I have set up a new category called “Plans for 2009″, all blog posts related to my plans for 2009 will be placed into this category.
My plans will continually change for 2009, so this category will also be filled up during 2009.
It will be interesting to look back at how my plans have altered throughout the new year.
I’ll be ditching Linux next year. I don’t quite have the money to buy a mac, so I’ll be making some improvements to my current PC.
I’ll be increasing the current amount of memory to 4GB.
I’ll be getting a graphics card, the onboard card is struggling and I can do with the extra 128mb that it is taking from my main system memory.
I’ll be buying a small hard drive to install windows on to.
Once I have done all of that, I’ll be saving for a windows laptop.
Then after that hopefully in 2010 I can switch to a Mac and and a Macbook pro.
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With great sadness I have just heard that the European Parliament have voted in favour of removing the 48 hour working week.
What this now means that you will no longer have the option of working more than 48 hours a week in the UK.
When you sign a new contract, you have the option of working more than 48 hours per week, which is great if you want to do loads of overtime when money is a little tight especially coming up to this time of year and the credit crunch.
I am not currently working, however when I was working, I used to take all of the overtime I could get my hands on, sometimes I working 60 hour weeks which was an absolute boon when it came to paying for road tax and servicing of my car.
Hopefully the UK Government can lobby hard enough to exempt the UK.
Those that I saw interviewed tonight who were all for it. Have you been in the position that you needed the overtime in order to survive?
Tell me what you think.
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I’ve got a telephone interview for a job this afternoon at 3pm. If I get through that ok, I’ll have a face to face interview.
I would normally checkout their website before the interview so I can see what the company does, unfortunately they do not appear to have one, which I find a little strange.
So it looks like I’ll be asking a lot of background questions.
Wish me luck.
In my town there is a a well known travel agency. This agency has 2 branches on the same street with in 200 metres of each other. Can someone explain to me what they hope to gain? I am aware that the one branch used to belong to a different agency that was eventually swallowed up by this agency.
Even so, isn’t it costing the agency a whole heap of extra money they do not need to be spending? Merge the 2 branches together and I hate to say it in the current climate as I’m in the same position, make the excess staff redundant or find another understaffed branch they could transfer to.
It makes more sense that way.
Let me know what you think.
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It is a sad day, the posters are up outside my local Woolworths “Closing Down Sale”.It’s a shame how a once great british institution will be no more come this time next month.
It is really hitting home how hard the credit crunch is affecting business. Woolworths failed to move with the times, that was one of the reasons for it’s downfall. It had been playing catch up with the likes of Argos Direct and Tesco Direct for far too long.
RIP Woolworths.
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I have watched many long running shows and rarely a show survives such major change like a lead actor changing or the host is replaced for whatever reason.
Then there are the shows that do survive, but the vibe isn’t the same and it ends up putting you off a show for years that you used to love.
Have I got news for you? – This has been running on the BBC since 1990. It is a topical comedy panel show. It was originally hosted by Angus Deayton with regular team Captains Ian Hislop and Paul Merton.
In 2002 Angus Deayton resigned from his job as host after his private life was splashed all over the tabloids. So this left the host’s chair vacant, so instead of hiring someone permanent to replace him, the BBC decided to go with guest hosts. At one point it was rumoured that Alexander Armstrong was going to sign a contract to become the permanent host, however nothing came out of this rumour.
I think this show has greatly improved since they have a new host every week. It is very easy to get used to a presenters style and you tend to become bored, at least with guest host it keeps it interesting.
Never Mind The Buzzcocks – Another BBC quiz show this time a music comedy panel show started in 1996. It originally started with Mark Lamarr as host and Phil Jupitus and Sean Hughes as the original team captains.
Sean Hughes left in 2002 and was replaced by Bill Bailey, I thought we were going to loose some dynamic when this happened. Bill Bailey was an absolutely brilliant replacement, so all was well again for a while.
Then Bill Bailey left in 2008 to pursue other projects,so now the guest captain dynamic has been introduced which I feel is brilliant, again it stops the show from becoming stale and boring.
Alas Mark Lamarr left in 2005 and for a single series they had guest hosts, then up pops Simon Amstell in 2006.
I have to say he is absolutely rubbish, the highlight of each show is when the contestant gives him back the stick he gives them.
I don’t watch it as much anymore because of this.
Brainiac – This time a show on Sky One, a wacky show with OTT science experiments hosted by Richard Hammond, then it was spoiled when Vic Reeves replaced him, Vic seemed to be way out of his depth and seemed very “wooden”. I haven’t been able to watch the show since he took over, another one of my favourites ruined.
So over to you list your shows where the dynamic has been changed for better or for worse.
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Thank you for patience during the move to a dedicated URL.
Don’t forget to update your bookmarks.
Just seen this fun application in one of my RSS feeds and I thought I’d share it with you all, the voice quality is a bit robotic on some of the emoticarolers as you might expect with text to speech conversion software, but hey this is the festive period and I thought it was a bit of fun if you put aside the tech behind it for a moment.
You pick 4 carolers from the list, chose your favourite carol. You can even make up your own lyrics type each word into the box underneath, when you’ve done just hit “Preview and Send”. It takes a few seconds to compose the song, then the door opens and the 4 carolers will start singing the song you have chosen and any customised lyrics.
You then have a choice to send the carol via Yahoo Messenger, email it to a friend, share and embed it (I assume this means you can embed it into your own site to greet/annoy your visitors), or you can download it as an MP3.
Thanks to Dale Doughtery the article Clever Emoticarolers App
Try emoticarolers - yourself and spread some festive joy.
All links open in a new window/tab.
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