Hooray for Microsoft

Internet Explorer suddenly stopped working. At all. Not being overly suprised at this turn of events I used Firefox to find out how to reinstall it. It turns out that IE6 is part of XP Service Pack 2 so I figured a fresh install of SP2 would do the trick. Maybe. Worth a try. But what do you do when you try to download SP2 (because IE won't start) and you get a message telling you that you can only download SP2 from within IE?
Way to go Mr Microsoft genius!
Actually the problem was due to Microsoft's latest security update not liking the Google Toolbar. Uninstall the Toolbar and everything works just fine.
Makes you wonder how much testing they did (if any) and how many people now prefer an alternate browser?

Cleaning up after the holiday

I fully intended to write a brilliant and detailed account of my sojourn to the other hemisphere but now I'm thinking that probably will not happen.
The mobile phone bill arrived today and (fortunately) was nowhere near as bad as I'd feared it would be. Here's the thing, I never asked my mobile service provider about global roaming etc as it was all a bit boring really. After all, I've travelled overseas once or twice and always coped just fine without a phone. (I always feel that an essential part of holidays is not being able to be contacted) On this occasion I had to meet up with people so took with me a foreign sim card, although I don't know what the actual number on the card was, so the intention was to use it purely for outgoing calls. However, when I turned my mobile on in London to check the state of the battery it appeared to be happy to magically work. It continued to work everywhere I went, spontaneously bleeping with welcome messages from phone networks I had never heard of. The longest calls I made cost about $20 each which I think is pretty good value considering.

Lost in translation

My sisters took the munchkins to the Show. In one of the many show bags they bought was a bubble gun, which is not all that interesting except for the brilliant instructions - reproduced in full here for your pleasure and the immortality they truly deserve. (Apologies for the caps but that's how it is on the original.

EXPLAIN:
1.OPEN THE BATTERY COVER,INSET TWO AA BATTERIES ENSUING THE POSITIVE (+) AND NEGATIVE(-) POLES ARE IN THE CORRECT POSITION
2.OPEN THE COVER OF BUBBLE SOLUTION, FLOW THE SOLUTION INTO THE COVER.USE NOZZLE BEDEW THE SOLUTION
3.SQUEEZE THE TRIGGER, THE BUBBLE GUN CAN BRING SOME RICH AND COLORFUL BUBBLES AND WONDERFUL MUSIC. USE DIFFERENT MODE OF SQUEEZE TRIGGER CAN BRING BIFFERENT BUBBLES AND MUSIC EFFECT.
SQUEEZE THE TRIGGER ON END,IT CAN BRING RNNING MUSIC AND BUBBLES.
SQUEEZE THE TRIGGER INTERMITTENTLY ,THE MUSIC SOUND WILL RUNNING CHANGE.EACH KIND OF MUSIC CIRCLE ONCE.
SPUEEZE THE TRIGGER LIGHTLY AND INTERMITTENTLY,THE BUBBLE WILL BIGGER AND BIGGER,THE BIGGEST ONE IS LIKE A BASKETBALL.

WARN: A. THIS PORDUCTION IS INNOCUOUS,BUT KEEP OUT OF CHILDREN TO EAT.
B. THIS TOY NOT SUITABLE FOR UNDER 36 MONTHS CHILDREN.
BATTERY REPLACEMENT SHOULD ONLY BE CARRIED OUT BY AN ADULT.
ADJURE: CHOSE TOP-QUALITY BATTERIES,BRING THE BUBBLE 'S EFFECT IS THE BEST.
SUGGEST: WHEN USE UP THE SOLUTION,PLEASE GO TO SHOP BUY BUBBLE SOLUTION WHERE SELL THIS PRODUCTION.
CLEW: WHEN THE BATTERY POWER IS NOT ENOUGH ,THE BUBBLE'S NUMBER WILL REDUCE INDEED CAN NOT SHOOT UP THE BUBBLE.

Phone spam

I am getting way too many unsolicited phone calls of an evening. I had 3 on Wednesday, 1 last night (but I went out so there could have been more) and have had another tonight. It is really pissing me off to the point I have considered contacting my local MP, or perhaps even my federal one (after all Simon Crean is always sending me nice letters offering to help with my problems).
I don't know what they wanted because nowadays I hang up on them before they can tell me. You can tell straight away - if you have to say "Hello" twice before anyone answers you, it's a safe bet you've been rung from a call centre. My current strategy is:
Me: "Hello"
Phone: (silence)
/me hangs up

Does this make me a bad person?

Back home

And back at work
*sigh*