Having upgraded from Firefox 3 to 3.5 (I have yet to try out the new porn^H^H^H^Hprivacy mode!), I am quite dissapointed to find that it takes about 45 seconds (!) to start up with little or no CPU usage in that time and then takes ages to shutdown with very high CPU usage.
After some googling, I found this solution that deals with the slow startup problem. Clearing the temporary internet files really did work for me, well it reduced startup time from 45 seconds to about 10 seconds.
I have found much discussion of the shutdown problem but no solutions yet...
Sunday, 12 July 2009
Friday, 10 July 2009
The hell of Luton Airport
You may remember that "London" Luton Airport was introducing a £1 charge to drop people off, well, it has been introduced and predictable chaos has ensued according to this Times article.
To make this system work they have "re-engineered" the road system and it had been chaotic with tailbacks of more than a mile greeting travellers. The management said it could take up to "six months to clear the congestion caused by the new scheme"!
You should also read the comments, they are all depressingly true. A number of times I've had to queue down some dingy stairs and that was just to get into the EasyJet holding pen. The ceilings in the check-in areas are low and just make it depressing from the start.
We are due to fly from Luton in the near future, we are equidistant from Stansted (a nice airy airport with good facilities) and Luton but the times worked out better from Luton. I'd forgotten how grim it is. I do this everytime thinking it doesn't matter what the airport is like. As I get older (and the justified complaints from the wife get louder), I'm not sure I can keep doing this so hopefully I will engineer it so this is my last trip from Luton.
Just to give an example of the general shabbyness of the Luton offering, I looked into getting some foreign currency. Now it always used to be the case (thanks Fool) that the cheapest way (better than high street) to get currency was to reserve it online for airport pick up with TravelEx (they would guarantee current rate or better). I used to do this a lot from Stanstead and it worked very well until they replaced their TravelExs with TTTMoneyCorp (another dubious BAA deal to squeeze out more money no doubt). To be fair to them they seem to have improved their offerings and website so are now comparable.
However if you look at Luton Airport (and you can only find this out by interrogating their Flash terminal map), you see that their provider of choice is The Change Group who have an unbelievably shabby website form that doesn't tell you any information that you's like to know like what are the rates, are they guaranteed and will you be open when I turn up! If you wade through their T&Cs , you will find out that the rates are whatever they are when you come into the airport (inflated!), if you want to cancel a reservation you'll have to ring the shop at the relevant airport (very high tech!) and the opening times are...damn I can't find it now (very useful) but it said somewhere on their shonky site (the currency converter is still "under construction") that they were "normal opening hours".
Bah! Anyway, I shall report back once I have gone through Luton hell again.
To make this system work they have "re-engineered" the road system and it had been chaotic with tailbacks of more than a mile greeting travellers. The management said it could take up to "six months to clear the congestion caused by the new scheme"!
You should also read the comments, they are all depressingly true. A number of times I've had to queue down some dingy stairs and that was just to get into the EasyJet holding pen. The ceilings in the check-in areas are low and just make it depressing from the start.
We are due to fly from Luton in the near future, we are equidistant from Stansted (a nice airy airport with good facilities) and Luton but the times worked out better from Luton. I'd forgotten how grim it is. I do this everytime thinking it doesn't matter what the airport is like. As I get older (and the justified complaints from the wife get louder), I'm not sure I can keep doing this so hopefully I will engineer it so this is my last trip from Luton.
Just to give an example of the general shabbyness of the Luton offering, I looked into getting some foreign currency. Now it always used to be the case (thanks Fool) that the cheapest way (better than high street) to get currency was to reserve it online for airport pick up with TravelEx (they would guarantee current rate or better). I used to do this a lot from Stanstead and it worked very well until they replaced their TravelExs with TTTMoneyCorp (another dubious BAA deal to squeeze out more money no doubt). To be fair to them they seem to have improved their offerings and website so are now comparable.
However if you look at Luton Airport (and you can only find this out by interrogating their Flash terminal map), you see that their provider of choice is The Change Group who have an unbelievably shabby website form that doesn't tell you any information that you's like to know like what are the rates, are they guaranteed and will you be open when I turn up! If you wade through their T&Cs , you will find out that the rates are whatever they are when you come into the airport (inflated!), if you want to cancel a reservation you'll have to ring the shop at the relevant airport (very high tech!) and the opening times are...damn I can't find it now (very useful) but it said somewhere on their shonky site (the currency converter is still "under construction") that they were "normal opening hours".
Bah! Anyway, I shall report back once I have gone through Luton hell again.
Monday, 6 July 2009
Phorm news. Just rejoice...
BT abandons Phorm
Phorm shares fall as BT opts out
One more battle won, the end of the war draws nearer...
Phorm shares fall as BT opts out
One more battle won, the end of the war draws nearer...
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Another Labour press release masquerading as news in the Guardian
I'll just draw your attention to this Guardian article about Labour selecting its candidate for the Glasgow North East by-election (the ex-speaker's seat). It starts:
"Labour has tried to seize the initiative in the Glasgow North East byelection forced by the resignation of Michael Martin by selecting a prominent local activist as the party's candidate."
Now I can't imagine them starting an article about the SNP (or LibDem) selection in the same way, including copious standard fighting quotes from the candidate and then go onto to repeat an non-story smear about Labour from the SNP press office like they do about the SNP form Labour here:
"The SNP expects to select its candidate next Tuesday. Party officials denied charges from the Scottish secretary, Jim Murphy, that they were struggling to find a candidate"
Anyway, at least they have selected a local activist:
He said "This is my home; I know the challenges and problems that local people face every day."
uh huh...
"Labour has chosen William Bain, 36, the locally born secretary of Glasgow North East constituency Labour party..."
good good...
"...and a public law lecturer at London South Bank University."
Eh? How does that work then? Does he commute to London everyday for work? How "prominent" a local activist can he be?
Top quality investigative journalism from the Guardian again when it comes to Labour!
"Labour has tried to seize the initiative in the Glasgow North East byelection forced by the resignation of Michael Martin by selecting a prominent local activist as the party's candidate."
Now I can't imagine them starting an article about the SNP (or LibDem) selection in the same way, including copious standard fighting quotes from the candidate and then go onto to repeat an non-story smear about Labour from the SNP press office like they do about the SNP form Labour here:
"The SNP expects to select its candidate next Tuesday. Party officials denied charges from the Scottish secretary, Jim Murphy, that they were struggling to find a candidate"
Anyway, at least they have selected a local activist:
He said "This is my home; I know the challenges and problems that local people face every day."
uh huh...
"Labour has chosen William Bain, 36, the locally born secretary of Glasgow North East constituency Labour party..."
good good...
"...and a public law lecturer at London South Bank University."
Eh? How does that work then? Does he commute to London everyday for work? How "prominent" a local activist can he be?
Top quality investigative journalism from the Guardian again when it comes to Labour!
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Radio weatherman loses it after saying "rainy sh*te"
Ha ha. I've just listened to the weather on Radio 4 (at 12:57pm), and the weatherman was talking about Glastonbury. He said showers there might lead to a "rainy sh*te" instead of "rainy site". He then proceeded to stumble to the end of the broadcast whilst periodically breaking into laughter.
If it's put on listen again (not there yet) it'll be here.
UPDATE: Found it on the iPlayer at about 56m30s in.
If it's put on listen again (not there yet) it'll be here.
UPDATE: Found it on the iPlayer at about 56m30s in.
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
The amazing folding plug
Why didn't somebody think of this before? It's not often you see a new genius idea but I think this is one of them. The Register has the full story. Apparently, they are no current plans to bring this to mass production. It needs to be bought to market and soon! I particularly like the compact multi-plug & USB adapter.
Clegg's going to Glastonbury!
Well, that's something that I was not expecting to see. Our illustrious leader Nick Clegg is speaking about the protecting the environment and reinvigorating our democracy at Glastonbury on Sunday at 2pm.
Sounds like a good thing to do though. Well done Nick! I guess this is the flip side to the outreach work being done by St. Vince. Hope he manages to take in some bands whilst he's there.
Sounds like a good thing to do though. Well done Nick! I guess this is the flip side to the outreach work being done by St. Vince. Hope he manages to take in some bands whilst he's there.
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