Happy New Year

Yeah OK so the NNY is a bit late but bah, any readers that I do have of this blog are aware that it now takes me forever to do any updates so deal with it :P

Twenty Ten is off to a good start, a good cold freeze for a couple of days bringing the country to a complete stop, people blaming everything for the weather and the apparent lack of preparation for it - to these people I have to question "what weather were you expecting in WINTER!"

I'd start with one of them New Year resolution thingies but the couple that I have tried in the past don't seem to last, even something as simple as blogging or ranting once a month is a difficult task - and it will become even harder with the news that I bring the happy reader.

Ruth and I are expecting our second (and FINAL) child, due date is 8th August 2010, to the right you should be able to make out the all important bit of the scan - there is only one child!

There will naturally be more posts on this as the time flies by but for now this is it.

Peace

M

Governmentium

Occaisionally I recieve an email that amuses me, this one more than others because I really enjoyed science at school (before the below element turned it into a class of watching people do stuff rather than you doing it yourself as now seems to be the case)

Anyway, this is not my work, don't know where it originates from but I got it from my amazing Uncle Neil

Queens University researchers have discovered the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.
These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called pillocks. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.

A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.
Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 to 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.
In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration.

This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass. When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium (symbol=Ad), an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium, since it has half as many pillocks but twice as many morons.

Windows 7 Upgrade, or not...

Any IT person who is not aware of Microsoft's lack of upgrade program in Europe is either still wearing nappies or has been hiding with Osama bin Laden for the past year.

For those reading this who are not in IT or so deep into IT that they don’t use Windows or pay any attention to any Microsoft news that isn’t titled “Blue screen of death replaced with green screen of death” or the like (yes all you Mac and Linux obsessed sheep that believe Microsoft is worse than the dark lord himself – see the upcoming rant on this topic), for you people the Windows 7 upgrade program in Europe is... non existent!

How can it be non existent I hear you not say or type, well because some Microsoft bod/lawyer decided that it would be best not to have an upgrade program in Europe because the European courts have done a good job of fining then for anti competitive practice (all of which was a complete farce if you ask me).

Instead of releasing an upgrade version and a full retail version they instead decided to only release full retail BUT do some upgrade style pricing between release and the end of this year. Anyone buying a new computer will get it anyway so I guess upgrade pricing in the long run is a bit pointless for some.

I got a message this evening about a colleague who had had his pc attacked and thought instead of rebuild to XP he’d upgrade to Windows 7, my work pal wanted me to place an order with one of our distributors for Windows 7 Home Premium at a cost of around £70 plus vat and delivery. I informed him that I could indeed do this, but they wouldn’t ship it until tomorrow so he’d get it on Wednesday at the earliest – why not get it on our account at a local purple coloured mega computer franchise. I popped onto their website and found that he could get Windows 7 Home Premium *upgrade* for about £70 inc vat, OR he could pay £140 for the full version.

Have Microsoft then decided that they WILL indeed release an upgrade program? No, the mega computer franchise who sell to the dumb have decided to sell both discounted and non discounted software when both are the same product!