FireFox 3 has a really cool add-on called CoolIris, which uses a media RSS feed on a website containing photos, to generate a novel way to view your gallery.

When you view a website configured correctly for the CoolIris software, you are able to click on the button in your FireFox toolbar, which will transform your browser into a full-screen, 3D experience.

It took me ages to get the coding right (cheers to the guys on the Coppermine forums), but with a little perseverance, time at work, swearing and tantrum throwing, it works quite delighfully.

You can access the ‘3D Wall’ from any point in my gallery (you do have to have the add-on installed of course!), which will then only show the pics from that gallery. But if you access if from the main page, 500 of my latest photos will be accessible.

Basically it’s a really cool looking slide show for my website.

Check it out!

Sorry if this is bit of a surprise to most people. You know, sidz heads overseas, all thoughts of travelling ye olde worlde. And here he is, announcing his engagement. And to a girl you haven’t heard much about. Well bloody hell, if that isn’t just the last thing you would think would occur! The end of the world must be nigh!

Seriously everyone, I never countered this into my plans. But what can I say. Julia has captured me hook, line and side-whiskers. I can’t think of anywhere I would rather be, except by her side. And if that somewhere else is another country, well, she would have to be right there with me.

And for all the folk with romance in their hearts and want to know the details, please read on.
I asked Julia to marry me in the traditional way. I asked her father!
Well, I asked for Peter’s permission first (he gave), then I waited for most opurtune moment. This was of course after scouting all the jewellery stores in Hatton Gardens, looking for the perfect ring that just called to me.
We were walking through a park in Enfield, on our way to a restaurant for dinner. The sun was on it’s way down, and the weather wasn’t too overcast (this is England afterall. That’s the best we could hope for).
My phone alarm went off, and Julia asked if it was time to take my daily photo. I’ve pretty much given up on the daily photo thing, but I took this as a good time to put my prepared speech into practice. Actually, I didn’t have a clue what I was going to say.
I turned to her and said “No, no photo. But I do have a question for you”.
I pulled the little box out of my pocket, creaked down onto one knee, different versions of the same wording going through my mind. I just had to decide which one.
Julia in the meantime had her hand to her mouth, oh my Goding.
I thought she was ready to scream… at least giggle uncontrollably
“Julia, will you marry me?”, and I opened the box.

She said “Yes”.

That was it. I managed to get her hand into mine, and slipped the ring on.

Let’s just say, our entire dinner was spent on our phones, spreading our good news.

I’d like to thank everyone that has sent us congratulation notes and messages so far.

If you want to drop us a line, and don’t know how to get in touch with me, use the Contact Me link in the top right menu of this blog.

Anyone that has looked through my gallery will have noticed a section called “Dog ‘fouling’ signs around the world”. I’ve found this pre-occupation by councils and government to force owners to clean up after their pets (or best friends, which ever way you would rather look at it) quite interesting, expecially with the variety of signs in use, and the range of fines you can expect to pay if you get busted not warming to the task of picking one up.

This article, on the BBC News website details a strategy by some councils to make use of CCTV to catch the filthy buggers in the act. Some people have cried foul at the expensive use of techonology for such a trivial offence, and yet others have applauded the fact that it is being tackled. Not only due to the possibility that you could catch an infection called ‘toxiocariasis’ by touching it without mitts or a plastic bag, but also due to the way it can ruin a perfectly good pair of suede leather plimsoles, and make you smell as if you did it yourself.

If you ask Skruff about my choices regarding the odd peice of dog crap on the pavement, he will of course tell you that I “can step in dogshit” if I want. Not that this has any bearing on the article or my collection of ‘fouling signs’, I just wanted to show the type of attitude I had during year 12 on an occasion when Skruff and I were taking a walk to McAdam square during a ’study period’. Skruff politely pointed out a steaming pile, saying “Watch out for the dog shit!” for which I promptly gave him the above answer. If I ever write my biography, I can guarantee, that is what it will be called.

Anyway, back to the article at hand.

The article really is just a freebie piece of advertising for the Dog Trust, on the eve of it’s “Grab it, bag it and bin it” campaign. I don’t blame the beebs for it really. It is just a fluff piece, given into being a great excuse to show a fresh example of the main points of the article (although take note, it isn’t bullshit, it’s dog shit, and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise!)
But what makes this article an absolute pleasure to read, is within the final paragraph, which I present in it’s entirity below.

“Litter and dog fouling are the first steps on a rung of different issues,” says spokeswoman Ginette Unsworth.
“If you haven’t got a nice, tidy, litter-free location then other things happen because it looks like an area that is uncared for.
“Vandalism comes, people don’t go there, drug dealers move in and it’s a downward spiral.”

HAHAHA hahahah. Dog poop; scourge of the rich, beloved of the poor and the precurser to lowering house prices. Walk, don’t run, from the BLOB.
It’s just so simple, if you don’t want the druggie culture in your neighbourhood, bin those bad boys and keep the ‘hood smellin sweet!

[From the BBC News website]

Mr Rudd this week said the cause of his illness may have been some other type of food, such as a “party pie”.

On Friday, he told Sydney’s Nova Radio: “We’ve all had to drive the porcelain bus at some stage.”

The expression describes someone clutching a toilet bowl with both hands while vomiting.

Now, tell me that doesn’t sound like the Prime Minister from the Simpson’s episode “Bart vs. Australia”. All he needs is an acubra, can of fosters, and an oversized boot to punish with.

Yup, the biggest and main reason for me to go to Universal Studios in LA, has burnt down. The ‘Back to the Future’ court house has been burnt down in an out of control blaze that also took out a King Kong set, a sound stage, and several other back lots, not to mention several thousand masters and copies of old films kept in vaults.
This is the sort of thing to make a grown man cry, on the tube, reading the morning paper, on his way to work. Not a good way to start the day!!

http://www.cheese-rolling.co.uk/

Not happy, as this time it wasn’t a script kiddy attack, but a concentrated attack on a large number of servers and websites across the world.
I always wanted to be part of something bigger!

Somehow that hacker got a script onto my website, that went through every file, checked the extension for .html or .php, and injected a piece of code that would open up a connection to their own website, that had the potential to download malware and other nasties to my viewing public’s computers.

I had no choice but to delete every file. I was able to save my blog content and all the photos, so i didn’t have to spend my entire time getting everything back up. Just had to reconfigure the latest versions of the software I use.

If you viewed my website in the day prior to it being taken down, I highly recommend you run a full virus and malware scan against your computer, expecially if you are still using Internet Explorer version 6.

I knew about it within an hour of getting hacked, but didn’t have the resources to fully check into it until a couple of hours later, and even then it was difficult, as I was at work.

For the 2nd time in 3 weeks, it has snowed in London.
The first time was just snow. No piling up, no snowmen, no snowball fights. I did get out there an ‘frolic’, my first snow fall in over 15 years. Julia thought I was a nutter (albeit, a ‘cute nutter’). I couldn’t help it. I wanted to frolic.

Now, the 2nd time, in April of all months, the first month of Spring, it has really piled up.
I got a text from Lowie at 9.30, welcoming us to a lovely spring day. And it was, lovely and cold, and white. So, once again, I went out and frolic’d, I did.
Unfortunatley, living across the road from council flats, meant that there was a group of grubby little council urchins already out there, making nuicances of themselves, which included throwing snowballs at me. So, i found myself in a snowball fight, parrying verbal insults with a ten year old. ‘You couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn door’, ‘My mother can throw better than that’, and other such classics. His insults were, ‘im gonna kill you muthaf…’, ‘Just wait until my brother gets here’, and ‘I hope you got insurance for your face…’. It was a very even fight.

We’re now off to meet Kim Hoh in the thick of London, at the Sherlock Holmes pub for lunch. Right round the corner from the Olympic Flame celebration and walk. Wish us luck, as afterall, London can’t handle a snow storm.

Those who know me, and know me well, know of my love for the band Violent Femmes and that I have a subtle dislike of Foster’s beer. So for me to see and hear the following ad really gets my hackles up. It’s a freaking ad for Superchilled beer. YES, Australians love the beer. YES! Australia has a really hot climate. Yes! Australians love the song Blister in the Sun, (and the final YES!), Australia has welcomed a member of the Violent Femmes to become a resident (Brian Ritchie Wikipedia). BUT, this isn’t an ad for the Australian market is it?. NO!! It’s for the English, a country that prefers it’s beer at a slightly warmer temperature than SUPER CHILLED. You go to the pub to be warm, to get away from the cold outside. So, to drink a beer while wearing gloves really defeats the purpose. Australians only drink the bloody stuff when over here because it’s the cheapest on tap and are the cheapest cans at the off-licence that aren’t Tennants Super or Carlsberg Special Brew
AND, what REALLY gets to me, REALLY GETS TO ME, is that they have changed the words to fit the freaking ad.
‘Hung out’ instead of ’strung out’ and ‘High as a kite’ to ‘fly like a kite’. WHY WHY WHY?????
If you’re going to take a song about masturbation and use it to sell beer, you may as well leave the lyrics alone. At least you know you will be selling it to the right market…

BUT why oh why Gordon Gano, did you re-record the song??? WHY? THAT is my biggest question and gripe.

Other than that, it’s a clever ad!

I’m back up and running. I have XP running completely on the laptop, all peripherals are now working, and my Skype is happy to run with the video camera as the webcam. And the computer is running faster and cooler than it was under Vista.
So, if anyone wants to Skype with me, send me an email with your Skype name, and I’ll be in touch shortly. You can use the Contact Me link at the top of the menu at right to do this.
Yay…

But that is not the reason for this entry. I thought i would take this chance to introduce you all to the latest addtion to the SGE, my own personal Sidz’ Google Maps (SGM).
The link is at the top right, just under Contact me, and is called ‘Where on Google Earth is Sidz?’

When I get off my lazy backpacking arse, I’ll be updating this with photos and pointers to places that I’ve been since leaving Australia in August last year.
So far it only has pointers to where I’m living, and where I’m working. Pretty dull I know, but it’s a bit hard to do this sort of thing at work, during lunch time( ) and get away with it.