management). What is DRM?
DRM is used to restrict what you and your family can do with the electronic devices and media purchased. It is an attempt by technology and media companies to take away your rights. DRM Means: No fair use. No purchase and resell. No private copies. No sharing. No backup. No swapping. No mix tapes. No privacy. No commons. No control over our computers. No control over our electronic devices.
Did you know that iPod users are restricted from transferring their music to other non-Apple devices because the music downloaded from iTunes is encrypted – locked with DRM? Apple allows you to write an audio CD, but will leave you with very lousy sound quality if you ever want to take your music to a new portable device in a compressed format.
If you want to know more about DRM and what it means for you, read this.
Today I spent the morning at Weston Park, helping clear up after the V Festival. I went with dad’s Rotary club, who were asked if they would like to come and collect any tents that were after and distribute them to Rotary charities. Apparently there were loads of tents and other camping equipment that is just left behind by people, so I said I would go and help. The idea was that we would get as many as possible packed away and put onto big lorries to be taken to disaster areas etc.
When I arrived, I saw the most awful mess ever! I think there were five camping fields, all of them full of litter. It looked like a right pig sty! Everything from frying pans to sausages, coats, jeans and wellies just left there.
All of the tents had been dropped down by security (I assume to make sure there were no dangerous items or bodies in them), so all we had to do was find ones worth keeping and pack them away. You wouldn’t believe some of the tents that were left, many of them brand new, complete with bags. I didn’t count how many I managed to get, but there must have been thousands just on the field we were working on. Working in two’s, we had managed to get most of the ones worth keeping and loaded onto trucks by about 1.
Quite an experience! I was disgusted by the mess that was left behind by these people. How much does it take to put your rubbish in a bin before you leave? Or even take it home if there aren’t any bins. At least some people who have just lost everything will have a nice new tent to sleep in.
Once upon a time in a far away land, lived a princess named Jolene. She had long blonde hair like a river of gold flowing down her back, her eyes were as blue as the ocean. Every prince in the land longed to look into her blue eyes, for she was the most beautiful princess. She never knew her mother and father, as an evil troll called Vladimir had kidnapped her when she was a baby and locked her away in a castle made of stone. The king and queen searched for their daughter for years, but were unable to find her. Eventually, they both died of broken hearts, for they grew apart after they lost the princess and felt empty without her. The town grieved for months after the deaths of their rulers.
Four lads from 3rd Wombourne Scout Group (my old group) are raising funds to go to the World Jamboree next Summer. If you can afford to donate even a pound to send them on this once in a lifetime experience you will make some people very happy. If you need some idea what a World Scout Jamboree is, my diary from when I went to the Jamboree in Thailand in 2002 as well as a load of my photos are on the 3rd Wombourne website.
If anyone would like to listen to Dooner’s band – Jack’s Legacy, I have started a torrent containing three songs.
Get it here.
Wooooo they banned smoking!!! No more coming back from the pub or up town with clothes stinking of some fuckwads disgusting habit. Just a shame we have to wait till next summer before it comes into force.