Good walk around a bird reserve yesterday, damn little birds far to fast for me to snap, I think they need the likes of a wild west gun slinger to get the camera up in time. Still the grass snake was a bonus as it shot through the water, about 25 foot away from me.
Too near the truth to be funny
I saw this on the Dark Side. It refers to the US, but it could equally apply in the UK. At least the Septics can do something about it in November.
We’re In!
Stained Glass
It was sunny yesterday, but I spent most of it inside, making the beginnings of a stained glass panel, using the appliqué technique. This entails cutting and sticking glass to a clear piece of glass and then grouting it, much like the grouting on a mosaic, rather that edging with lead.
I arrived with a rough sketch and then made the sketch into the working diagram…
Gum control
This is the poll currently being conducted on the web page of South Africa’s largest selling Sunday newspaper down here today. (You too can vote, click here)
What’s it all about?
I simply had to investigate, apparently two ladies were asked to remove and discard gum they were chewing whist waiting for The Gautrain (remember my trip and pics? Here’s my Gautrain post) A row of sorts ensued and they were apprehended / detained for somewhere between 2 and 4 hours before being allowed to proceed with their journey. (report here)
I voted, results on next page.
Knockin’ on Heaven’s door
As probably the site’s only comic book enthusiast (lapsed) I feel great sorrow, as I’m sure everyone else does, about the events in Colorado. It’s still not known what made the madman go on the rampage. Some in the comic book fraternity say that there is a scene in an old Batman book that mirrors what happened. This was when the scriptwriters at DC comics started writing about more adult-orientated themes in their books; the old Comics Code Authority was washed away. Personally, I don’t think this was the reason for the tragedy. Time will tell. Continue reading “Knockin’ on Heaven’s door”
Alien captions?
Security alert for Windows7 and Vista users
I subscribe to a couple of Window users sites and apparently Windows “gadgets” are not protected against malware and need to be disabled urgently
 At next week’s annual hacker gathering in Las Vegas — Black Hat USA 2012 (more info) — Mickey Shkatov and Toby Kohlenberg will deliver their presentation, “We have you by the gadgets.” As is common for Black Hat presentation pre-announcements, there are as yet few details. But Shkatov and Kohlenberg promise, “We will be talking about the Windows gadget platform and what nastiness can be done with it, how are gadgets made, how are they distributed, and, more importantly, their weaknesses. … As a result, there [are] a number of interesting attack vectors that are interesting to explore and take advantage of. We will be talking about our research into creating malicious gadgets, misappropria! ting legitimate gadgets, and the sorts of flaws we have found in published gadgets.”
Much to their credit, Shkatov and Kohlenberg have been in talks with Microsoft, apparently divulging some of their findings. (The point of Black Hat is to reveal detailed information on how new security exploits work, thus pushing software developers into rapidly patching their code.)
More details at WindowsSecrets.com.
A paean for London 2012
They know the price of everything
(Don’t they just, don’t they just!)
They carp about the air we breathe
(Don’t they just, don’t they just!)
Our celebration of the rings
Our vict’ries and our winners’ wreaths
D’you wonder why we make them seethe?
They envy what we all achieve!
(Don’t they just, don’t they just!) Continue reading “A paean for London 2012”
Any Advice on this one?
I am about to move a large amount of money from the UK to the USA, the proceeds of the sale of my house in Wales.
Normally when we send money back and forth in the past we have just moved it from a conventional bank in either country to the other end inside the banking system, however, as you probably all know they give a crap exchange rate and charge transfer fees, wiping the manager’s butt fees and anything else they can think of at the time fees. As we were only sending relatively small amounts we always just wore it, cursed, grimaced, moaned and bitched and paid!
However, this is a good six figure sum and we note these FX companies do not appear to charge half as much fees and give a better rate to boot. As many of you are ex pats does anyone have any comments or recommendations to make on this subject? Any pitfalls for the unwary?
Comments would be appreciated.
Boadicea's Chariot 
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