A Drunken Madman

The SMH is reporting that J*mes Bl*nt's 'Goodbye My Lover' is the most requested funeral song. This means a great increase in life expectancy as the terminally ill struggle to hold on to that last breath of precious life, knowing that if they shuffle off the mortal coil they'll be seen into their eternal rest by one of the most annoying songs ever. Bonus item: Mitch Benn's “I May Just Have To Murder James Blunt”.

And to close, an announcement: At my funeral, I demand the Dead Kennedys' “Too Drunk To Fuck”.

Kevin Rudd is calling for Christian Organisations to take a bigger role in national politics. Yeah sure. Good idea. Because we really want Intelligent Design taught in schools and the Ten Commandments posted in public buildings. What, I ask you, is wrong with the separation of Church and State? If Christians were politically inactive, I wouldn't say so much, but the Jesus Bloc seems to already have its mitts well and truly on the political chalice, not to mention some recent political dirty tricks in New Zealand by nutcase hardcore christian group The Exclusive Brethren, who are incidentally based in Australia. And Rudd wants to invite christians deeper in? I never was impressed with the man, but this really pushes the envelope. Has he not seen the state of American politics recently?

My personal views on religion aside, this is not what the Labor Party should be embracing by any means - leave the cheap “christian values” campaigning to the Liberals. Or is this a calculated ploy to try and pull the votes of the often right-wing Christian community towards Labor and away from the Liberals in preparation for a possible leadership push? Either way, the landscape, as ever, is looking worrisome for non-christians, be they dedicated secularists like myself or religious people of other faiths.

If you'd like to get in touch with Kevin Rudd and let him know that this is a bad move, his contact details can be found right here

Guess where this story has been reported from?

Sterilise delinquents' parents plan 'crazy'

Here at Castle Microsoft, things are slowly moving from simmer towards the boil on the Vista and Office launches. To this end, I'm running Vista on three machines, and Office 2007 B2 Tech Refresh on two of those. My findings so far, I have to say, have been more positive than negative. Particular highlights? Well, the new UI is fresh without being obtrusive (despite my lack of driver support for enabling Glass/Aero), and ReadyBoost has become my new favourite feature.

For those who are unaware, Vista's ReadyBoost feature allows you to use fast removable storage devices as a kind of pseudo-RAM, boosting your PC's memory capabilities cheaply and easily. I currently have 2x 1Gb memory keys plugged into my 2Gb RAM Alienware Area 51 and can report it really does seem to run better. The problem is now I'm going to want to keep them there permanently, or add another 2Gb of real RAM. So, ReadyBoost efficiently causes extra expenditure, we can say.

Downpoints? Well I've been having a hell of a time with WMDC (Windows Mobile Device Center). I'm running an internal build, and while it's improved over the first version I installed, I'm still unable to correctly sync my I-Mate Sp3i Smartphone's Contacts and Calendar. Email syncs OK, but I don't use that much - it's the calendar I miss, as my phone has been how I organise my day for some time now. With out-of-date calendar entries, I'm struggling.

What other downsides are there? well, Rise of Nations won't run - but then that wouldn't run on Windows Server 2003 either, so no great loss. I'm also finding issues on my work laptop (not highly specced, sadly), such as Vista thinking I'm holding down the Win key when docked (making keyboard input, err... interesting). I'm also liking the sidebar and gadgets, and my killer app? Media Center. Yes, I know this was available before Vista, but Vista is what prompted me to try it out. I've got our XBox 360 running as a media center extender now, so I can listen to my MP3 collection and watch stored video from the XBox instead of fuelling my addiction to Lego Star Wars II. All I need now is a decent tuner and aerial and my TV experience will be complete.

Now if only Australian TV would show something worthwhile...

Well, it's not impossible that you've already seen this (hence the category choice) but my B-Movie gland got all excited over it. How could it not? For an extra bonus, may I present... Them!

In other news, we're over the SMH's fascination with YouTube. Have you no work to do, you so-called quality journalists?

Welcome. you must be new here. let me show you around. Would you like a scone? This is my new blog, and I have great expectations for it. It's far more general than my other blog, so there'll be some variety in what I'm posting. A glance at the categories I've already defined should give you a good idea of what I'm preparing to unleash upon the world, for better or for worse.

Now, on to the dreaded “Who Am I”. Well, I'm Jason Brown. I am many things, principal among them being Computer Geek, Contractor at Microsoft, Rock Climber, Music Lover, Homeowner, Crossword Fiend, Cat Owner, Sydneysider, UK Expat, Web Developer, IIS Administrator and Support Specialist, Editor/Owner of SydneyPubGuide.net and Drunk. More you will discover as time flows merrily onward. Enjoy.