work smarter; not harder

apparently this is a great plug in for outlook, and as my work life is ruled by email it might make things easier.... it's still beta invite only so the more of you who click the quicker i get to try it.



it could of course be a scam but i don't think so.

*sigh* linux

every now and then i get all romantic about computing and decide to give this linux thing another go. with the release of ubuntu "gutsy gibbon"; supposedly the friendliest easiest version of linux i decided the time had come again.

downloaded the iso, burned the iso, dug out a decent spec laptop to try it on. booted ok, then the problems started.

the first go it crapped out trying to set the time. gave some error then promptly hung with a blank screen. good stuff, way to go hippies. booted back to windows and set the time with no problem and tried again.

second go installed ok; except it was using a generic video driver, meaning none of the eye candy was there. the card is an ATI mobility x1600 - fairly standard fare. ATI have some linux driver for it which doesn't seem to install under ubuntu.. not that there is any standard way to install anything with any flavour of linux, so i resorted to some linux forums.

seems there is a built in driver that should work. i eventually found where the options were, changed it, logged off as prompted and now i have a loveley laptop with no display at all. i can boot to a command line but that's as much use as a chocolate fireguard to me. did a bit of googling and discovered the linux community is still a realm where if you don't know everything already you're not welcome.

what a waste of a morning. i'm just glad it was on work time.

i'm now installing vista for a laugh.

i'll try again in another year.

mark is on the web

well done mark for getting a blog..... although with blogs and facebook we really will have nothing to talk about down the pub.

l'orange

if the future is orange it's not very bright

i know ntl/virgin are generally regarded and a bunch of useless wasters and not fit to feel the same sun as the rest of humanity but i get my cable broadband service from them and it has been fast and faultless. i've never had to call their hlpline, which is probably why they have never pissed me off.

orange/wannado (wannadont) however have very hacked me off... and it's only 20 past 9.

i shall surmise thusly

They force you to use their own SMTP server for sending any outgoing mail. Any attempt to connect to port 25 of another machine is met with an SMTP server that just gives you an error telling you to use smtp.orangehome.co.uk. Presumably this is a roadblock to make it harder for botted machines to send spam. Unfortunately it has the side effect of breaking perfectly legitimate (and fairly common) uses as well. Like most people I have my mail client set up to use my perfectly reliable, predictable and controlable SMTP server.. it works, it always works and if it doesn't; then I well, doug really) can fix it. orange's SMTP is not so... and to top it off is blocked by many other servers and known for sending spam, and if it thinks the message you're sending is spam, it won't send it. this means if i want to discuss viagra or the purchase of cheap watches then i can't do it over email on an orange connection.

but then what can you expect from a shit mobile phone company.