First off, I'm really REALLY trying not to drink any (or much of) fizzy drinks, specifically Pepsi Max as thats all I drank when I went for fizzy drinks.

While at Uni and then working down in Leicester I managed a good 2-3 months without drinking any.

How?
Well first off I didn't buy any. I always made sure I had some nice cold water (from the tap) in the fridge to drink, just on hand to stop me from drinking anything else through pure "its easier to get at in the fridge" or "its there and its COLD".

While working in Leicester the office had a great drink dispenser for freezing cold and boiling hot water - plumbed right into the mains, so it never ran out.

Here....theres a standard water cooler, one of the ones that takes the huge water bottles, but it always runs out (as its in the conference room) and it rarely gets replaced, despite there being bottles next to it. I'm not allowed to refill it as I've not been "trained to lift".
So I have to pay 60p for a 500ml bottle.

A warm bottle, seeing as theres never any in the chilled cabinet in thhe canteen...only Coke, Coke Zero...Diet Coke...and....carbonated water.

Tap water? No problem.
Olny issue is the "not drinking water" signs. I tried the water and it tastes a bit, um, chemically enhanced to say the least.


Theres no 'local' shops either.

I could bring my own water, but I don't fancy lugging about a 2-litre bottle of water to work in the train.

Plus water tastes so much better when its chilled :(


I'm trying and I'll keep on trying.

Last day of thr week today for me though, yay!
Why? Got an appointment tomorrow.
With London ;)


:!:

Usually I skip breakfast, not on purpose but through sheer lack of time.
This morning, rarely, I had chance to grab a quick sandwich before rushing out the door.

Theres a canteen where I'm briefly working, its not too bad but its not great.(Mexborough Business Center).
Although the closing times are usually 3pm, its mostly shut and packed up by 2pm, go for food after 1pm and they've run out of beef, turkey, ham....and today bread.

Yes bread.
Other options: one lonely, small, dried out and shrivelled 'potato' or what was meant to be some sort of fish dish.
Neither appealing.

So I opted to skip lunch and grab a drink and a bar of something.

No bottled water - again, drinks and sweets (desserts) are very erratic, one minute the cabinet is stuffed with water, the next they only have sparkling water....then no water.

Today I noticed that they only had (fizzy drink wise) diet coke and coke 'zero'.



Pepsi Max vs. Coke Zero

Now although I am trying to cut down, I'm an avid fan of Pepsi Max - having drank an estimated 1036 2litre bottles of the stuff over 5 years. Scary huh?
Well mostly I'm trying to go on just water, I've really cut down on the fizzy drinks, but water is not always available!
(As in, the water-cooler is empty, theres no refills and the water from the bathroom says 'Not Drinking Water!')

Sooo I think I know my stuff, I'd happily take the 'Coke Challege' any day involving Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi, Pepsi Max and Pepsi Zero and feel quite confident I could identify them all.
(Send all Coke/Pepsi can donations to: 17 Grosvenor Av.........)

I don't really like Coke, it leaves a funny lining in my mouth and I can almost feel my teeth rotting with each mouthful.
But I thought I'd give Coke Zero a go - its a blatant copy of Pepsi Max, no sugar, just caffiene.

Would it taste better?
Would I have to switch my Costco purchasing habits from Pepsi Max to Coke Zero?


Well no.

Predictably it tastes very similar to Pepsi Max, but (thankfully) nothing like that swill they call "Diet Coke".

Drink wise, as I said, it tastes very similar to Pepsi Max but with a slight Coke hint.
Lots of fizz too, similar to Pepsi Max, I guess it means less liquid in the can and more profit for the companies. Slightly fizzier than Pepsi Max it seems, also if you hold it in your mouth for a few seconds before swallowing its like your swalloing sea foam, lets just hope theres not as much bacteria.
Overall it feels like it has less 'body' to it than Pepsi Max, possibly due to the increased amount of carbonated water.
Smell wise, theres a hint of something, its hard to make out but isn't too dissimilar from the smell of gelatin based chew sweets.

Branding wise, well...its a black coke can with a bit of arty work on it, not massive appeal although its quite obvious this product has been aimed at men who dislike asking for and carrying Diet Coke cans, nevermind the foul taste of the stuff.
I'm quite sure in a few years, if the product manages to stick around (anyone remember Tab?) the can will be re-designed just as Pepsi Max has gone through several logo/style switches.


So overall, very similar to Pepsi Max, slightly different taste, a bit more fizzy and a different branding.
No major appeal, unless you've not drank Pepsi Max before which comes out as the superior product.

Unfortunately many people haven't tried Pepsi Max before - as they tend to go straight for Coke every time, so they'll never know the difference.

Although its nice to see Coke trying to aid those of us who are health concious and wish to avoid sugary drinks.
(Read: Its nice for Coke to cash in on a market by copying Pepsi, yet again)
(Read: Its nice for Coke to introduce another drink heavily laden with aspartame)


On a side note, the Twix that accompanied by 'meal' wasn't half bad - and before anyone says it, I ate the twix after drinking most of the coke Zero so it didn't affect the taste ;o)

:!:

Ok, so the nice email from Aria telling me they'd slashed their CPU prices made me briefly happy....and distracted me from my original intent of posting a bit of a flame towards retarded computer users.

Retarded in the sense that, they have NO CONCEPT of the 'importantness' of things, nor can they 'do' things on their own.

Example, I'm helping (read: doing most of the work) to install a new MS 2003 SBS server.

This means, taking out the old (knackered, nearly dead) server and moving the profiles over, setting up the web access, vpn, fiddling with the entire network infrastucture, pointing all the workstations and laptops (20 ish) to the new one, making sure they all work, sorting out peoples 'Outlook' accounts....etc, etc, etc and praying it all works.

Meanwhile, a certain person keeps on asking me to do things:


Examples:

"I can't log in my computer wont work!!"
Me > "All the logins have been reset to the companys default password, which, as you know is xxxxxxxx"
"Ok, but I have to go out now, just make sure it works"
I go back to configging the server, so the rest of the company employee's can actually get some work done, in the mean time, they keep reminding me, making out as if its very urgent, to the point where I go over, type in the default password and log them in.

"My emails are gone!!!"
Me > "No, your Outlook icon is under Start, programs, Microsoft Office"

LOOK ON THE DAMNED COMPUTER, DAMN YOU.

"My signature on outlook is gone!"
Me > "Yes, go to Tools, Options, then format or messaging, its very obvious...and theres a button to set your signature"
No...I had to go do it.


Why, can nearly every-damned-one else, work things out, try things and 'explore' a bit, when something doesn't automatically fit their user model, but SOME people have to pester you to do things, even when you explain that you are AMAZINGLY busy and you've told them exactly (in simple terms) how to do what they want.
Its even worse when you have several of these people.


Lets not get on to the entire terminology...oh...that reminds me about Dell (read a bit below).
Sometimes, when you *know* someone has their terminology wrong - or simply call things the wrong damned thing, its fun to string them along.
Its the only amusement I get.
"I've lost Windows on my desktop, can you put Windows on my desktop???"
Me > "WTF???"
"I've lost Windows"
Me > "You've 'lost' Windows?"
"Yes, its not on the desktop"
Me > "I should hope not"
"Can you put it back?"
Me > "Well yes, I could put Windows on your desktop, but, um, it would be....um, not very helpful"

Ok, so what they meant was that the shortcut to WORD wasn't on their desktop, since they had DELETED it.



Now for Dell.
I call up the general sales line to get a quote on a 10 pack of Office 2003.
Ring ...ring....ring ring.....ring ring.....ring ring..

And of course, calling an American based company, I get through to their sales call centre....in India.
So I gave ALL MY DETAILS AGAIN.
(Note: I've spent a good 2 weeks solid calling Dell, every time...they ask for the same damned details, even when they transfer you to someone else...they ask for them all...)

Then I get transferred, "To the uk sales centre".

Ring ring....ring ring......ring ring.....ring ring....ring ring...

My call is obviously answered by someone in India, I ask to confirm this and am told there is no UK sales call centre.
Not really a suprise, nice one Dell.
I give ALL MY DETAILS again.

Then:
Me > "I'm looking for a quote on 10 licences for Office 2003"
"Is that an operating system or an application"
Me > "....."
Me > "Is Office, 2003, an operating system....or an application?"
"Yes"
Me > "Well, I'm pretty sure its an application, k?"
"Ok sir, I shall get you the information you want shortly"
Me > ...hold....

I eventually get the quote, at a stupidly high price.

So, not only have I achieved almost nothing - aside from happily repeating my own details again AND educating someone that no Office software is an OS, but I've come out with a useless completely non-competative quote.

GO DELL! You suck.

I can, in fact reel off several full Dell numbers of certain employee's I've been dealing with over the past two weeks.
I can't even remember my girlfriends MOBILE NUMBER, despite trying to remember it all the time.
But Neal at Dell, his number? Sure, its 087090757**
(** for privacy...or something, the last two digits consist of a 0 and a 1, I'll let you guess which order they go in)




I just hope that I don't meet anyone from Dell in the next few years, nevermind them doing a presentation at my University.......

Barbed wire underwear, tar and feathers anyone?


:!:

Hopefully most of you will be aware of Intels new processor the Conroe, as well as Intels plans (and actual actions) to cut down in their supported processor range...with a bit of price slashing thrown in there.

Of course, AMD - after the recent launch of AM2 are doing something very similar in order to keep prices competative.

Although it will be "a while" before the 'price war' starts to affect built pc prices - probably never in Dixons, PCWorld, etc,  retailers have already started cutting their CPU prices.

e.g.
Aria - AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 512K, was £160 and now... £99.89, that's over £60 off!
AMD 64bit X2 AM2 - was £241 3 weeks ago....now....£140.

Although some retailers, such as Ebuyer are holding off a bit before changing their prices, they still retail the 4200 for £243!



Glad I held out for that new £1500 PC I'm about to order...

:!:

I'm on my break, half the sandwich is hard and stale, plus i've got a "Dell technician" (laughable) coming soon.


-------------------------
Well not exactly.

I can easily put, waaay above moving house, moving a business.

This is much *much* MUCH more stressful that simply moving house.

Why?
Well theres really more 'responsibility' when moving a business, not just to yourself and any employees but also legally, theres alot of things that can Go Very Wrong and the costs are much *much* higher than that of moving house.

Why?
Well going off only delivery vans, they like charging business' even more since they *know* you need to move and have everything sorted in order to continue trading.



Following this, moving house is the next stressful thing, but nestled inbetween the two....being a student and having to move house every year for 4 years is much more stressful.
Although it tends to get 'easier', as you know what to expect.
The pain in having to pack everything up, move it up and down stairs, into a car/van, a few miles at most and then moving it back up some stairs...unpacking....etc, is a severe pain.

Most people probably move houses every 5-10 years, some never, some more often but on averages I'd say its closer to every 12 years at most.

Not to mention theres moving things between the houses where you study and then (if you have anything) moving items backwards and forward between where you study and your family home.
- Such as clothes and shoes....and the computer, while you're "back home" for summer....working...all summer.



One arguement may be that moving house takes more time, as you have more possessions to pack and move, but you'd be amazed what you can fit into a bedroom....I was amazed at all the stuff I had, nevermind the 4 computers.
(See, computer related content for The Spoke, before anyone complains about this purely being a 'personal' blog)


No blog posts for a week?
Well most of my time has been consumed getting to know about 60% of Dells 35,000 staff, especially those in 'customer care'.
There will be a big post on the subject of Dell and their poor service.
Although I want to name-names and post telephone numbers, that would be....well,, it would be legal but it would be....well....hmmmm let me think about that one again.

:!:

Have a look at this article.

Or if you can't be bothered, basically the title suggests that you can park your BMW without being in the car, just by pressing a button.

This is true, but its not as good as I expected....maybe I expect too much from technology.


Basically, you have to set up a reflector at the end of the parking space you want to park the car in.
You manouver the car towards the parking space, get out, close the door then press the button and using a video-sensor, checks the angle of the car against the reflective plate, works out the angles and the requirements for braking / turning / acceleration.

Seems good...and it kind of is, but it requires that you *almost* park the car before hand, as the cars windscreen placed camera must be in view and range of the reflective plate.


Reading something about "cars that park themselves" suggests more.

For one, you can only use this function at dedicated places, such as your garage.
And you're done for if some little prankster steals your reflective plate....or worse moves it position or alters its angle.

Of course, this is great if you have to park your car in a very tight space from which you couldn't get out of the drivers seat.

But if you can afford a £30k BMW (or such) then surely you'll be able to afford a better parking space.
Unless you're trying to park it in a tissue-filled matchbox, just to keep those nasty scratches at bay.....although you can never be too careful, I hear some tissue paper can scratch BMW paint....



So in the end, for the cost of development....utterly pointless when compared to spending the man hours and money in researching better braking systems, better air-bag and crash protection systems or just better fuel economy.



Obviousl, if the car could *decently* park itself, without further requirement for additional 'reflective disks' or similar, or even better...parallel park, then BMW, you'd be on to a winner.


:!:

God dammit.

I just typed out a fairly hefty note, all about a "dumbed down world" with a few examples.

Then I go to check my ebay listings and catch the "back" button on the mouse.

This takes me back to the Spoke main page, I click 'forward' again and....message is gone.


Time to disable those extra mouse buttons....



I'll retype it when I'm not so annoyed with my own stupidity.

:!:

At A-level I missed out on an 'A' grade in ICT by 0.5%, yes thats half a percent.
They wouldn't allow me any remarks either!


I'm hoping its natural justice that I got my exam results for my third year (of my Comp Sci BSc) today and levelled at an OK 70.4%.
2nd year average was 70.667, this year was 70.143.

So that means that I've got a 1st for my BSc Hons degree, although I swapped courses to a MEng, which means I have a 4th year to do....and then hopefully come out with a Masters.
- Although if I fail, I come out with a Bsc based on my 2nd and 3rd years.

The 3rd year is only worth 25% of the MEng, the 4th is 60% and of course the 2nd year counts for a mere 15%.


Either way, should be fun.....


What annoys me is that I did better in my first year, which isn't counted.
Also I've been getting between 75 and 85 on average in all my modules in the 2nd and 3rd year, the only thing that drags it down is one bad module.

2nd year, I did well in all but 'Advanced Programming', now I though I had done quite well in the module, both the exam and coursework but only came out with a 56%, which dragged my average waaay down.

This year, I *know* that the 'Languages and their Compilers' module didn't go too well, the coursework went very bad - I hoped just for a pass, but the exam was pretty 'OK', I came out with a 50% mark for that module, which again, dragged my 70/80% average right down :o(

I'm pretty sure if I could re-take the 'Advanced Programming' module from the 2nd year again that I'd completely PWN it, but I can't, so bleh.


I'm happy to have got a good grade, but I've got the much harder Masters to come, my parents didn't seem too bothered about my results either, with a 'oh ok', response - even after I pointed out that you can't really get "higher" than a 1st.......great. Oh well.

:!:

Fantastic, I knew I shouldn't have worn that grey long sleeved top yesterday.

You clothing decisions can really affect what happens in your life.....

I was round at the girlfriends yesterday, for various reasons I left the house and went for a walk around the estate while she calmed down.
It was a bit windy and chilly so I took my long black coat and proceeded to head towards the grassy area in the centre of the modern estate.

I sat on the grass for a while exchanging text messages with the gf, slowly getting colder due to the wind, so I moved to stand next to one of the electricity board relay-buildings.
You know, the small little brick buildings you see with large metal corrugated doors padlocked together.

So I was stood there out of the wind, still texting away.
A couple of girls walk by....

Then an estate with 6 blokes pulls up right enfront of me.
Some get out.

Oerrr....am I in for it from some football crazed larger louts?

I knew I shouldn't have stood on the street corner....

They hastened toward me, one flashed a badge - but I really should have asked to take a closer look.
They proclaimed themselves to be plain-clothes police and asked for ID and a few questions such as "have you been in trouble with the polie before?".

What do you mean before??? what? Am I in trouble now? Nice wording there.

Anyhow, one of them exlpained that someone exactly my age, wearing a grey top, with my description, had been attacking old ladies in the area and had been seen (luckily enough...) running off in my direction.....

Quite coincidental really.

Plus you'd think any description of me would be "wearing a big black coat", as you could hardly see my grey top underneath.

Anyhow, it wasn't me, I explained why I was there, the police check came back clean and they buggered off.

I waited around a bit, texted the gf more, decided to head back.

Halfway back to her house through the estate....on the other side of the road, was a bloke about my age, wearing a long-sleeved grey fleece.
In the same area....at roughly the same time...fitting the same description, rather coincidental.



Why do I never get the good coincidences?
Like someone mistaking me for a person they owe £5 million, and then they give it to me?


Keep dreaming....keep dreaming....

:!:

Is quite an interesting concept, its something I've wanted to try for a while but strangely there are no sushi bars about in the Middle of Nowhere.

Fortunately while in Morissons today (looking out for those SUPAR BARGA1NS!!!! Such as items with a penny knocked off...), I had a quick look at the seafood area and spotted a small sushi selection for £1.99.
Consisting of 9 items,
Three rice round roll type things, with pepper and Something Else in, all wrapped in a Mysterious Black Film.
Two Mysterious Square Things, again with the rice packed around it, but also with some lettuce/cabbage mashed in there with some Random Fish.
A big chunk of raw salmon placed on a nice thick rice bed.
Some pickled cabbage stuff in a packet, not bad.
Soy Sauce.
...and wasabi, which I'd never had before, obviously being me I decided to try some of the stuff on its own, a fair bit too.
All I can say is, thankgod for my years of Curry Training, otherwise it may have caught me unawares.

Lets just say, its a bit hot.

All in all, it was quite nice, I especially liked the Things Packed In Rice, the salmon thingy was go