Opening a can of domain worms

So a campaign for London to get its own domain name has been launched. Supporters claim that a .ldn extension would benefit the capital, especially as London contributes much to the UK economy.

Berlin has weighed in support for this plan - only as if London got it's own domain, then so too could Berlin or any other capital, or indeed any other city in the world.

I'm not a big fan of this, especially as we already have .com, .co.uk, .biz, .info as well as a extension for every country on the planet.

Also, it's a cyber goldmine for those who want to protect their own brand names. For the big players, I doubt its a financial headache, but for a small business, making sure you have a .com or .co.uk address...or a .eu, or a .net etc to protect your brand is going to be an extra expense...as well as a headache.

I suspect we'll hear more of this argument in the run up to the 2012 Olympics

But from me..no deal!

Whats missing from my ipod?!

I've settled in my itunes onto my new Vista pc....but how annoying! I can't copy the tracks I bought off itunes on my old pc and bring them over...

DRM - Digital Rights Management strikes again!! (At least Apple has removed this these days). Well, there is a way to copy them across, but, in the days of flash memory - I have to backup the tracks to a cd, then import them into my new instance of itunes! Grr...!

Is there an easier way to do this?! My podcasts and albums made they're way over when I came up with my own method. Copy the existing itunes directory from the old pc to the new one. Open itunes and there you go - all there....except anything bought from the site.

Clever...but it wasn't really that clever!

Is there anyone out there?

Exciting news from about 20 light years away, with the announcement that a potential Earth-like planet has been located.

It's a bigger bigger than our planet, but could be rocky and contain water - in liquid form - which as we all know is useful if you're looking for signs of intelligent life...or any life for that matter.

So the scientists etc are all excited at the prospect of pointing telescopes at this planet and checking for signs of methane or other life emission particles in the atmosphere.

It'd be crazy to think that we're the only form of intelligent life in the universe, given it's seemingly unending expanse, it can't just be us could it.

So we'll look up and try to see if there's something there. In the meantime, don't forget to look back down at the earth beneath our feet - there's a lot of minding of our own bubble to carry out as well....

Tis the weekend again!

Hurrah!
Friday is here again - but alas, looks like the good weather is set to pass for a while...mind you, great that we had it in the first place!

So the workie project has gone well and I hope, the worse is now behind me. Why is every learning curve so steep!

Anyways, Friday again, no work for 2 whole days. It's a pity that for lots of us, including myself, we're basically wishing our lives away....waiting for the end of the day, or the end of the weekend and then finding out that we've missed lots of fantastic things along the route...so new resolution, soak up everything like a sponge, even the naff bits. Tis all part of that life journey....

And to my first commenter Hazel - Rock on girl!

Hurray!

Got through the working day - thankfully, a day of asking a lot of questions and getting a lot of confirmation that I wasn't loosing the plot and I do understand how the whole project comes together.

Great! Thursday and Friday to go, but I'm feeling that there's light at the end of the tunnel.

PS - After seeing the tragic events in Virginia, it really drives home the message that no matter how big things like work worries appear to be, they really are a small distraction to the important things in life. God bless to all there.

Catching up on other peoples work

Ever feel your in a bit over your head? I've been working on a project for the past month at work - in fact I was brought in to assist it, but somehow along the way, I think I'm more hindering than helping!
It's always tougher when others, and in my case three of them, have been working on a project for some time. They know the setup, how things should work and why it's been built the way it is.
Just today, I finally made my way to the "Why" phase...as in why are the requirements are like this?! Bit late - as the deadlines for this phase of the project is Friday!
At the same time, I still believe all will work through and the bulk of the work will be met for Friday - which is odd, but comforting!
Tomorrow is another day and I think it'll be the day that makes or breaks me on this. Will have an update then....

Joggers beware!

A quick rant - if you're out and about jogging, make sure you're watching where you're going!! Driving home tonight, I had to make a right turn and a jogger who was watching me, carried on crossing the road - whilst the crossing sign was red - just so he didn't have to slow down!
Good thing I could see what he was thinking and didn't drive into him!

Its all well getting fit, but really, don't kill yourself in the process!!

Rant over!

Gardening - is it a sign of ageing?!

I've been spending lots of time in the last week doing the garden! Now we've got a bigger than average garden that you tend to get in a semi detached house, and as it was a farmers land once, it's well good for growing.

So with the good weather of the past week, it's been gardening 101 - and we're loving it! But...what I'm trying to work out is, when did I start to get into gardening? It hasn't happened overnight, but at what point in my life did I move from an afternoon down the pub and young blokey stuff to trips to the garden centre and cutting the grass.

When I was younger, I would be bored senseless from trips with my folks to these places and now I'm loving it! So...am I just growing up a bit more...or is gardening a sign of moving into a new phase of life....?

And if it is...what are the other signs that you're living the journey of life?

Never have a party at home

Just got sight of this story from BBC NEWS (and you can read it in full by clicking here) .

A 17 year old girl who decided to have a party in her home while her parents were away has landed them with a bill of £20,000 in damage to her parents' house.

Apparently, Rachel Bell advertised the party on her MySpace page and about 200 youngsters turned up. Obviuos chaos ensued, with cigarette stubs on carpets, light fittings swung from, vomit throughout the home and even a wedding dress urinated on.

Her father, Alan described it as 'totally trashed'. Both he and his wife left the home on Easter Monday and told their daughter that they didn't want any kids or alcohol in the home while they were away. Sadly, Rachel had been planning to invite about 30-40 guests to the house.

Rachel has since said that she believes her MySpace page was hacked. But for now, she's staying at a friends house as part of a cooling off period. Hopefully she hasn't invited anyone there.

Oh dear....

Life on Mars - with more Gene to come

What an excellent end to BBC1's Life on Mars last Tuesday.

Was he mad? In a coma? Or did he really travel back in time?? Well, that ending could be argued for some time to come, but it was a fantastic end to the second and last series. I won't say too much if you haven't seen it, but a good ending to a great series.

And best of all, my favourite character from the series, Gene Hunt will be back in a new series next year. Ashes to Ashes will be set in 1981 - not 1973, and will have our Gene in London. Again, the plot is familiar, except here, a policewoman - an expert in forensics is involved in an accident and wakes up in 1981...is she mad, in a coma or has she travelled back in time?? We'll find out next year!

Hello!

Hi there - this is my first blog entry! Hurray!

Research tells me that the humble blog has been going for about 10 years, despite it only picking up in popularity since 1999/2000. There's about a zillion (I may be over-estimating here) blogs created on a daily basis - and here I am writing the first entry of the Tickle Talking blog!

So, what's the plan - well like a lot of blogs, anything or everything. Whatever catches my eyes, plus a few of my own comments (most of them only interesting to myself) that I've placed on Chris Evans own weblog sitting happily in Radio 2 land. Great stuff...take a listen...

So without due, on we go for blog entry no 2!