Well Played Barcelona

Manchester United 1 : 0 Barcelona - Aggregate Score.


No complaints, both matches were a joy to watch Messi and Ronaldo never got off and Scholes in the end did what was necessary. Barca made a mistake and they capitalized, it was still a brave showing but Rijkaard must learn his lesson from this. Eto'o up front seemed to have been given a mandate, he took so few shots and played more a centre attacking player than a striker, which is when I feel he plays his best football.


Now AC Milan are fighting for a qualifying position in the Champions League. Maybe a year in the Cup wouldn't be the worse thing for them while the rebuild. I back them 100% in the derby against Inter but if they draw or even loose they have come back well.

I've seen enough english football and while I think Man Unt are the best squad in that league, their style of play just isn't something I can say I'm a fan of, I'd have to say that I think Arsenal are the team in the league I can follow and enjoy watching. So next season I hope they continue with their style as I'll be following them.

Milan look to make some changes and this season they weren't their style wasn't all there with the team aging but with Pato, Kaka, Gourcuff (if he stays) and maybe a 2 or 3 new faces they could be back to normal. Or at least be able to maintain the form they have had recently.


Two big big derbies approaching and summer transfer season, I think Rijkaard is going to be going but I hope they let him stay as I think he has learned alot. Still, with the team he had this season Barca shouldn't be a second season without silverware. Maybe he does need to go? I don't know but if Mourinho is his replacement, then I can be happy with that as long as there is a composite of his controlled still and Barca's passing and movement. Maybe they will play with more width, who knows.


Well Played Barcelona, I enjoyed every minute of the game even if I wore a frown from the time Scholes put that beauty into the net.

Operating Systems

Been on a wee bit of a break, Shari's here so I've been otherwise pre-occupied. Of course however,when I find something sufficiently infuriating I do need to vent onto the mighty internets. WHAT was Microsoft thinking when they stiched Vista together. Now I was fairly pissed when I saw Fedora 7 I was kinda disappointed. They dropped the 'core' name I really expected the package management system to be tightly integrated and more user friendly. Alas, it wasn't to be and I think for my next home distro of linux I'll be joining the Ubuntu faithful.

Back to the point, I've been disappointed by operating systems before, they are the pretty eyed women of the night who promise so much and then leave you with so little. Vista...I'm looking at you.

Firstly, I can't find anything, why was the window with network connections buried. I mean the links on the left are useful but they are in no means intuitive, I find too many things that are useful are tucked away out of sight. Generally I find the re-arrangement of sections hasn't been for the best.

Secondly, why does it use so much freaking resources...800mb of ram, no seriously. Ready boost is a nice touch though, I like it its very practical.

Thirdly, software support...Symantec whats the big Idea, people plunk down cash for symantec 10 and for vista you need endpoint 11. Talk about moving the goal post mid game! I know this is unfounded but I'd like some sort of evidence that symantec 10 coulnd't be patched up to work on Vista.

Finally, I'm being overly harsh and I know it but for the time it took, the money it costs and the emphasis being put on it I expect a little more than DX10 and easily scheduled disk defragging.

Blah! My wishlist for an OS:

Simple CUSTOMIZABLE interface - Easy for begginers but those who know can modify it to their needs. Look at what happened to office 07, the ribbon system is nice but its not for everyone so why force it?

An intuitive learning curve for the OS, not the user - No, do not enable every fraggin service at the start. Enabled the basics and as services are requested enabled to more harmless ones and give a brief basic explanation of why I should full time enable the services.

Open source - The code need not be community developed but give everybody a level playing field in terms of access to information and people build tightly integrated solutions. Then again that would be great for software in general so if one body produces their own custom service/dll for acheiving a goal multiple apps could use it rather than everybody launching their own assault on system resources.

Remove Facebook's People You May Already Know

*UPDATE*

None of the below methods currently are working, for me at least, if/when I have some time to look at this again I'll try again and update.

*/UPDATE*


Yes so what is the point of complaining if you're not going to act?

Here are two methods for removing this module if you are a Firefox user.

The first, and the one that I used, is to run a small script on your page that blogs the content of the section.

1. Install the Greasemonkey Add-on.
2. Go to this page.
3. Hit "Install This Script", as you'll see it says it was written my majatt so need to fear.

Once its installed the header still appears but you don't have to see anyone you don't like.

The second method, which is simpler to execute but I'll be upfront and say I haven't bothered to test. Get Adblock Plus and add "*facebook.com*friend_sugge

ster.js" to the block list.

For a good laugh, go search "people you may know" in facebook and check the groups, its quite funny.

Just a few pics

The Office Parking lot at 5:30pm...


The main entrance


Me before a meeting.

Avram Grant: Once a Football Manager now a Comedian

http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=662580

Messi and Kaka? Riiiiight, keep dreaming buddy.


http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=663403

Pure. Gold. The last bit was too funny, has to be the most uncomfortable interview ever and I hope it ends up on one of those new fangled video-on-demand services like youtoob.

Privacy just aint what it used to be

This is taking a joke too far. Software that creeps into a p2p network and tries to find and locate people downloading content, in this case child pornography, they deem illegal.

Hang on a tick, did I just say "deem illegal" and mention child pornography in the same breath? This will give you an idea as to why, someone being prosecuted for child pornography for taking pictures of fully clothed teenagers.


With regards to tracking people my issues are just that IP addresses can be masked, hidden and re-directed. This software claims to be able to find the person's PC and identify the very computer itself rather than just some ID your Internet Service Provider gave you.

They make a reasonable argument but what happens if they decide that people who download certain kinds of music are inclined to be violent and start tracking your activity? Its one thing to try to protect people but once who can tag someone on the net via their IP correctly you follow them around. See what they bought on amazon that day, what websites they visited and what email provider they use.

Even worse is this statement

It's able to help investigators conduct undercover operations involving peer-to-peer file-sharing applications, chat rooms, Web sites, and mobile telephones.

What's next?

Night Note - Construction

Construction on my apt, well fine. As long as the water doesn't go out more often and there is space to park my car, whatever. Construction work going on after 9PM? Now that is going a bit too far.

More Food

Yes, I am pleased as punch with the fact I haven't poisoned myself (yet). Baked Chicken, Rice and a small tossed salad. Cooking is time consuming but I get what I want when its done, gotta love that.

Media Control - Kinda Follow up

Not alot to say, just wanted to repost this video that was linked to in a comment. Its an hr long buts it is very interesting.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6737097743434902428

Side Note: Surprises

How nice it was to come home for lunch and have no electricity and low water pressure as a result *sigh*. I love my lemon tea and honey is wonderful.

Media Control

I saw a video on TV last night that really struck a cord, this guy on youtube was saying his biggest concern about the election is how much the mainstream media controls the process. The guy is spot on, I mean besides the fact that there only a few news distributors for global news (how many articles site Reuters, AFP or AP as the source of their pictures or stories?) the companies that distribute the news own the TV and Radio stations. They own the major websites and they effectively control the vast majority of what we see, hear and read.

His take was focused on the presidential race in the US and how the mass media can pretty much exclude a candidate and remove them from the race. They decide who is popular (who will generate more attention to the media) and push them. They feed off the issues and can blow anything out of proportion and focus on a negative story until a candidate looses momentum.


It goes alot further than that here is a classic example, the story by the BBC which clearly states that

temperatures have not risen globally since 1998

but here is the adjusted article that came out a few days after to replace the original. Now they both say the same thing but the adjusted one puts in a different light, and moves that statement way down near the bottom of the article. Most people will absorb the reasoning that temperatures are on the rise which is in line with all the media putting out. Its also interesting to note that the rise in global temperature in '98 was attributed to el nino. As the person that sent me that info said; that would mean weather systems have a far more adverse effect on temperature than any man made threat.

The thing is night in and night out I see more and more adverts saying that green house gases are raising the temperature but thats just what the mainstream media portrays. Why? I don't know maybe environmental lobbyists I don't really care who it is because I'm glad they are making companies operate cleaner but its being done in an almost brainwashing manner.


What is the scariest part is that the media is never accountable. Look at Barbados, 2 News Papers, 1 TV Station and 3 main Radio Broadcasters. If the Nation, CBC and 98.1 run a story it could as well be fact and if it isn't no one is held accountable. Good journalism requires sources and filters but no matter how factual the base of a story is, using a few words can completely change the context to whatever mandate an editor is given.


The sad thing is that the only solution I can see is for people to pay more attention and be more conscious of what the mainstream feeds them. If Mikey J allegedly touches another kid during a tense period of War in the Middle East and the media pays more attention to that than people dying in a War. People should be able to filter out the subterfuge and focus on whats really there. Vote on whats really there, money on whats relevant and time on what's important.

I guess we're as good as doomed then sigh.

Officially Settled In...I Think

I think it's safe to say that I've officially settled in. I've got my washday, diet, daily and weekly routines down. I know where most things are and I've bout everything I need to be comfortable. For the first time since I arrived I had to put in gas and while I believe self serve is fairly inefficient clearly it has the cost saving merit, oh if I never mentioned it all the pumps here are self serve.

I've fully launched into my exercise routine and I'm inching towards being able to keep up with the people in the video...but we will see. Oh! today I went a lil extra with my meal.



Penne Pasta with baby shrimp, stir fried vegetables and a home made Alfredo sauce. Went down pretty good :-).

From here I should be able to rant on random things...as usual :-).

White Rice and Shrimp

Wow, been kinda busy trying to build this web server on Solaris, if nothing else it has been educational. So many tiny mistakes you can make that will have adverse effects, I guess my luck hasn't been the best either.


What else has been taking up my time? Well I've started back exercising and I've taken an interest in my nutrition. People have always bagged on me eating cereal nearly every morning but these new health cereals really do pack a punch in terms of your daily supplement.

Of course if you are reading this, as I will be someday...someday soon, you will be wondering why I have the title as it is, and its fairly simple. Its what I cooked this Sunday gone. It was a bit annoying since the shrimp I bought was not 'de-veined' as I thought it was. Not any more annoyed however than finding out a shrimp's vein is actually a euphemism for intestine. Large or small...thats nasty. Anyway I'm positing the recipe for good measure.

So I got a free lesson in removing shrimp 'veins', small slit on the concave side from head to tail and pull out the dark vein like string.


Required:

1 Cup of Rice
6-8oz of Shrimp (precooked & deveined)
1 Tomato
1 Sweet Pepper
1 Onion
Ketchup
2 Garlic Pods
5 Tsp of Butter
Limes
Seasoning
3 cups of Patience (very important)


Rice:

Wash the rice.
Bring 1 & 1/2 - 2 Cups of water to a boil in a small/medium pot with heat on high.
Add rice, lower heat to medium and cover leaving space for steam to escape.
Monitor the rice and when craters start to form (i.e. the water is drying out and the rice is pulling together leaving air spaces) turn the heat to low and cover tight.
Leave for 10-15 mins but monitor it.
Fluff, good to go.

Gravy:

Small frying pan on medium-low heat; add 2 tsp of butter and spread it around the pan.
Toss in 1 chopped pod of garlic, 2 onion rings and sweet pepper...half the amt of onions or if ya really like sweet pepper the same amt. Stir them around but not too vigorously and when they just starting to burn add about 2 tbl spoons of ketchup.
Stir.
Add in about 1/2 cup of water and stir, at this time you can add some black pepper or seasoned salt. Keep stirring occasionally and allow the water to boil out, once it starts to get thick taste it and see if it need more ketchup, pepper or w/e it is you like. If you taste it and its good, then take it off the heat and let it cool.


Shrimp:

Completely cover the shrimp in water.
Add lime (2-3 Squeezed Limes).

2-3 tsp of butter depending on the size of the pan and this size of the pan determined by the number of shrimp you'll be doing at once.
Add 1 chopped garlic pod.
While the butter melts wash off the shrimp.
Add the shrimp into the pan.
Add Seasoned salt, black pepper etc to taste.
Fry til the shrimp look cooked (start to shrink and change colour a bit) or for about 4mins.

Add it all together and You have what I ate Sunday!

(props to Shari and to Mums)

Hungry's!

So some things are cheap in Anguilla and something aren't btw, those prices are inline with normal eating. Rice, Fish and Salad is $10-13US. Oh well.