4 or 5 booze adverts

We used to have Cineworld Unlimited cards but got naffed off with being covered with popcorn and having to listen to mobile phone ring tones and teenagers talking through films so we went up-market and became members of the Arts Picturehouse.

A much nicer clientele and no ring tones nor popcorn!

All good so far except on Sunday when we went to see Inception with #3 son (10) and we were confronted with 4 or 5 adverts selling alcohol in the 1st 23 minutes or so. Now we had a discussion the week before about whether or not someone who drank a beer with his tea could be called an alcoholic (Cheers son), and came to the conclusion that if you didn't need a drink with your breakfast you were generally okay. So he's reasonably drinkaware, he's also reasonably savvy about advertising and knows that one of the reasons why he's so into Dominio's Pizzas is that they sponsor The Simpsons. And he also noticed the number of adverts!

Now I'm not sure that the adverts add anything to the experience, we've paid our subs and bought membership so why do we have to see adverts at all? And why so many adverts for alcohol?

Not impressed Arts Picturehouse, not at all, I'll be thinking twice when it comes time to renew my membership!

My name is Khan

When her-in-doors brought a film home from work that she was given by her Kiwi boss with a title like the above I was initially excited, especially as her boss is into Deep Space 9. Then I got to reading the back and it looked like a Bollywood film, which I don't have an issue with except that the dancing makes me wish that I'd learnt to dance properly rather then resort to head-banging and dad dancing!

Then to read that it dealt with someone who's got Asperger's syndrome... I have to admit that I was looking forwards to an early night with a good book rather than watching another square.

But MNIK was top and I have to admit to shedding a tear once or twice. Completely different from the tear-jerking of a block-buster movie it was, it seemed heart-felt and honest rather than cold and calculating. I'd advise anyone to watch it, and lay in a supply of tissue!

Fibroids...

...not your regular breakfast cereal!

(Nasty images in link, only look if you're used to the wound supplements in the Nursing Times!)

Microsoft BPOS vs Google Apps pricing

So I'm looking at Microsoft's BPOS and pricing: It starts at $10 per user per month with a minimum of 5 seats, taking account of an exchange rate of 1 U.S. dollar = 0.64230201 British pounds (at 28/072010) that's £6.42 a month but a minimum of 5 means that the least that can be charged is £32.10 a month for the Standard Suite. That's £385.20 a year for the minimum number of users (5).

Then I looked at Google Apps, they charge £33 a year a user.

Already it looks like Google are cheaper at £33 as apposed to £77.04 for a years subscription.

But that there minimum user thing is a kicker. If we look at a like-for-like of 5 users then the difference is £165 for Google Apps and £385.20 for Microsoft BPOS. That's a £220.20 saving!

It's not a totally fair comparison though as the offering are different. With Microsoft there does seem to be many more whistles and bells though you're limited to using it with Internet Explorer or FifeFox (> 3.0)... there are also stipulated system requirements which might make a difference to some organisations.

It also links in with other Microsoft products, which can be either good or bad depending upon how you feel about it I guess, it'll certainly make a difference when it comes to upgrading software on the User's machines though. Whereas all that seems to be required with the Google Apps is to have a browser (though using IE6 might be an issue).

With the drive to do more with less at the forefront of most organisations' thinking it'll be interesting to discover who does best. The expensive security blanket offered by Microsoft is a definite choice but Google Apps is getting to be more and more mature and there are more and more things that can be done with it. It seems to be a much more innovative approach, and certainly closer to the ideal of cloud based applications.

Lego Steampunk

Alas, I don't own enough Lego as I was pondering...

Whilst trawling through the stuff I'd starred in Google Reader I found this post from The Brothers Brick: Church of St. Lazarus. Much later I came across this post from the same site: Crawler Town brings the city to you!.

Then I thought about how cool it'd be to combine the two à la Kris Kuksi. But, like I say, I haven't enough Lego... or time for that matter!

Java too hard?

Interesting article via /. here:Google Engineer Decries Complexity of Java, C++.

Not overly sure that I agree TBH... especially as he has a go at dynamic typing...

But what with Google pushing App Inventer for Android they're perhaps looking at a more drag and drop environment à la Scratch.

Hippo Roar

Who said Hippos don't roar?

M255 TMA 3 Question 3

What Fun!

He's a Catholic, devious, bookish crime writer in drag. She's a humorous dilettante on the run from her ex. Together they fight crime!

He's a tall retired cop trapped in the 1970s. She's a paranoid private detective on the run from her ex. Together they fight crime!

He's a Catholic, devious, bookish crime writer in drag. She's a humorous dilettante on the run from her ex. Together they fight crime!

He's a tall retired cop trapped in the 1970s. She's a paranoid private detective on the run from her ex. Together they fight crime!

He's a Catholic, hard-nosed chef in a wheelchair. She's a chain-smoking Judge in drag. Together they fight crime!

He's a small-town professor with attitude. She's a humorous, dishevelled priest who is looking for aliens. Together they fight crime!

He's a chain-smoking, bald mathematician in a wheelchair. She's a cadaverous, bloodthirsty mercenary on the run. Together they fight crime!

He's a bookish vampire who is looking for aliens. She's a Catholic, bald, devious detective inspector on the run. Together they fight crime!

He's a high-flying retired cop with attitude. She's a French-Canadian, cat-loving, dishevelled priest in drag. Together they fight crime!

He's a cadaverous alien on the run. She's a cat-loving, humorous vigilante in a wheelchair. Together they fight crime!

He's a chain-smoking astronaut who is looking for aliens. She's a dangerous, bald priest living in the 1950s. Together they fight crime!

He's a cat-loving Buddhist on the run. She's a devious magician's assistant who is trying to recover her memory. Together they fight crime!

He's a small-town ex-cop trapped in the 1970s. She's a hard-nosed, humorous, bald alien from beyond the grave. Together they fight crime!

He's a cadaverous, dangerous nurse in a wheelchair. She's a cat-loving werewolf with attitude. Together they fight crime!

He's a French-Canadian, dangerous private detective living in the 1950s. She's a sword-wielding alien in drag. Together they fight crime!

He's a Catholic nurse on a search for his missing sister. She's a bald priest with secret mysterious powers. Together they fight crime!

He's a high-flying, tall, Catholic, dignified Judge with attitude. She's a sword-wielding professor in drag. Together they fight crime!

He's a bookish vigilante who is looking for aliens. She's a humorous nurse with her own daytime radio talk show. Together they fight crime!

He's a bald, Catholic chef on the run. She's a humorous, high-flying, tortured, paranoid ex-cop on the run. Together they fight crime!

He's a French-Canadian chef who has been exiled to Newcastle. She's a high-flying coroner with attitude. Together they fight crime!

He's a bald coroner trapped in the 1970s. She's a French-Canadian alien with attitude. Together they fight crime!

He's a high-flying werewolf in a wheelchair. She's a bald astronaut who moonlights as a fashion model. Together they fight crime!

He's a cadaverous chef with secret mysterious powers. She's a tall lord living in the 1950s. Together they fight crime!

He's a cat-loving magician's assistant who may be from the future. She's a devious astronaut in a wheelchair. Together they fight crime!

He's a cat-loving, dangerous Judge on the run. She's a Catholic, tortured professor who may be from the future. Together they fight crime!

He's a cat-loving, hard-nosed Buddhist who may be from the future. She's a bald criminal profiler in drag. Together they fight crime!

He's a hard-nosed, small-town Judge on the run. She's a bookish werewolf from beyond the grave. Together they fight crime!

He's a small-town chief inspector on a search for his missing sister. She's a tall lord trapped in the 1970s. Together they fight crime!

He's a humorous, cat-loving dilettante with attitude. She's a chain-smoking, devious mathematician on the run. Together they fight crime!

He's a bookish, cadaverous, bald Judge with attitude. She's a bald professor on the run from her ex. Together they fight crime!

He's a paranoid chef on the run. She's a genetically engineered, trigger-happy werewolf with attitude. Together they fight crime!

He's a dishevelled lord with attitude. She's a tortured criminal profiler with secret mysterious powers. Together they fight crime!

He's a small-town priest trapped in the 1970s. She's a humorous mathematician who moonlights as a fashion model. Together they fight crime!

He's a dangerous vigilante who is trying to recover his memory. She's a humorous ex-cop in a wheelchair. Together they fight crime!

He's a dignified mercenary in a wheelchair. She's a dignified, dishevelled chef from aristocratic European stock. Together they fight crime!

He's a tall magician's assistant in a wheelchair. She's a small-town dilettante trapped in the 1970s. Together they fight crime!

He's a bloodthirsty crime scene scientist on the run. She's a devious Buddhist on the run. Together they fight crime!

He's a high-flying vampire on the run. She's a hard-nosed private detective who has been exiled to Newcastle. Together they fight crime!

He's a tall Buddhist who is trying to recover his memory. She's a dangerous chef in drag. Together they fight crime!

He's a tortured Judge on the run. She's a tall, dangerous chief inspector who has been exiled to Newcastle. Together they fight crime!

He's a dishevelled vampire in drag. She's a tall, sword-wielding detective inspector in a wheelchair. Together they fight crime!

He's a paranoid, bald vampire who may be from the future. She's a cadaverous retired cop in a wheelchair. Together they fight crime!

He's a small-town, high-flying alien looking for 'the Big One'. She's a paranoid Buddhist with attitude. Together they fight crime!

He's a paranoid lord from beyond the grave. She's a high-flying, devious medical examiner from beyond the grave. Together they fight crime!

Opera Speak works again.

Just upgraded to Opera 10.60, and it has made Speak work again, time to work on some more experiments!

Lost in Recursion

I’ve got into strife before about not being sure about recursion, but now I’m reasonably happy with it… I’d almost go so far as to say that I’ll use it when I can… So I decided to print out a 4-dimensional javascript array using recursion… as a table! It isn’t a proper array as javascript doesn’t do associative arrays… but there you go, anyway, instead of using a nice simple for(var something in somethingElse) I decided to do the for(var i = 0; var < somethingElse.length; i++) then thought it’d be a good idea to send it to itself… but i never changed the i and I ended up with something that Bridget Riley might be proud of ;-):