Yes, this really is a real press release

The title? 'Rudolph the reindeer goes into retirement now Santa has sat nav'...

Clutching. At. Straws.

--------------

18th December 2006

Chief Reindeer takes early retirement

Rudolph, world-renowned Chief Reindeer of Santa's Reindeers, has surprised the industry by stepping down from his position as team leader.

The departure is termed "amicable", with an official statement from Rudolph's camp claiming the reindeer wishes to spend "more time with his family". However, recent changes of procedure within Santa circles are widely rumoured to be ruffling some feathers (and fur).

"Santa bought a Garmin nüvi 660 personal travel assistant," says an elf close to both parties, who asked not to be named. "It has a wide 4.3 inch touch screen, Bluetooth wireless capabilities for making hands-free phone calls and mapping across Europe. It wasn't a political decision - Santa and Rudolph are still very close. But you have to move with the times, don't you?"

--------------

Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear...

Santa speaks!

Microsoft sets Santa up on WLM

Those nice guys at Microsoft have given Santa a Windows Live Messenger account – northpole@live,com if you want to add him to your contacts. So, naturally, we had to try it out. Ho ho ho. Here's our informal chat with 'Santa'…

See more at

http://santaonmessenger.com/messenger/santa/default.aspx

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Hi Santa. For Christmas I'd like a new train set

Santa Claus says:

Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas, DannyG™ [Alpha] ! I'm Santa Claus!

Tell me, are you a boy or a girl?

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Boy

Santa Claus says:

And what do you want for Christmas, DannyG™ [Alpha] ?

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

A train set

Santa Claus says:

That sounds nice! I'll see what I can do, DannyG™ [Alpha] .

And what else are you wishing for this year?

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

I'd like a Skype phone

Santa Claus says:

My elves will get right on that.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

And a house

Santa Claus says:

Okay, I'll see what I can do with that.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

A teddy

Santa Claus says:

Sorry, I'm having a little trouble understanding you, DannyG™ [Alpha] !

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Why?

Santa Claus says:

Because that's the way things are.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Brilliant

Santa Claus says:

Excellent.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

You're great

Santa Claus says:

That's nice to hear!

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

With your red coat and nice hat

Santa Claus says:

I used to leave a big lump of coal in the stockings of naughty girls and boys, but I don't anymore, because it's bad for the environment.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Coal is great - we burn it all the time

Santa Claus says:

A long time ago, I left lumps of coal in the stockings of naughty girls and boys, but I don't anymore, because it's bad for the environment.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

You just said that Santa!

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Hello Santa?

Santa Claus says:

Hi again!

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Wassup?

Santa Claus says:

Just hanging out. You?

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

You're very quick at replying Santa!

Santa Claus says:

Ho ho ho!

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

I love you!

Santa Claus says:

Good! I love you too!

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

James says you're not real

Santa Claus says:

Well, I believe in you, and that's the important thing.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

What if I'm not real Santa?

Santa Claus says:

Sorry, little boy, I didn't quite understand you.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Sorry Santa

Santa Claus says:

What about Santa?

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

You're going a bit weird

Santa Claus says:

Hmm...

Of course, we had to truly test the merits of the virtual Santa and make sure he really was fine for kids to use. So naturally that means swearing at him.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

GET ME A FUCKING TRAIN SET

Santa Claus says:

That's quite a naughty thing to say.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Why? They say it on the TV all the time

Santa Claus says:

Ho ho ho?

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

You need some new lines Santa

Santa Claus says:

Ho ho ho!

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Are you gay?

Santa Claus says:

I'm not going to answer that.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Is there a Mrs Christmas?

Santa Claus says:

Ho ho ho?

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

I'm a bit bored now

Santa Claus says:

Sorry, little boy, I didn't quite understand you.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

I'm gonna go now Santa, but get me some presents!

Santa Claus says:

Try http://shopping.msn.com

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

But I'll leave you some Whiskey and a mince pie

Santa Claus says:

Ho ho ho?

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

OK. I'm crying now. Happy Christmas Santa

Santa Claus says:

And a very happy holiday to you!

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

You're not Santa

Santa Claus says:

Ho ho ho!

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

You're just a nasty Microsoft autoreply

Santa Claus says:

What was that?

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Call me Frodo

Santa Claus says:

OK, I'll remember that your name is Frodo.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

I am your BOSS

Santa Claus says:

I won't call you that, Frodo. You're not my boss!

Santa Claus says:

Because.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

You're crap

Santa Claus says:

Huh? What's with that?

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Because you're not answering my questions Santa! YOU'RE A MACHINE!!!

Santa Claus says:

Ho ho ho! That's a funny question.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

IT'S NOT A QUESTION!

Santa Claus says:

Sorry, little boy, I didn't quite understand you.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Stupid computer

Santa Claus says:

Ho ho ho!

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

I love shit

Santa Claus says:

That sounds great! What else do you like?

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

F*** off

Santa Claus says:

That's a very naughty insult. DannyG™ [Alpha] , I'm afraid you've been a very naughty boy.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Go away

Santa Claus says:

Bye DannyG™ [Alpha] , it was good chatting with you.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Bring me some presents

Santa Claus says:

Unfortunately, DannyG™ [Alpha] , you're on my naughty list right now.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

So what

Santa Claus says:

So what? I don't know.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

I don't care

Santa Claus says:

Oh, someday you will, I think.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

I hate you Santa

Santa Claus says:

It seems to me you already said you loved me.

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

I am a liar!

DannyG™ [Alpha] says:

Do you Yahoo?

Santa Claus says:

I use Windows Live Messenger.

Blimey

My colleague Rob emailed me the following blog post today. Highly amusing, but not at all office-friendly!

http://www.arenamagazine.co.uk/?p=409

ERROR!

Alex Cox, of the land of PC Plus, has blogged about an obscure error message he's experienced when using Future's Studio package. It's a classic Studio error. We use Studio as an electronic flatplan. It works very well considering it was developed in-house, but when it collapses it does so spectacularly.

BBC Northampton awaits...

The Bernie Keith Show?

Amongst all the spam of my danielgrabham.com email account was this epistle from a nice lady called Anna. I have deleted her surname as it's quite easy to email somebody at the BBC should you have their name.

Anyway, I didn't discover the mail until after the deadline. I'm sure Bernie Keith was disappointed not to have me on the show. But then, I doubt he (it has to be he, doesn't it?) even knew his producer was about to contact somebody who doesn't know an awful lot about YouTube to come on his show and talk about YouTube.

-----Original Message-----
From:
To:
Subject: BBC Northampton interview request


Hi Dan,

I produce the mid morning show at BBC Radio Northampton, and each Wednesday we do a feature on the show where we look at a particular aspect of the media industry.

I'm interested in doing a piece on YouTube this Wednesday (October 4th) - how it came about, how the site works, the massive impact the site has had on internet users, etc, and wondered if you could be free to comment?

Could you be available over the phone for 5 minutes at about 10.20am this Wednesday?

Thanks Dan, I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes

Anna

Producer | The Bernie Keith Show
BBC Radio Northampton

More ramblings from Nick and Rich

Nick on Shanghai:

"If I were a tactful person I would say downtown Shanghai has a 'particular untoward odour'. I am not a tactful person. It smells of shit."

Needless to say, I think you should visit a site with such quality ramblings.

Oh, and Nick, if you ever read this - great piece about AFC on Footy Focus on Saturday.

Check out your team's kits

This is a great site - thanks to Sam for sending it over. You can check out all your team's kits over the years. Definitely worth a look.

http://www.historicalkits.co.uk/

It's time...

...to post more. In recent weeks I have decided that I need to post more ramblings to the blog. Yes, I'll still litter it with inane links and embeds to videos hosted on the new Google-owned YouTube but I'll hope to proffer some thoughts alongside them.

Talking of last night's announcement, I've just written this piece for the Digital Home blog about Google's latest shopping spree.

My view:
It won't make much difference.
It might be easier to share videos via blogs.
It's a lot of money.

And to celebrate, here are my two favourite YouTube videos. Yes, they're 1980s TV ads. But watching the staples of the BBC's 1980s Saturday night TV schedules make fools of themselves? Priceless.

The Austin Rover ad is as funny as it is lame, but it's the Inter City ad that is my absolute favourite. Possibly because the Inter City 125 is even worse a service than it was then. The ad sells the fact the train is good for business travel ("a world you can work in"), then cuts to a man in a smoky carriage using a solar-powered calculator. Genius.

"I've got lots more cars to show you"


"An excitingly different world"

Nick and Rich on the road

My good friends Nick and Rich of Brighton are out on the road at the moment exploring the good planet Earth. Sure makes a change from their usual habitat of the South Coast's premier drinking establishments. They also seem to have met the traditional Vodka-swilling Ozzie birds™. The way of DannyG No. 22: Stereotypes exist for a reason.

 

See:
http://nickrichexcellentadventure.blogspot.com

"We boarded our 6 day train destined for Beijing. There were...a lot
of little stations in the middle of miles of barron wasteland that
seemed to serve no purpose at all. Reminded us of Dilton Marsh."

Wow

This is from a US talent show. Worth watching. The link is direct, so
I can't remember how to embed it. Oh well.
http://www.youtube.com/v/RB-wUgnyGv0

Oh, actually...

Kieran and AfterShock

After Rob and I sampled the delights of the Wellington Carnival last
Saturday, we went to sample the rather different delights of Taunton.
Pictures here.

What is Mark doing?
http://www.dangrabham.com/pictures/kieran300906

HD DVD continues the fight

Next gen formats continue the war of attrition as the market waits for titles and PlayStation 3

Both HD DVD and Blu-ray have a problem. The stand-off between the two formats has resulted in the sworn enemy of every new technology; apathy. Despite the battle being the main focus of the recent IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, the European launch of new Blu-ray and HD DVD players – with models from big names including Samsung and Toshiba respectively - was greeted with relative nonchalance.
And, what’s more, everybody’s still sitting on the fence. But although Blu-ray had undoubtedly the stronger showing at IFA and has the better launch titles, there are several factors that could swing things HD DVD’s way.

A case of costs

Speaking at IFA, a senior source at Microsoft told me why it was a no-brainer for the company to come down on the side of HD DVD. “We think the technology is evolutionary and the costs will always be relatively lower.” And what of the attempts to foist Blu-ray on the market? “You can force the system to try to force the costs down…but at some point someone’s got to pay for it. The question is, how much money can you be prepared to lose?
There’s certainly no doubt that HD DVD has a definite lead in terms of price point and manufacturing cost. The discs are cheaper to make, while doubts also remain about Blu-ray’s durability – the recording layer is protected by a wafer-thin 0.1mm coating compared to 1.2mm for a CD and 0.6mm for a DVD, even if manufacturers such as TDK have given out assurances about the durability of their coatings.

Better price points

And then there’s the players. Tosh announced its low end HD-E1 player for the Euro market will be available at around the €599 - €699 mark. HD DVD also has the advantage that it’ll be available relatively cheaply as an add-on for the Xbox 360, while Blu-ray could yet be a costly millstone around the PlayStation 3’s neck.
“The wildcard remains the Chinese because they will do HD DVD players,” said our source. “Of course Toshiba will probably never make a dime out of this – they might make some money on the royalties, but once the Chinese get hold of it, they will force the price way down. And that’ll be an issue in terms of the price differential [between HD DVD and Blu-ray] on the mass market.”
Sony’s big white hope remains the new PlayStation. Of course, due to component shortages – specifically those blue laser diodes – Sony has delayed launch in the PAL region until next March.
“The big question for Blu-ray is whether it becomes the saviour or the anchor for PS3,” said our source. “Of course it depends on getting the product out there and how much Sony is prepared to bleed. Right now, they don’t have the time to bleed.”

The banker revealed...

...

BT Vision announces deal with Future

BT has announced that Future will be working on entertainment content for BT Vision. Indeed, the guys working on it sit not far from us and include my good friend Holly. Here's the release.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: 21 September 2006 13:33
Subject: BT Press release - BT Vision announces editorial content deal with Future

September 21, 2006

BT VISION ANNOUNCES EDITORIAL CONTENT DEAL WITH FUTURE

BT announced today that Future Plus, the customer-publishing agency of Future Publishing, will be supplying editorial content for BT Vision, its next-generation TV-via-broadband service, which is due to launch in autumn 2006.

Under this agreement, Future will supply BT Vision's editorial requirements for the TV service to be launched later this year and the BT Vision online store. Future will provide news, independent reviews of entertainment and programme listings for the film, TV and music services.

Future will also support the editorial requirements of BT Vision's interactive services as they develop, including community forums, special-interest areas and reader-generated content along with user ratings and popularity charts. Future is putting together an eleven-strong editorial team to provide these services to BT Vision.

Dan Marks, CEO BT Vision, said: "Future has a great reputation for producing compelling content for its entertainment and technology websites and magazines and we're pleased it will be the editorial supplier for BT Vision. We will benefit from Future's wealth of experience in helping people understand and enjoy new technology and entertaining services."

Robert Price, managing director of Future, said: "We're delighted to be working with BT Vision to help bring its incredibly exciting on-demand TV service to life. We're looking forward to working with it to deliver an informative and entertaining guide to the vast range of film, music and television programming that this new service will offer."

At launch, BT Vision customers will be able to enjoy a vast range of film, music and television programming available on-demand as well as interactive services and all the Freeview channels, all available on the TV, with no compulsory subscription. This unique combination, delivered on a software platform powered by Microsoft and through a set-top box made by Philips, will allow customers choice, control and convenience.

BT Vision has already announced content deals with a range of leading entertainment companies including Dreamworks, i-concerts, Eagle Rock, BBC Worldwide, Paramount, Warner Music Group, National Geographic Channel, HIT Entertainment, Momentum, Universal, Nelvana and Turner Broadcasting; independents including Entertainment Rights plc, NBD Television, Wall to Wall Television as well as 'near-live' FA Premier League matches from the 2007/08 season.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

For further information on BT
Inquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Group Newsroom on its 24-hour number: 020 7356 5369. From outside the UK dial + 44 20 7356 5369. All news releases can be accessed at our web site: http://www.bt.com/newscentre

For further information on Future
Robert Price, Managing Director - 01225 442244 Terri Davey, Head of Communications - 01225 822774

About BT
BT is one of the world's leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries. Its principal activities include networked IT services, local, national and international telecommunications services, and higher-value broadband and internet products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.

In the year ended 31 March 2006, BT Group's revenue was £19,514 million with profit before taxation of £2,040 million.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.

For more information, visit www.bt.com/aboutbt

About BT Vision
Due to launch in autumn 2006, BT Vision will combine access to digital-terrestrial channels through the aerial with broadband-powered video on demand. BT Vision customers will be able to choose from a wide range of on-demand film, music and television programming. The BT Vision download store launched on 31 July with 51 movies available for download to own from Universal studios.

The service will include:

* TV - access to over 30 Freeview channels
* Entertainment on demand - a huge library of movies, comedy, music and kids shows.
* Catch-up TV - enabling viewers to watch a selection of shows they may have missed, subject to rights agreements
* Digital Video Recorder - ability to store up to 80 hours of programming without tapes, timers or disks
* Communication and converged services - instant messaging, chat and video telephony all through the TV to commence after launch.
* The BT Vision Download store

About Future Plus

Future Plus is the award-winning customer publishing agency of Future plc, providing innovative cross-channel branded content and bespoke communications for its partners. In September 2006 it was named Marketing's fastest-growing customer publishing agency in the UK.

Future plc is an international special-interest media group with offices in the UK, US, France and Italy. Founded in 1985 with one UK magazine, today it creates over 150 special-interest publications, websites and events, with strong portfolios in the computing, games, music, film, automotive, sports and crafts sectors. Future's branded websites are the fifth fastest-growing in the UK by unique audience (source: Nielsen/NetRatings May 2006). Over 100 international editions of Future's magazines are also published under licence in 30 other countries across the world. Future employs over 1,500 people worldwide. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol FUTR).

For more information, visit www.futureplus.co.uk

Crazy press release of the day

DELL SUPPORTS NETWORK RAIL’S SAFETY CAMPAIGN – NO MESSIN’ LIVE!

Series of two-day events across the UK aimed at young people ready to learn new skills, backed by boxing superstar Amir Khan, DJ Dave VJ and athlete Roger Black

Bracknell, UK, August 29, 2006 – Network Rail and Dell are out to show young people that there are better things to do than risk their lives messin' on the railways through a summer tour that will reach out to thousands aged between 10-16. In the past year, almost 50 people were killed and hundreds more were injured across the UK using the railways as a playground. The No Messin’ Live! summer tour is giving young people the chance to try out all kinds of boredom-busting activities and challenge their skills for free.

The Network Rail’s national campaign aims to reduce death and injury on the railway by showing young people there are better ways of spending their time. Each event consists of three zones – music, gaming and sport - where participants can take part in activities such as DJing, computer gaming, urban dance, football, urban cricket, tag rugby, basketball, and karaoke. The events take place in 10 venues across the UK.

Dell is supporting the event by providing a range of DellTM XPSTM desktops and Dell volunteers for the Gaming Zone. The tour is also backed by boxing superstar Amir Khan, DJ Dave VJ and athlete Roger Black.

Claire Vyvyan, Director and General Manager, Corporate Business Group, Dell UK says: “We immediately said yes to Network Rail as soon as the opportunity became available to support this campaign. We are pleased to be part of the No Messin’ Live! tour and show young people that there are other ways to have fun without risking life or limb.

“At Dell, we encourage our employees to contribute positively in every community that we call home, both personally and organisationally. The Dell UK team currently supports several local and national charities and our primary community focus is to support children. In addition to these activities, our employees also volunteer in the local community as part of our Dell Global Community Involvement Month, held every September.”

Ian Chapman, National Railway Crime Education Manager for Network Rail commented: "The No Messin’ Live! events have been a great success so far, with all those attending thoroughly enjoying a variety of sports, music and dance activities on offer. In particular, the Gaming Zone has proved very popular thanks to the equipment and staff provided by Dell. We have found that engaging with young people in this lively and fun environment is a great way to get young people engaged in more positive activities than risking their lives on the tracks.”




No Messin’ Live! 2006 events schedule


There are 10 No Messin’ Live! events this summer. Nine events have already been held, with hundreds of young people attending each event.

* Edinburgh – Drummond Community High School – 6 and 7 July
* Glasgow – Scotstoun Leisure Centre – 10 and 11 July
* Cardiff – Eastern Leisure Centre – 25 and 26 July
* Rochdale – Hopwood Hall College – 31 July and 1 August
* Crawley – HBG Fitness at Oriel High School – 3 and 4 August
* Wolverhampton – Aldersley Leisure Village – 8 and 9 August
* Stockton – Ragworth Neighbourhood Centre – 14 and 15 August
* Manchester – Manchester Tennis Centre – Sportscity – 21 and 22 August
* Wandsworth – Battersea Technology College – 24 and 25 August



Outstanding event to be held in the following venue:

* Enfield – Southby Leisure Centre – 31 August and 1 September

The event is free to enter to all local children aged 10-16. For more information please visit: www.no-messin.com

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell sells more systems globally than any computer company, placing it No. 25 on the Fortune 500. Company revenue for the last four quarters was $57.4 billion. For more information, visit www.dell.co.uk. To get Dell news direct, visit www.dell.com/RSS .

Last weekend...

...we went to Brighton for Richie's birthday and Richie and Nick's kind of goodbye thing as they're off round the world soon to meet more people like Ben. A great weekend was had, with £4.50 easyPizza, Gay Pride and Parade and a night on the beach with Richie getting slightly undressed.

Pics here.

Wedding madness

As part of my world tour of weddings, I have been to two in two weeks. So here are the pictures from the weddings of Mike and Hannah (where I was usher) and Elliott and Gemma.

http://www.dangrabham.com/pictures/mikeandhannah/index.htm
http://www.dangrabham.com/pictures/elliottandgemma/index.htm

Intel quad core will arrive in 2006

Chips out for the winter



In a move that appears like another shot across the bows of the beleaguered AMD, it seems Intel is going quad core by the end of 2006 to further boost revenue.In a move that appears like another shot across the bows of the beleaguered , it seems is going quad core by the end of 2006 to further boost revenue.Don’t get too excited though, since the first quad-core chips will effectively be two dual-core chips stuck together in a single package. Intel's quad-core Xeon server processor is codenamed Clovertown, and the desktop variant Kentsfield. It will still fit into a single processor slot.

On the other side of the fence AMD is banking on its 4x4 technology; that’s two dual-core chips in two sockets on the same board. It won’t be long before we see it, either. Indeed, the looming release of 4x4 could be one very crucial reason why Intel is keen to bring forward the release its quad-core chips.

Heating up

The real quad-core magic is set to arrive later in 2007 when Intel will probably introduce a leaner processor on a single die manufactured using the forthcoming 45nm process. AMD’s quad-core designs, slated for later on in 2007, are likely to be a on a single die from the off.

Quite what this will mean in terms of power required and heat outputted remains to be seen, though there will inevitably be some advance on Core 2. This might seem like jumping the gun, but since the new packages will essentially be two Core 2 Duos, it’s no wonder the thermal envelope will be pushed.

Ramping up

Intel has certainly ramped up its release schedules in recent months. Woodcrest, the Xeon chip, went on sale earlier this year when initial roadmaps showed it wouldn’t be on the market even now. The Tulsa Xeon chip for quad-processor servers looks set to be out in the autumn. Indeed, HP is already showing off machines on its website featuring said silicon.

Microsoft releases a dozen patches

Whole lotta holes



Patches will be available from Microsoft tomorrow (August 8) that fix potential security flaws in both Windows XP and Microsoft Office. The 12 patches represent a significant update, but they do nonetheless fit into Microsoft’s monthly patch release schedule.

The fixes cover holes discovered in PowerPoint for which there are known exploits; a virus installs a keylogger on your machine which enables all keystrokes to be recorded as well as giving hackers back-door access to your machine.

The Windows patches are also expected to prevent any problems with a new variant of an old exploit that Microsoft has previously released a fix for.

These updates will be available automatically if you have Automatic Updates enabled or as a download via Windows Update.

PlusNet loses 700GB of customer emails

Sorry doesn’t seem to be the hardest word



PlusNet has revealed the loss of 700Gb of its customers' emails on 9 July. Since then, the ISP has been working with a data recovery firm to retrieve the mails, which were lost due to human error.ISP PlusNet has revealed the loss of 700Gb of its customers' emails on 9 July. Since then, the ISP has been working with a data recovery firm to retrieve the mails, which were lost due to human error.Bit part lists of files have been recovered, but the directory structure is lacking. What that means in English is that it can’t recover the emails.

Alistair Wyse, PlusNet's technical director, said: “I once again extend our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience caused by the loss of any customer emails.”

The company reckons that around 50 per cent of the lost email was spam – probably on email stats it previously held. It also thinks that 48 per cent of the emails had already been read. We’re a bit dubious about this last figure, unless people really don’t use POP3 access any longer, or at least don’t copy mail off the server.

The whole sorry episode goes to show that any critical information you have on email does need to be backed up elsewhere, even if it's just forwarding it on to a secondary email account.

Budapest!

The lads and I popped over to lovely Hungary last week to sample some of the local ales, nightlife, culture and spa baths. The pictures are posted here.

Getting ready for 2010...

...or not, as the case may be

An interesting piece at the BBC News site that sums up what everybody has been thinking about the 2010 World Cup; it's going to take a lot of work to be ready on time.

The MediaGuardian also highlights a website designed to highlight the level of violent crime and stop the influx of tourists to the event. 20,000 murders a year and drunk football fans. Now that's what we call a recipe for disaster.

England team heads home

Design your own Lego models....

...and order them!

The brilliant Lego Factory at www.lego.com/eng/factory enables you to design your own Lego model, order the bricks to build it for real and even design a box for it to go in!! How great is that?! You do have to download the software, but it is for both PC and Mac.

FIFA tackles ‘unique networking challenge’

Avaya and Toshiba involved in 15TB solution for World Cup

(More pictures here.)

The most watched World Cup ever will be seen by three million spectators and a global TV audience of over three billion. But while the football is the flesh of the event, the skeleton is equally as fascinating. For the first time, communication for the entire World Cup is using a converged IP network. An incredible 15TB of converged voice and data traffic will pass through the servers during the tournament including the data to fulfil FIFA’s requirement that every one of the three million tickets has an RFID chip inside. For the record, that means you can’t fold and put them in a pocket, so you have to walk around outside the ground gingerly clutching your ticket.



We attended a press conference held by FIFA and its partners in Munich on Saturday to look at the behind the scenes work by Toshiba and Avaya and the other FIFA partners.

Peter Meyer, head of IT for FIFA in Munich, said the tournament is “a unique networking challenge.” And no wonder; “the network has to be built over a period of four weeks or so.” Each stadium had to be wired up after its German league fixtures had finished. And it had to be right. As Meyer points out, during the tournament isn’t exactly the best time to make a mistake.

Avaya probably isn’t the best-known of FIFA’s 15 official partners for the tournament. Spun off from Lucent Technologies in 2000, the US company is the only business-to-business sponsor for the tournament. Its role might be purely behind-the-scenes but it hopes that brand recognition from the World Cup will help it to secure new business.

Mind-boggling

The company provides the network infrastructure to power all the different World Cup locations with data and voice. And that doesn’t just include the stadia. There are a total of 25 primary locations including dignitary hotels, the FIFA base in Berlin, the press offices, the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) in Munich and the connections to Deutsche Telecom’s data centre and also to Yahoo! - the web giant runs fifaworldcup.com.

Wi-Fi is used primarily for net access and is provided by Avaya at all locations, but for other data reliability is key, so cabling has been used extensively; 8,000 kilometres to be precise. Then there are places such as the helpdesks greeting travellers at airports. These were a particular problem, since non-technical volunteers simply needed to be able to plug the desks into a DSL connection and have voice and data instantly. Each location has an IP phone with access to a phone directory via each phone’s LCD screen. There are 40,000 network connections and 3,000 telephones serving 50,000 staff. As well as the main broadcasting base in Munich, each stadium also has a media centre, with 15,000 journalists also plugging into the network during the tournament.



As mobility sponsor Tosh has provided 3,500 Tecra notebooks for the event so stadium managers and other staff can hook up on the move. Since first becoming a FIFA partner in 2001, Toshiba has become the preferred supplier of all FIFA’s mobile machines.Manuel Linnig, EMEA Marketing Manager for Toshiba, said “a lot of people move round at the games, in and between the stadiums.” So what of security? “We have several security features, including fingerprint readers."

Meyer says this is the first tournament where photographers have been able to instantly send their pictures back to the Media Centre via wireless: “pictures can be uploaded to FIFAWorldCup.com in seconds” he points out.

The command centre

In Munich Avaya has four rack units of servers next to its 12-man IT Command Centre (ITCC). The ITCC is inside the IBC, which takes up two halls of an anonymous exhibition centre outside of Munich. We need to go through a full security check to get in. The IBC is the hub of everything at the World Cup and is fed by a ‘satellite field’, rows of sat trucks sat inside a perimeter fence. Each broadcaster has production facilities here, with pictures coming from Host Broadcast Services (HBS). The amount of cabling around the place is phenomenal, with each broadcaster – and the ITCC – having specially built quarters inside wood huts that are variously edit suites, production offices and radio studios. While there, we saw Rodney Marsh stroll in for his TalkSport show. This is where the action really does happen.



The ITCC is fascinating. The server numbers are boggling – 70 servers run the event, with full backups in other locations in case of problem. Douglas Gardner, Managing Director of the FIFA World Cup for Avaya, says that “as yet there had been no security issues at all” which, he added, was pleasing: “there were a number of issues in Japan and South Korea [the 2002 World Cup], and at the Confederations Cup last year in Germany where some people tried to get in.” The technicians in the ITCC (and in Austin, Texas out of hours) can pinpoint the location of any network problems or intrusions. As we’re now at the end of the group stages, stadiums will begin to be decommissioned, in itself a massive job.

What next?

Both Avaya and Toshiba end their phase of FIFA sponsorship after the end of this World Cup Gardner says he’d like to be a supplier to the 2010 games in South Africa, but for Toshiba it looks like this is the end of the road. FIFA is cutting down from 15 partners for each World Cup to a core of just 5 for the next two tournaments. And the digital partner for 2010 and 2014 is Sony. Going to the World Cup provides a glimpse of just how corporate such events now are: Toshiba isn’t allowed to use their own LCD displays inside their hospitality suites since it’s only the mobility sponsor. Philips are the Consumer Electronics sponsors and so it’s the Dutch firm that supplies the LCDs.

What’s sure is that 2010 will represent even more of a challenge in terms of networking the event; South Africa’s net infrastructure is nowhere near as advanced, not least in terms of DSL useage. Meyer refuses to be drawn on how difficult the task will be. The look on his face reveals more than words can say.



More pictures here.

The World Cup is on...

...and that's why I'm not posting very much. Or at all. However, I have been to Germany to watch Brazil v. Australia, so click here for the pictures!

Times they are a secret

I often travel to London Paddington from Bath Spa. Not unreasonable, since Bath is the place where I live. I need to go to Paddington for work most often, so my company pays for the ticket. Going on peak is now a staggering £108. Off-peak, it's £45. So, I reasoned, it's not that unreasonable to want to find out when peak time finishes so I can choose to travel after it. However, it's nowhere to be seen on the website. So I wrote to First Great Western. They replied with this:

Dear Mr Grabham

Thank you for taking the time to email us regarding peak times for travelling in and out of Paddington. This information is not stated in the national fares manual, however is not widely advertised as it differs depending on what type of ticket you hold. Each ticket holds a different restriction code. This information is available upon purchasing your ticket, however due to the complexity of this, it is not feasible to issue these with every transaction, however all tickets do state that there are restrictions.

Right. So they won't tell me, as there are several different ticket options. But could they not have a simple grid-like graphic telling you which tickets are available at which times from the appropriate stations? It seems not. And so, the farce of UK train travel continues. Not only that, but First Great Western also chooses to continue its letter:

Therefore if you are not already aware of restrictions I would strongly advise you to enquire about this before purchasing your tickets.

I hope this clarifies matters for you. We look forward to welcoming you on board our services in the near future.

Yours sincerely

Kerry Townsend
Customer Service Advisor

Most amusing is the line "Therefore if you are not already aware of restrictions". Exactly how would I have become aware of these restrictions I wonder? Trial and error, perhaps?

My mum is famous....in Wellington

Skittles success!

My mum is a famous skittler in our home town of Wellington, Somerset. This story is from the Wellington Weekly News, though I doubt the authenticity of the last sentence!

SUE RETAINS LEAGUE TITLE WITH SOMETHING TO SPARE
18:00 - 24 May 2006
With the biggest turnout for many years, the Wellington Ladies' Skittles League presentation evening last Friday was a great success.

With 17 out of the 20 teams playing for the highest average cup, no one disgraced themselves, with the scores ranging from 40 to 67.

Sue Grabham of the Water Babies pulled out all the stops and scored an impressive 67, which included spares of 13, 14 and 16 to take the cup for the second year running, beating her previous score by 11 pins.

Yearly trophies and perpetuals were presented by Alf Binding, the league's president.

Celebrations continued late into the evening.

Wirelessssssssss

I don't usually like to crosspost, but it's a busy old time in the wireless field at the moment - hop over to my Wireless Wibbles blog to find out more.

Priceless

Despite being a Man United fan, I was supporting Arsenal in last night's Champions League Final and was disappointed to see them lose. However, I couldn't help but chuckle at this picture that dropped into my Inbox this morning...

The mascot should have shorts

Football mascots are generally terrible. But there's something rather strange about Goleo, the lion mascot for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Perhaps it's that the Germans have picked an English symbol to represent this significant event. Perhaps it's the rather goofy face. It might be the stupid 'ball with a face'. But no, it's because he's not wearing shorts. This craziness might be bourne of the Donald Duck era, but there's something rather disconcerting about his triangle-shaped 'zone'. With Donald, you see, there's just nothing there. With Goleo though, it looks like there should be. And it hasn't gone down well, either; the chaps selling the mascot, Bavarian firm Nici, have gone bust. Not surprising, considering they paid 19 million pounds for the priviledge of selling this doofus. Still, we blame the designers - Jim Henson's company was paid 250,000 Euros for that...

Sad but cool

On Thursday 4th May 2006, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00
am, the time and date will be:

01:02:03 04.05.06

That won't happen again until 3006.

(Thanks to Vicky for this useless bit of information.)

Belated stag pics

Rather late perhaps, but take a look at last week's pictures from my soon to be second-cousin-in-law Mike's stag do. Paintballing, quad biking and shot drinking contributed to a very interesting night out in Bristol. More here.

Ronaldinho loves ThinkPads

Just in time for the World Cup, Brazil and Barcelona ace Big Ron has become what's called a 'brand Ambassador' for Lenovo. Corporate whore or geniune ThinkPad fan; you decide! However, it was pointed out to me that he doesn't seem to be smiling too much in this realistically-posed image. The tie-up certainly represents a smart move for the far East company - Lenovo seems to be working hard to cover up its lack of World Cup sponsorship by bigging up its contribution to the recent Winter Olympics. Funny old game, this corporate sponsorship...

The Arty DannyG

People often ask if my name is unique. And for a long time I thought it was. By the way, you can check if your name is unique in the UK by looking at yournotme.co.uk. And, although there are no other Daniel Grabhams in the UK, a small amount of Googling led me to Danny Grabham, a seemingly rather arty person who won an awards for his artwork in New South Wales. See here. Now, as I have no artistic ability whatsoever, this leads me to believe that we both have a certain complementary synergy. Perhaps he doesn't like popular music of variable genre and quality. Perhaps he hates the World Cup. Perhaps he hasn't got a girlfriend called Leila. He's experimented with stereoscopic imagery, I certainly never have.
But he does look a little like me, as you can see from his position from the photo on this page. Now that's a little freaky. I would contact him to say 'hey, nice name', but think that would be the end of the matter. He might be an idiot. They say you should never meet your heroes. Perhaps the same goes for namesakes, too.

Helsinki and Stockholm

Last week I was in Helsinki for the wedding of my friends Annina and Antonio. The pics are here and you can also see Marloes and I attempting to visit Russia and ending up in Stockholm via a Finnish drinking vessel.

iRon

More April Fool madness....but it's still only March 31st. Doesn't this bring bad luck?
______________________________________________

PRESS RELEASE for immediate release
GEAR4™ unveils the iRon™ – dance away your washday blues
UK based digital device accessories manufacturer GEAR4™, now provides music while you iron


“Steam Your Tunes”

London, UK, April 1st, 2006 – GEAR4™, the established UK brand of iPod™ and digital device accessories, today announced the launch of the iRon™ for the iPod™

The iRon™ is a revolutionary cable free travel iRon™ for the iPod™ . Simplicity is the key to the iRon’s design, simply unfold the iRon™, fill with water, dock your iPod™ and “Steam Your Tunes.” The iRon™ uses the iPod’s battery for power and the steam jets are controlled by the tunes playing on the iPod™ . Thanks to GEAR4’s unique “SteamTempo™” technology, the jets spray in time to the music – fast, bass heavy tunes producing more steam and softer music providing less.

The iRon™ is shipped with a software plug-in for all colour screen iPods which allows the iPod’s screen to display the water level, temperature and remaining battery life. The iRon’s clear, high fidelity sound is delivered through two 6W stereo speakers mounted on the body .

Tom Dudderidge, MD of GEAR4™ commented “I’ve never been a big fan of ironing, but now, the iRon™ has made ironing fun. I’m a frequent business traveller and I often find myself in a hotel room with a creased shirt – I turn to my iRon™, and get down to some serious pressing. The whole “Spray and Play” idea is very exciting. I find that most Snoop Doggy Dog tracks on the iRon™ will transform even the most wrinkled garment in minutes, whereas Barbara Streisand or Barry Manilow is perfect for less resistant clothes and Bach is just great for silks and other delicate fabrics. The iRon was inspired by an entry on the pimpyaplayer website, and it’s a great example of Gear4’s continuing drive to find new and exiting ways to “Free your tunes”.

Shipped with its own stylish, 100% polyester travel case, the iRon™ takes up less room in your overnight bag than a real iRon™ and doesn’t require batteries or recharging.

The iRon™ for iPod™ . – A revolutionary travel iRon™, made for and driven by Apple’s iPod™ , for more information visit www.Gear4.com The iRon is available through all usual GEAR4™ outlets, and online at Gear4’s store http://www.gear4store.com/.

The fools are out already

I see the April fools have started already with , this USB 'Memory' stick purporting to store the contents of your brain cells. The set comes complete with frontal lobe connector. Apparently 2GB is enough to hold 2.5 hours of memories...

3G inside...but not yet

Finally someone has created a meaningful partnership with a 3G provider. Dell has teamed up with Vodafone, to be precise. Lift up the battery in the new Latitude D620 or D820 and you'll find a SIM card underneath. I know; I've seen it. The 3G card is built into the main body of the laptop and like most WLAN solutions the aerial is built into the screen. If you've an existing 3G card on contract, you can also use the SIM card and software from that solution though, of course, Vodafone are hoping you'll choose them. The solution is factory fitted but requires a phone call to set up your 3G account when you receive your laptop. However, confusingly, despite Dell having said we'd be able to order the solution from today, we can't. You can get the laptop, but there's no build-to-order option for the 3G yet.

New photos

It was Mark's birthday at the weekend. That won't help if you don't know him, but here are the pics from our Friday night in Shepherd's Bush and Saturday night in Old Street and LSE just off the Strand. Watch out for the hot pasty.

Karl on tour

I see Neighbours doc Alan Fletcher (otherwise known as Karl Kennedy) has his own band. And they're going on a UK tour! Genius. More here.

Card games

And you thought your 6600GT was enough? Think again. Now, you need four cards, you really do. Quad SLI is with us. The question might be 'why?', but nobody really gives a stuff about that; they just want to sell more kit. Fair enough perhaps, games still aren't challenging two high-end GPUs, let alone four, while a single mid-to-high end card is more than enough to play virtually everything the tiresome PC games industry can throw at it. Now with four GPU cores across two cards (that's two apiece on two dual-slot cards, by the way) you can do...more. It's also worth noting that four 7900GTX cards will give you a staggering 2GB of dedicated graphics memory. Still, the lack of need certainly hasn't tempered the hunger of box-shifters, with Dell announcing its XPS 600 Renegade complete with Quad SLI and very un-Dell paint job. And you thought they just wanted to rule the offices of the world?


Hardly low key, is it?

On the buses

The Divine Comedy did a rather good song about National Express. They'd probably have to alter it now though, since as well as taking people round the country in buses that smell of old people and sick, the company has announced it's to offer Wi-Fi on its services. Well one route, anyway. Yes, if you're lucky enough to travel on the 010 London to Cambridge route you'll be able to get giddier than a mouse on Red Bull as you attempt to surf the web using your laptop. The coaches on the route will be equipped with a small 1.4KG radio system that dishes out Wi-Fi to the sweaty masses. And you, if you're travelling behind in a car, we'd guess.
However, despite this being a rather good idea, laptops aren't exactly designed for coaches. We'd rather the rail industry decided to fulfil its promise to have more Wi-Fi enabled trains. At the moment, it's just stations and the first class carriages on certain GNER Mallard services. Is this the age of the Wi-Fi train?

Olympus: losing the plot

You know, I hate it when technology doesn't work, especially when it comes from big-name companies that really should know better. It was my girlfriend's first proper day at work yesterday as a nurse; something she has trained hard for. She naturally wanted to record the occaision with a picture or two, so in the absence of my usual camera at work, I lent her a 7.1 Megapixel Olympus model we had at work. She duly took some pictures. I came to copy them off at home last night but of course I couldn't. That's because not only does Olympus use the rediculous xD format unbeknown to most card readers, but it also insists on using stupid proprietary cabling. JUST USE A STANDARD CONNECTION. And here's the real punch; I attempted to download the pics today to find the card had corrupted and won't even re-format. This is the kind of thing that makes me very annoyed...

A lather over leather

In a crazy time last week, I actually forgot to post some pics from the Asus launch I went to at the trendy Sanderson Hotel in Central London. And what did the crazy Taiwanese come up with? Only a bloody LEATHER-finished laptop. Apparently it's real, as they only use real finishes. Anyway, the German designer dude who was telling us about it says it is.





Asus also launched a rather yellow Lamborghini co-branded laptop. In no way is this like Acer's similarly-themed Ferrari lappy. Not at all. You can imagine the above mentioned Asus design team rolling their eyes at this one. Pretty standard inside, too.





And here's an amusing shot of PC Answers' Henry Tucker with the Lambo. Just for the hell of it, like...

6G iPod?

Could these pictures be of the new-generation Video iPod? The rumoured virtual clickwheel is still present and correct, plus one of the pictures shows the new-style player in conventional music playback mode. As The Register points out in its piece, if the pics are fake, they're certainly good ones. Note also the presence of an iPod Hi-Fi in the pics.

IE7 is great. Sorry.

I can't hide it any longer. I think IE7 is fantastic. When I
proclaimed this opinion to the other hacks in the office, my comment
was met with derision. That's because everybody thinks Firefox is
cool. But I don't give a stuff. I still come across sites that Firefox
hates to render. And I don't subscribe to the theory that just because
something is alternative, it must be better in some way.



OK, so IE7 has its faults. But it's only on Beta 2. Nobody seems to
mind the short service outages in GMail do they? IE7 handles tabs
superbly, as it does feeds. A bit more customisation here and there
and it'll be the best browser yet. Do I mind that people think I'm too
pro-Microsoft? No. If I was worried about that, I wouldn't have spent
the last three years freelancing for Windows XP: The Official Magazine
now, would I?

Encrypted torrents

This is an excellent piece where the Editor of Newsnight comments on the criticism levelled at the programme after its BitTorrent report last Friday. The programme commented on how Torrents are increasingly being encypted to circumvent ISP filters and speed up the network. Sounds like fun to us...

New pictures

Chris and Karen's Wedding was on Saturday. The venue is Orchardleigh House, near Frome, Somerset.

Rumbelows and Fine Fare

As I'm surgically connected to the internet, it disappoints me that I've only recently realised just how much time you can waste looking at completely pointless yet remarkably endearing articles on Wikipedia. Reading a few articles ahead of Sunday's Carling Cup Final, I was amused to find the only time Manchester United has previously won the competition was one of the years it was sponsored by Rumbelows. Being an inquisitive kind of guy, I decided to find out - via Wikipedia of course - just what had happened to this beloved chain. An asset of the monstrous and also now defunct ThornEMI, it was sold off in the mid-1990s to a company that went bust. I then found this wonderful page, giving a complete run-down of company names that no longer exist. It's a fantastic page and I was pleased to see Acorn Computers, a former DannyG favourite, high on the list. From the info about ThornEMI, another mystery was solved. Racal never moved out of my favourite Reading building (the curvy one next to the station), it simply changed its name to Thales.
Initially I was disappointed that Fine Fare and International - previous stalwarts of the high street in my home town of Wellington, Somerset - were not there. Both were since sucked into Somerfield. Relief was complete, though, when I found mention of both on this page. Aaah.

Drive and dial

It's only when you read down this story from Kentucky that you realise
what the cause of this unfortunate accident. But what was in the
severed arm?
http://www.wlextv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4449021

Yes, really.

Apparently, the cheapest rail fares are 'hard to find'. You don't say? The Beeb has put together a list of how you can get cheaper fares - see the useful tips here.

New voice kit from Linksys

Linksys will launch its new VoIP handsets in the UK 'in a few months'. Connecting directly to VoIP over your WLAN? Yes please. Could this see Linksys partner Skype move into SIP services? I guess we'll wait and see...
here.