Just a small notice to say that I will be taking a well earned nano break this week, in search of sun, as all this flash flooding is mighty depressing.

Starting now, till Monday 2nd July I will be far, far away, courtesy of LastMinute.com. If you need help, you will just have to wait until Monday.

Please remain in a calm and orderly manner until then. Enjoy your own weekends.

I do get some good jokes down the wires, but this isn’t a joke, it’s art.

Two buildings, scheduled for demolition, were turned inside-out, using materials from the original structures, to create a trippy view from the front of the first house, to the parking space behind the second building.

This does remind me of those final (bizzare) scenes of the film ‘Poltergeist’. Click the image for more photos to see just how amazing this is!

Apologies to those of you who tried to access blogberry in the last 24 hours.

After a system upgrade that went badly, badly wrong, it appears that everything is now back in action and as it should be.

It has been a total nightmare, and at one point nearly all data was lost! Thank goodness for back-ups. Although, I have had to go through every post and make sure things where looking the way they should. Some strange symbols appeared in some posts.

See, even the IT guy can have technical problems!

Grrrrrrrrrrr! It drives me crazy. This rather old, but making a come back, fashion of spammers sending messages to your mobile saying that your upgrade is due soon. Yes, even the technician receives them.

Well this afternoon I received on of those irritating messages (see right for what I received). The usual issue is that the spammer has the ability to mask their bad habit by using a word instead of a phone number, so it is impossible to respond with the word ‘STOP’ in order to get yourself off the list.

Also, I know when my contract is due for renewal, I know when things should happen, and my network kindly call me to tell me what options I have (being a business customer and all).

If your nodding your head at this, and thinking “me too”, you are not alone. On receiving this complete waste of time I decided to see what I can do about these scumbags.

I used the all powerful theopenworld.com search engine and ran into a site called 07text0spam.com. This site is great for a name and shame session, the best part is you can forward your spam-text to the site, which instantly will post the text on the site for others to acknowledge that if they have received the same message, if it is indeed a fake.

The more important part is that their catalogue of text-spam is then sent onto higher powers such as the Advertising Services Authority and ICSTIS.

So next time you receive a spam-text forward it onto 07TEXT 0SPAM (078398 07726). It is good to see some peoplepower being exercised in what is now a growing problem – why should we put up with it?

Any further ideas or other useful info, users should contribute usings the comments button below this post.

Link: www.07text0spam.com

Link: www.theopenworld.com/search

Weather for tomorrow (Tuesday 19th June) is set to have thunderstorms. Remember if the thunder is over head, it is well worth unplugging anything electrical if a shock comes down the wires.

For those of you who don’t have electric shock adaptors to protect your equipment, do see my post back in April for further advice:

theopenworldtechnician.com/blogberry/2007/04/25/get-shock-protection-before-you-get-a-shock/

As many customers know, Windows Vista had arrived back in January. Some asked at the time, “should I upgrade?” The professional party line was a blunt “no”. (more…)

The Internet seems to hold many parodies of TV shows, some good, some just appalling.

For those of you who watch ‘The Apprentice’ on BBC Two you may find this site amusing. It’s a site dedicated to The Apprentice show, but with a twist – using Lego men (and women) instead.

www.bolegbros.co.uk/apprentice3

The boys (and / or girls) at bolegbros.co.uk seem to have a staggering amount of time on their hands, but this is by no means wasted in their creative talents.

For those of you who don’t watch The Apprentice due to your dislike of bearded men / talking rubbish / don’t know what they are talking about / all of the above. Here are two videos from the site that you may find a little more to your liking:

The Matrix:
http://www.bolegbros.co.uk/Movies/viewer.asp?MovieId=9

Tony Blair on News Night admitting that Iraq was mistake (notice that Tony Blair is represented with The Joker’s head from Batman):
http://www.bolegbros.co.uk/Movies/viewer.asp?MovieId=25

Just as a boot note to those who disapprove of bad language, there is some involved.

For those of you who use Firefox, you will have already migrated onto version 2. However, some people out there are still using the older version 1.5.

Mozilla (makers of Firefox) have now announced that they will stop producing updates for version 1.5.

If you do use Firefox for anything, you are strongly advised to migrate onto version 2.

To see what version you are running, just simply click Help up at the top and then press About. In the window which presents itself you will see your version number, as demonstrated below. If you number is lower than 2.X.X.X (shown) visit en.www.mozilla.com/en/firefox and update today. It is free to do so.

It’s is difficult to get me exited about new technologies these days, but still plenty of it around. Then ever so often, something comes along that makes me think “hummm, that has real potential”.

This month has seen the arrival of Microsoft’s all new product ‘Surface’. This is not quite what you may be thinking. It isn’t a new kind of operating system, software or anything else you will already be familiar with. In fact, it has no moving parts because you are the moving parts (don’t worry, Microsoft is not about to turn us all into cyber men).

Surface is the available surface computer from Microsoft. It turns an ordinary tabletop into a vibrant, interactive surface. The product provides effortless interaction with digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. In essence, it’s a surface that comes to life for exploring, learning, sharing, creating, buying and much more. Soon to be available in restaurants, hotels, shops and anywhere else, this experience will transform the way people shop, dine, entertain and live.

Surface computing breaks down traditional barriers between people and technology, changing the way people interact with all kinds of everyday content, from photos to maps to menus. The intuitive user interface works without a traditional mouse or keyboard, allowing people to interact with content and information by using their hands and natural movements. Users are able to access information either on their own or collaboratively with their friends and families, unlike any experience available today.

Microsoft Surface – Teaser

Microsoft Surface – The Possibilities

For more info, head over to microsoft.com/surface for some better uses of the technology. I really do look forward to seeing this whilst out and about, and in my home in the not to distant future.

We all from time to time get an email, where not only it has been sent to ourselves, but also other people. We can see this because the sender has stuck all the addresses in the ‘To:’ field.

This is not always welcome or good practice. Either because we don’t want to have our email addresses circulated so easily, anyone who chooses ‘reply to all’ ends up emailing everyone lists, or because it leaves all the listed addresses open to spammers, should the message be passed onto an unsavoury recipient / mailbox.

Next time you want to forward something onto lots of people use the ‘Bcc’ (Blind carbon copy) field to put addresses in. It works exactly the same as the ‘To’ field, but instead sends individual copies of messages to people and does not reveal who else you sent it to.

To view the Bcc option in Outlook Express: press View > All headers
To view the Bcc option in Outlook: press View > Bcc field

Once you start a new message, you will see Bcc listed underneath the To field – stick your contacts into there, type your message and send.

This I am sure would be a welcome idea to many of you, and should also be shared with friends and contacts alike.