America

Windows 7

Ok, ok, I ran. I ran all the way home to be one of those lucky few 2.5 million people to get the brand new Windows 7 beta OS. After having watched CES all this and last week, Gizmodo forums were buzzing with new technology, and from Microsoft this year. The announcement of Windows 7!

Lets not pretend though, we had been expecting it right from the first leaked start up screen: all the way to the Bit Torrent download last week. But, It’s here now, officially.

By the time I had gotten home, frantically searched for my keys, hunted for my Laptop, and waited, for what felt like the longest vista loading screen ever (i hate that silence you have as you wait for your computer to load, especially when you are showing your friend something, you feel there eyes blaming you for the slowness of your machine. I hate that. I want to destroy my laptop right there and then, but, I don't, I make some hair brained excuse like: i don't no: maybe, the power supply in the northern hemisphere is low today and my laptop is adjusting. Or maybe a migrating raft of penguins have unknowingly torn the transatlantic telephone wire rendering my laptop internetless, or my personal favourite, “windows is installing updates” everybody can sympathise with that!!) but by the time all these things had happened and i had opened safari, tried to download it, been told “safari does not have the correct plug-in” or rather “ERROR CODE 10299873” given up, booted IE 7 (shivers) and successfully navigated my way to the beta download page i was to find… “Server busy” i had to take a moment alone. Not to wallow in my bereavement but that the words i used in that moment would have shocked even Gordon Ramsey!

Server Busy! Microsoft, the largest, most successful company in the world hadn't anticipated that its latest and greatest OS might cause a stir in the online community and might be downloaded a lot of times. Well it obviously didn't, because the windows 7 download page went down pretty quickly not letting me or any of my friends able to download it! but i have to top this rant here, because Microsoft has heard the voice of reason, owned up to its mistakes and removed the 2.5 million people restriction and allowed anybody to download the new Windows 7 beta,  which is lucky because that's what I did :) So that's what I'm doing now, typing this to you from inside my new Windows 7 OS. My background changes to another beautiful scene every 10 seconds (i know, you would think its annoying, but it kind of keeps it fresh  and dynamic!) My gorgeous menu bar is allowing a faint shadow of the image behind of it to glow through thanks to its clean aeroness and my task bar is not loaded with programs but has everything i need in a clean user friends space. Even my widgets are spread across my screen allowing me to glance at the clock or my facebook friends. Yes, Windows 7 is a dream, a dream that was all to hastily put on the market as Vista and because of its rushed launch, fell short of what we desired. Windows 7 looks great, feels great, is great. It will right the wrongs of Vista and, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of its failures Windows 7 will stand high and mighty over the ever changing OS landscape!!

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx

Saying

"Yesterday is History, Tomorrow is a Mystery,  But Today is a Gift. Thats why it's called the Present."

The above statement is the most faultless philosophy of life that I have ever had the pleasure of musing over. Yet it comes from the humblest of backgrounds, a Disney film, no, a Dreamworks film! I really have to stop confusing those two completely separate hollywood film companies, but from growing up with The sword in the Stone, The aristocats, Snow white and all those other, 'bread and butter' films means that my mind just naturally assumes any children's film to have been over-lorded by the master Walt Disney himself. Alas this is no longer the case. With the invention of computer generated, pixel dense, detail rich film, Disney has had to take a backseat in the creation of juvenile films; infact the only attempt walt disney has had to break into the computer animated film industry has been its take over of Pixar (created by a young steve jobs, after his exile from apple). From Pixar Disney has made a variety of films such as 'Monsters Inc.' and 'Wall-e' all of which have been out-dated, out-maneuvered and out-classed by the innovative, witty and high quality feature films like the Shrek trilogy and Kung fu panda all exceptional films born within the Dreamworks Label. Dreamworks excels in a class of its own in children's films because, ironically it contains adult humor. Dreamworks manages to write in humor that makes, gurgling babies break out in toothy smiles and disgruntled OAP's into... less toothy grins! and all in all Dreamworks creates a broader more family orientated film rather than Disney's infantile under-aged-6 audience. Even babies are becoming more sophisticated in these modern times and so thats why my saying featured in Kung Fu Panda a Dreamworks picture that despite been aimed at little bogie eating 4 year olds still has the scope and reach to touch a... bogie eating 15 year old!!! :p.

Kung Fu Panda was successfully ripped during Eastenders on Christmas day using Magic DVD ripper (http://www.magicdvdripper.com/), it was then saved onto my local hard-drive, copied wirelessly to our wified hard-drive (nicknamed snorlax, due to its large capacity yet slow rewrite speeds) and then synced to our variety of ipods, iphones and other pieces of media playing tech. I highly recommend you watch kung fu panda because of its wit and outstanding cinematography and always remember.... Today is a Gift. That is why it's called the present!!!

Apologies

Woah gosh I'm really sorry i haven't written anything in quite a bit. I guess this blog will never get off the ground if i keep bunking off. The main reason for my absence has been the influx of tests, examinations and coursework we have been "invited" to undertake. It's quite funny to watch teachers scrabble in there report writing, each subject thrusting an exam upon us so they can desperately give us yet another inaccurate assessment based on 1 days slog and little revision beforehand. I have actually written my coursework and quite enjoyed it. It is a little gloomier then my usual writing... It is about death and coffins. The task was "Original Writing" but she then went on to contradict herself by stating really all you needed to do was a thoughtful description. I do have my results 22/27 which is a little low in my opinion an 'A' non-the-less but not my finest. What I was really slated for was my punctuation. On top of this she expressed that my !'s in the opening paragraph cheapened it... on this occasion I disagree with that opinion, but never mind the ramblings of an 'A' :p. I'm not really that much of a sore looser :p here is my coursework, please write comments on how to improve it, I would be really grateful.....

The Final Journey

I’ve been sitting here for three days, now. Three Days!! I thought I choose in my will a very good funeral company. I should be dead and buried by now!
Yet I’m still here, everything in this room makes it more eerie. It’s encased in cold, hard, icy marble giving the room an unforgiving edge. There are other bodies in here, like mine, laced with sadness and mournful flowers. The whole chapel feels like it’s underwater, when people enter their voices muffle. This lonely space, though gives me time to reflect. A lot of things preceded me and only now do I have the chance to evaluate them.
Click! The sound echoed through the chamber, the outside noise was drawn in like dust into a vacuum, only to be quickly smothered by the oppressive silence. In its place stood a man, he slunk down the row of us peering individually at our date tags until he came to a halt, perpendicular to my feet. He was a thin man with a hollow face. His eyes looked through me as he began his usual, and in his mind, tedious task.
The waiting funeral hurst sprang into life on my arrival, ironic really. The grumbling engine that would carry me closer to the end, awakened some of my memories. I died in the presence of a grumbling engine. It was on the way home, my job at the steel works was 20 miles away so I hitched a lift with my mate who lived round the corner. I haven’t driven in 60 years. A lorry crash was all it took; I drove in the War. My lorry full of ammunition, a sudden air raid siren and a stray cyclist, my license was revoked. I guess if that never happened all those years ago I wouldn’t be dead, but it did, and I can’t change the past. My mate, the one taking me home, was swearing. His words washed over my balding head. I watched him, his arms gesturing his brow furrowing and the flecks of spit like venom that were launched from his jaw. Past his head, grey shabby building after grey shabby building flicked by the isolated remains of our dying industry. His movements became a little more angry and then he took a deep breath, he was parched, but the only this to quench his desire was a fag. His hand stretched out and disappeared into the bag at his thigh, systematically he rummaged through its contents. His head down and eyes off the road he remerged with the lighter his head rose above the steering wheel, the eyes met, the lighter dropped, the car crumpled, and I was dead.
On this, my last journey the vista out the windows have changed and we continue to crawl along, although outside there is more than just buildings, there are many memories as well. We drive past the sweet shop. My childhood was lived in that store, spending pocket money on strawberry bonbons, cola bottles and wine gums, I remember the store owner Mr Greg I guess we were his most loyal customers coming back week after week for his goods how quickly it all flies. We turned another corner and approached my old school, its high concrete walls made me everything I am but it’s what borders it, I wonder if it’s still there... Oh yes! Mermaid’s Fish and Chip shop, many hours I spent there. It wasn’t for the salt ,the vinegar or the chips, but where I had my first kiss, just there, left of the door. Jean Luis was her name I can’t forget her lips, warm and full. A bus drove past the other way carrying people to their destination; I remember the buses, my first chance at freedom. Jake’s house, my first and best friend, he’ll be at the funeral. We are turning now and the gates of the graveyard are up ahead. So close but there’s the last house, my grandparents, their home clung to the side of the graveyard, but their house was always so warm and happy, their physical transition from life to death but a few metres away, but now the house stands cold and empty shrouded in forgotten memories, like mine will be.
The service began the mourners; my mourner’s descended onto their wicker chairs. The droning sound of the vicar started. Above him a canopy of trees, their boughs bowing, stood respectfully. The leaves yellowing with the turn of the seasons and a few stray beech leaves scurried around the legs of the chairs. I recognised faces in the gathered crowd.
Jean, my first love, her black suit hugged her figure and strays of her auburn hair that had escaped her tight bun fell across her face, contrasting against her snowy skin.
My two best friends Rob and Sam, Rob’s daughter was with him a tall, upright girl about 18 whose face remained respectful despite her no knowing me. A messy divorce had left Rob paler, his hair more thinned, and the lines around his eyes more furrowed. Sam was next to him he was much younger and his newly wedded wife sat by him in dark purples, she carried a box or cakes with her and I could see that from the way both of them were looking down at her stomach, that she was expecting. I knew Sam would be over the moon with this, he symbolised true love at its core. I just hope they find true happiness and at the next funeral they aren’t alone like Rob.
Pat, the bartender sat opposite them, his face lined with age he still stood wide eyed, he probably knew more about me than me, the problems he had heard and the advise he had given were worth more to me than anything, and I could see in his face that he knew I was watching, he knew I was well. His wisdom is something I only tapped into but I think, like an iceberg I only scratched the surface
Miss Donna Bradshaw, the factory owner was sitting at the back, she looked calm but her wit was unparallel at work, and she would not shy away from throwing a punch, but now she looked peaceful.
I looked back at the vicar, he continued to read from the book he had in front of him. Then something caught my eye. One figure made my heart leap, he stood tall at the back and I saw him over the top of their seated heads, his matted grey hair fell in locks just above his shoulders glowing with highlights of white that were dispersed through it. His bony figure stood tall and thin and his long trench coat swept down to his ankles. His hard face was cobwebbed with the crevices of memories. I glanced away from him and looked at the people, their eyes not leaving the vicar they made quiet comments to their neighbours quizzing each other on this stranger, but I knew who he was. He was my friend, my companion, my colleague, and he alone holds my eternal thanks.The limp he was cursed with was a sacrifice for my life, he saved me, on those French beaches, on the day of the D-Day landings it was him who pushed me away from a mine, injured we fought our way to the hospital, semi conscious and bleeding. We travelled 20 miles to Calais, sharing our rationed chocolate and our stories. He is my very best friend we went through the worst together but separated when all became normal again.
I do not want to know how he found me, but that he found me.
The drone ended, and the vicar was done. The ground is cold. The ropes creak under the strain. Hand over hand; I am lowered deeper and deeper into the earth. I, silently, watch as my friends shower me with what I will become and then I see the grey hair, he is the last, the dirt leaves his hand I stare up through it and see his old, gnarled face muster a small wink. The same he gave me on that cold night on the beach in Normandy.

Now I know, everything will be alright.

COMPETITION

In a desperate attempt to drum up even a little bit of interest and readership for my blog

I have Decided to start a competition....

You maybe wondering now.. why? how much will it cost? and (hopefully) Where do i sign up?

When I told my friend about this competition He looked at me the way Amy Winehouse would look at someone suggesting she should have a glass of grapefruit juice instead of whiskey.

So the Competition is....

To Create the Best, Most Scariest halloween face using the Crazy Pumpkin App on iPhone/iPod Touch

You can buy an iPhone/iPod touch here :- www.apple.com

You can download for Free the crazy pumpkin app here :- Crazy Pumpkin app in itunes
 

You can Take a picture of your Scary Face by :- holding the sleep/hold button on the top of you device and then pressing the Home button, this will take a snapshot of the screen, then post this in the comments underneath.

I hope lots of you Join in and have fun :)

Competition ends 26th of November 

My bro after rugby

Taken with iPhone 2mp cam
The cam is ok, my only complaint is how long it takes just to open the app and to take the pic, faster shutter speed please... But by software I can't be outdated that quickly :(

A download grumble

FOR GOD'S SAKE.... was the Vocal Alarm clock our house was greeted to this morning

This time, however, it wasn't me shouting.

You see... Im on holiday (october half term) so i wasn't even awake! Let alone hurling abuse at computers loud enough to wake the dead! (Apologies to the neighbours, they've just let loose a little, especially on the makeup :p.)

On the other hand, my dad was wide a wake and reminding us all of it.

The cause of his distress, only came apparent, to me at least, with his second bawl, which went something like this....

THIS BLOODY INTERNET (pause, he still had to breath) AND MY STUPID PODCAST!!

I'd like to point out now that he left swiftly after that, with a lot of swearing and still NO, podcast!

You see we live in Uttoxeter, a quiet, scenic, and most importantly Isolated little market town in the centre of England, you would of though, as did i, that been in Britons heart, we would have at least intercepted a Fiber-Optic or something. Although Our Mayor does seem to be spending alot of time diverting oil from a london bounded pipeline to his recently renovated, and always surprisingly warm, small holding. But it will only go to the toft's in London else so......... who's really complaining :p

Despite that the mayor could at least put some effort into the wires because, our internet is appalling, BT has completely over looked us, in fact i've heard rumors that farms and village around us are getting faster internet!! Does our town smell or something (don't answer that) or does The nations Internet provider just have a vendetta against us.

I can see it now, the Telegram money needed paying and 1 Poor Innocent Farmer wouldn't give up his last cow, Daisy, a warm, loving family pet, who the local zoophilic once..... but we wont go into that. But this Poor Farmer with empty pockets, 2 daughters to feed and a dozen hampsters to bed (farmers, say no more) was cruelly hounded by the greedy company. The cold Fat-Cats down south stepped in, because they didn't have enough profit already, and there we have it. Why our internet is now so desperately, rip your arm off and beat you computer to a pulp..ily, slow. 

Which is why my dad was Bawling this morning because his podcast, some spanish language course wouldn't download. And why i started my holiday.. waiting for it to end.

1 last thing though, I guess our lack of fast internet does explain the, higher than average, amount of zoophilia here....... but we wont go into that ;)

(the Mayor of Uttoxeter doesn't actually take any oil from pipelines, although he does have a small holding) 

Digsby... The new IM

HELP!!! 

The scream Pierced the silence of, Circuit City.

It was fast becoming a regular thing, More and More screams every night

They were the Screams of... MULTIPLE IM USERS!!!!!!

Thats right millions of people are having the Same nightmare. 

Some of there Friends are in Msn

Some of there Friends are in Aim

And some, some of there friends are even in Google!!!

These poor, poor souls are held to ransom every time the switch on there computer by hundreds

IM client Windows, all fighting for our SCREEN space, our RAM and our PROCESSOR POWER!!

Back in circuit city, a, slightly round, figure. With a baseball cap? Is standing on top of a greyed out building, Internet users look up, Girls Scream, Processors rejoice, IM clients Shield there eyes.

The sun rises behind the silhouetted figure

PING!!, A new message...

Never fear........ DIGSBY is here!!!

Digsby, the cross platform, Multi IM protocal Client. With facebook support!!! Has arrived

Im using it now, its UI, Skins and logging support bat Trillan and pigion, out of the Park

SPLAT, BANG, WHOLP, 

Digsby holds Msn in a headlock. Aim, in a full nelson, and a well timed kick to the crotch for Googletalk.

Digsby holds all Clients in 1 Window and logs them into together.. even your Email.

Never again will circuit city be terrorized by IM clients

A hot blonde falls in Digsbys arms... "O Digsby, My hero"

Digsby looks up and booms.... "All in a nights work. And remember kids... I Only Work On WINDOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Digsby = http://www.digsby.com/?utm_campaign=old&utm_content=old&utm_medium=old&utm_source=old

Test

Test mobile blogging

Xmas Negotiations

The negotiators went in 2 days ago. 

Hang on,

There's a disturbance at the door, can it be, No, Yes, Yes, it is.

Out they come Ryan and his parents,

He's stepping up to the podium, 

He's raising the paper, could it be, It is...

!!!Ryan's Xmas List!!!

Thats right, I think I've worn them down, after blowing all my savings on my iphone

(see profile pic) I have Negotiated with my parents my number 1 christmas present

you see... when your little, it don't matter, you prefer quantity over quality, lots of small presents

but as we grow up (Im now 14 nearly 15 :)  ) we prefer bigger (or smaller) better and most importantly more Expensive presents for christmas. 

So anyway, what have i asked for, well....

I would really like some iphone speakers that will charge my phone, like a dock.

Lots of money, cause Im stony broke from buying my iphone

(Nerdily) Lots of books, my reading list is somewhere in my profile Im going to do a comment 

on it but i would really like a big pile of them to work my way through.

And finally The most important, hoped for, and most Expensive (and because my parents wont spend £1500 on a macbook air) i would like (and i quite like my negotiation on this 1) Whatever comes out of the MacWorld Expo in January.

So its all chance.... it could be nothing.. or it could be something really nice Im hoping for this>>>

And I hope my parents are sporting people, specially with the price tag :s

Soldering

I guess this is a techy kinda post, soldering irons, silicon chips. Yeah techy enough :)

A long time ago, about 2 years exactly, I chose my Dt option group which was Control aka

Electronics. 

Today we were making our Silicon Chips, which meant lots of soldering of wires, light, buzzers

and anything else you may have forgotten from Science

My fingers (with the life of there own) strayed and landed straight on the end of my soldering iron

OOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

It really hurts, although My slowness i left ma fingers on the iron for 2 seconds

before running around madly and dunking it under COLD water for 10 mins.

I now have a gorgeous scar across my writing finger, the soldering iron has completely cooked my flesh...

On the menu tonight whose up for .... Ryan... Well Done ;)  

Spaces

At last Spaces has arrived for PC, well it has for me

For a long time Pc users have been restricted to there 1 desktop screen.

We have to Juggle multiple windows, filling up task bars, start menus and trays.

But thanks to the windows open eco-system a small software 

company called VirtuaWin has created a simple background 

program that can create multiple desktops to streamline

Organization.

Apple came across this problem a while ago when trying to convince people to part with

there cash for a Macbook which only has a 13" screen. 

They invented a application called Spaces which creates up to 16 virtual desktops

Allowing you to keep your itunes, downloads and email all in easy access 'Spaces'

Now that windows has at last got its own version of spaces, us faithful windows uses will be able to unlock a little bit more graphics power and benefit from organised, uncluttered simple Desktops VirtuaWin allows up to 20 virtual desktops and is a Free download from... 

http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

I found this amazingly useful in day to day tasks and made my overall use of the computer much more enjoyable... Hope you like it to :)

I recommend this product :)

Keep developing for Windows!!! :)

The New

Can you believe it, The new MacBooks are here. Released on the Tue Oct 14 2008.  I think the look gorgeous, and would really love one (if theres anyone out there with £1000 on them) 

Althought there new amazingness, the price is what hits me the most. Me and alot of other people were hoping that Jobs & Co. would be realeasing a half price (£450) laptop, ready for apple to survive the credit crunch. Instead they released these 2 beauties the MacBook (left) for a cool £999 pounds 200 more than the previous MacBook and the MacBook Pro (right) for an expensive £1399. Its important to remember though that the new MacBook is going to be run along side the Old Macbook ...

 

Which has had a price drop in that States but here has had a price Boost of £20. 

What new in the new MacBook's MacPro's ....

• Led Backlit screens - instant on, bright backlight, Richer colours
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics - Amazing new graphics  
• Corner to Corner Glass monitor - supremly beutiful
• Brand new Glass Touch Pad - No button, whole track pad is the button and Multitouch gestures
• A full Aluminium Case called a UniBody - Cleaner, Lighter, More structually sound

For the First time the Macbooks and MacPros look identical... which could lead to alot of flustered Pro owners walking screaming I PAID £400 MORE FOR THIS!!

I think both these new laptops are very gorgeous... but i would have wanted to see more for the Price 

or a Price Drop!!

Looking to the future... WE WANT A TABLET

Get in the groove

Post 1... Media studies

Ok my first post on this blog, I have just finished updating it changing profile and sum pics 

i have decided to do this blog all about tech(nology) news. Since despite it been *UnCool* i read it every day i no whats happening in the Tech world most of the time....

Therefore i now christen this blog... iRyan... although that not really that techy :s