Happy New Year!

Uwe is going to start his with a new haircut.

One more reason to avoid the housework

Dyson pays thousands after machine attacks man

KEN BANKS

A MAN who was attacked by his new vacuum cleaner, which sent him flying down the stairs, has won thousands of pounds in damages.

Norman Grant, 59, sued the cleaning giant company Dyson for £50,000 after the bizarre accident in his home.

London

It's good to be back behind my own keyboard again.... but right now I'm off to sleep in my own bed!

Benz Museum

Well... we found the museum yesterday but the old one was closed and the new one is only going to be finished in April 2006... just in time for the World Cup that is being held in Germany. The Daimler Stadium is right next door and it's one of the venues. The new building is pretty impressive so far and it's going to be huge! I took a photo that I was going to insert into this blog but I can't seem to get a GPRS connection at the moment... I think Uwe may be to blame. I'll have to add it when I get home tomorrow.

We did get Uwe a Stuttgart fan scarf though so the trip wasn't in vain.

So I'm off again tomorrow... back to sunny London. I'm going to miss the food... and the beer.

Another Christmas gone

Ate too much, drank too much, fell asleep on the couch... all in all not a bad Christmas.

merry Christmas

...and all that.

Goodbye SuprNova

SuprNova.org ends, not with a bang but a whimper

SuprNova.org, the most popular BitTorrent file-sharing site, is to stop hosting torrent links.

In a message posted on its website, the site operators say it "is closing down for good in the way that we all know it. We do not know if SuprNova is going to return, but it is certainly not going to be hosting any more torrent links. We are very sorry for this, but there was no other way, we have tried everything."

They will be missed. I Torrent Reactor doesn't go anywhere.

Flags

My brother wants to get a German football scarf or something of the sort and I thought that I would get a German flag while we're here. "No Problem" you would think, seeing that we are in Germany and they quite enjoy their football here.

I've been to all the sports shops in the town without finding a single German flag or scarf. I did find football scarves for Italy and Spain though strangely enough... I wonder if I would if it would be easier to find a German one in Italy. I eventually found a German flag in a computer games shop of all places quite by accident. I got their last one so we're going to have to look elsewhere for Uwe's.

So, we're going to go to the home stadium of VfB Stuttgart who should have some. I think that we will take a look around the Daimler/Mercedes Museum while we're in the area as well then.

Schwarzwald

This morning we went for a walk through the forest to get a glimpse of the snow in the trees before it gets washed away by the rain that's predicted for the end of the week. The forest surrounds the town and has some nice walking and cycling trails. Next time I think I'll bring my bike along. I'm not sure how far I would get in the snow but it would have been fun trying.

Porsche Museum

My brother and I had a wander around the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart today. They had a few of their cars that had one races and cups in the past as well as a good representation of their vehicles since they started. They've got one of their first prototypes there as well as a fire engine from the 1920's that they built through to their police car, rally car and new Carrera.

What may have impressed me more though was the sheer size of the Porsche site. Huge buildings, factory and a massive showroom that had more Porsches in one place than I've probably seen in my life.

Next time I visit I'll have a look at the Daimler Museum which is on the other side of Stuttgart.

Freezing

Today it was -10°! Crazy.

we spent the day visiting relatives about a 100km away in a nice old town that's been around longer than Cape Town. Unfortunately I left my camera/phone at home on charge... The place was full of buildings dating back to the 1600's and most of the town wall is still standing. Pretty impressive considering most structures built now don't last longer than a few decades.

Snow!

It started snowing last night and hasn't really stopped yet. It's certainly change the face of the town and it looks awesome. I haven't seen real snow like this in a while. So first thing after breakfast, Uwe and myself took a walk around the town (before the traffic turned it into slush) and had a look around. The town looks completely different. I love the sound of walking on fresh powder... it's like walking on bubble wrap.




I hope we get a few more days of snow in before it stops... They have predicted a green Christmas and they actually seem to be pretty accurate about the weather here.

I'm typing this from an internet cafe as my grandmother is a bit of a technophobe and doesn't have a pc. Anyway... the guy next to me is surfing porn sites and just printed off a few pics from the printer which is on the other side of me *shudder*.

Functional Sculpture

All the figures in this sculpture have movable limbs so that their poses can be changed. Trust the Germans to manage to get some technical bits into even a simple sculpture.

Got it...

Ok, I managed to get the photos by emailing them to myself from my phone and then uploading them to my photo album... It's not the most efficient way but it will do.

This is my brother Uwe at one of the ponds in the town where we're staying.

Shopping

I don't seem to mind shopping as much when on holiday for some reason... perhaps it's just that I don't see Euros as real money yet.

I spent most of the morning in and out of clothing shops and generally just browsing. Ended up with a few more clothes and an electric razor. I think I've got just about everything that I wanted to get now... except for shoes perhaps, which I might skip anyway.

I should actually do some sightseeing while I'm here instead of shopping (it's friendlier on the back account). I'll have to plan something for tomorrow.

My next mission is to work out how to get the pictures from my phone onto my machine at home. This machine doesn't have BT and I didn't bother bringing the phone cable with.

Sindelfingen

Who would have thought that 4° would make such a difference... It's pretty cold in Germany at -2°.


My brother and I arrived in Frankfurt without any problems... but then we accidentally climbed onto a normal bus instead of the shuttle to the train station and ended up making our way to the Frankfurt Main Train Station instead of using the one at the airport... So a bit of a bus and tram ride later we arrived at the station and jumped on a train to Stuttgart (which went past the station where we were supposed to climb on). After being kicked out of first class on the train, it was pretty uneventful from then on to our final destination. The German trains are a big improvement over the trains in the UK obviously... even after moving to second class.

This morning I had a walk around the town to see if I could still find my way around the place (which I can) and to see what's changed (not much). One of the great differences between here and London is the fact that instead of Chicken Land or dodgey kebab shops every 50m you get a bakery which I find is great. I don't think that I've gone longer than 5 minutes since being here without feeling stuffed.

Things that I forgot to pack:
Shaving stuff
Socks
Camera
Not enough long sleeved tops.

The shaving stuff and socks were easy to get... I think I'll get my brother to buy a camera though.... I wonder if they make disposable digital cameras yet....

Madam Tussauds

I took my brother to see Madam Tussauds yesterday and was quite impressed with some of the wax figures that they had on display there and the way that they were presented. I was expecting a few more important people though like Gates, Torvalds & Jobs but I didn't spot them... I may have to email them a few requests.

Feeling a bit rough

I had a great time last night celebrating my last day of work and ended up having just a little too much to drink (as is the custom). Now I'm paying for it.

I got a few cool cube goodies too... two mini remote controlled cars, a t-shirt plugging my site and a bottle of bubbly.

I will miss working with them and will be chuffed if my future colleagues are half as good as that bunch.

<- (My main reason for leaving was to get an "Alan Oh original" card)

Last Day

It's finally here.

My last day at work.

I'm going to be sorry to leave a great team of people that I'm working with (well, mostly great). I am exited about starting new projects and doing some real work for a change though.

I guess I'm going to have to find a new song to wake up to in the mornings instad of Rage Against The Machine - Maggie's Farm now.

Old Photos

I found a nice old family photo in one of the albums that my brother brought with. Ahhh.. the 70s...

It's strange to think that my parents were probably my age when this photo was taken.

I'm screwed.

LAPTOP WARNING FOR MEN

Men could be risking their fertility by using laptop computers, new research suggests.

The problems is the combination of heat generated by the computers and the posture needed to balance the equipment on the lap.

No drugs, alcohol, smoking or laptops? Hmmm... perhaps I'll pass on children and wait until they iron out the cloning process.

Gainfully employed (for another 8 weeks)

I just got offered the contract that I was interviewed for on Monday. It's only for eight weeks but that should keep me out of mischief for a while.

On another note, I discovered my first undeniably gray hair yesterday... *sigh* it's all downhill from here...

New Vespa designs?

Piaggio Partners With Parsons School of Design to Re-Imagine an Italian Classic
Wednesday December 8, 10:22 am ET

NEW YORK, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Piaggio USA, Inc. the manufacturer of the renowned Vespa scooter, is partnering with Parsons School of Design to re- imagine this incomparable icon of Italian style within the context of 21st century American culture. Restricted only by the limits of their imaginations, Parsons students in the Fashion Design, Product Design, and Design and Technology programs will create new concepts for a lifestyle collection, ranging from clothing to wearable technologies, accessories, and even new features for the scooter itself. The designs will be unveiled at the Parsons Benefit and Fashion Show on May 9, 2005.

Hmmm... I'm interested to see what they come up with... Hopefully it's not just another spin off on their clothing range. (Not that I have anything against the Vespa clothing label).

Wetware

Rat brain flies jet
By Robin Lettice
Published Tuesday 7th December 2004 16:01 GMT

Florida scientists have grown a brain in a petri dish and taught it to fly a fighter plane.

The "brain", grown from 25,000 neural cells extracted from a single rat embryo, has been taught to fly an F-22 jet simulator by scientists at the University of Florida. It was taught to control the flight path, even in mock hurricane-strength winds.

This is just too freaky! I wonder when this technology will make it into our home appliances...

Canon

I set up the scanner that I bought on Saturday and I thought that I would treat you to my first test scan!

It's my first Vespa, on a dirt road in the Cederberg mountains, about 200km from civilization (Ok, so it's only about 50km from Citrusdal but that doesn't really count.)

On other news, I went for an interview this morning which went quite well... I might just be thinking that because I got interviewed by two semi geeky women... which in it's self would be reason enough for me to take the job at half my normal rate!

What's in your keyboard?

England full of unhealthy geeks, says UK Online

98% eat at desks

By Tamlin Magee: Wednesday 01 December 2004, 21:56

THE RESULTS FOR what could well be the most important IT-based survey ever conducted - that's "what do we in the UK, eat at our PC" - are in, and they're not looking too good according to Brit ISP UK Online.

98% of people surveyed said that they ate their breakfast, lunch and dinner at the desk every day, say UK Online. With a genuine concern for the health of British PC-users (but not Mac users), UK Online sent a selection of keyboards to the Reading Scientific Services Microscopy Laboratory for testing to find out if the "nation's desktops are as healthy as its new 8Mb service".

I'm surprised that so many people eat at their computers... admittedly I'm one of them but it couldn't have been a very diverse group of people.

They didn't say anything about ash either... they must have been examining office keyboards....