Tumble Dryer

Three red rings of death

Last Friday, Norman Junior III emerged from his bedroom, looked mournfully at me and pronounced in a quiet voice: ‘Dad - I’ve got the three red rings of death.’

‘Just have an aspirin and sit down quietly for a bit. Your mum will be back soon.’

‘No Dad - not me. It’s my XBox. It has the dreaded three red rings of death and won’t boot.’

And so we embarked on a prolonged saga that involved a fruitless hunt for a two year old receipt that revealed plenty of interesting long lost items but not the actual receipt from Game.

Then I contacted Microsoft about the prospect of repairing a faulty console that was out of warranty and had subsequently fallen by £100 in price.

Much to my surprise, Microsoft told me that, for this specific hardware fault, the warranty had been extended to three years.

Microsoft checked the date of manufacture from the serial number, confirmed the box was eligible for the extended warranty and asked me to courier the faulty console, free of charge, back to their service centre in Frankfurt, near Germany for repair.

Microsoft sent me the necessary paperwork to ship the XBox to Germany using UPS. In turn, UPS sent me a package label, invoice, receipt and an export certificate.

I then booked an appointment with UPS to collect the games console at my convenience.

And all of this was accomplished without speaking to a single human being - except for Norman Junior III who is doing well and making a fine recovery after going ‘Cold Turkey’ from Call Of Duty.

It all sounds too good to be true…

Welcome to Manchester

‘Not in my lifetime.’

Posterous leveraging Tumblr themes

Thoughts on the addition of custom and Tumblr compatible themes.

forbidden fruits

Friday

‘Can I touch them ?’

‘No. Not yet.’

‘Look - it’s been four months now. When can I touch them ?’

‘Not yet. I’ve already told you, I’m not ready’.

Sunday

‘Please can I touch them ?’

‘No - not yet. Just a couple more days. But you can help me, if you like.’

‘Oh what is it now ? The footy’s on in a minute.’

‘Listen. Forget about the god-damned football for just one minute. Put your pole in here now because I want to drape them all around your pole.’

Crikey - this was like birthday, significant anniversary, Christmas and the last 5 minutes of the 1999 European Cup Final rolled into one. What a superb, generous, unsolicited and unexpected offer !

‘Norma-Jeane, Norma-Jeane - set the V+ to record the footy - channel 511, will you ?’

I rammed my pole home hard and wiggled it about a little to ensure is was erect and vertical.

‘Is that it ? Now what ?

‘I am going to tie three knots at the base, in the middle and on the top of your pole. Pass me that green twine.’

Now I’m open minded and all for experimentation. Just as long as it doesn’t end in autoerotic asphyxiation. Especially with my asthma.

‘OK - that’s not too bad. Now what ?’

‘We wait for a couple of days.’

Wednesday

‘Maybe I could just hold one - just for a second ?’

‘No. Just a couple more days. It’ll be worth the wait, I promise.’

Saturday

‘OK - I’m ready. Shall we take one each ?’

Finally, the moment has arrived and the waiting is over. I breathed deeply, leant forward and took the forbidden fruit (the left one) in my hand.

‘What do you think ?’

‘It is just beautiful; firm, pert, round, perfect shape and just the right size.’

‘Do you want to bite it - but just gently ?’

I certainly didn’t need a second invitation and slowly brought it up to my mouth. I paused to savour the smell and marvelled as I stroked the smooth skin, devoid of any blemishes.

I bit - a little too hard. I heard a gasp and a soft moan.

I felt an explosion of liquid in my mouth. I was taken to another place. I closed my eyes. I was in heaven.

Then, I suddenly realised I had seed dripping down my chin.

‘What are you pulling that stupid face for ? Go and pick six more ripe ones for tea. Oh - and you’ve got tomato juice all down your work shirt.’

So, if you want to save money in these tense, difficult economic times and rejuvenate your sex life, grow your own tomatoes.

where's your Google Shared Items ?

I have followed the development of Google Reader since it was launched in 2005.

Having used Thunderbird and then NetVibes, I have used Google Reader for the last two years to read blogs. The main reason I like Reader are the UI, the keyboard shortcuts for quick navigation and the fact I can also use it on mobile devices and multiple computers.

During that period, I have sporadically marked articles that interest, amuse or shock me on my ‘Shared Items’ feed and Google recently added improved support for the sharing of ‘Shared Items’.

I normally try to use ‘Share With Note’ and annotate the entry as to why I found it noteworthy and I also mark items with a ‘Star’ as a private bookmark; normally as ‘To read later’ or ‘Possible input for blog’.

Google have recently improved the sharing of ‘Shared Items’. Happily for Google, the timing of these new these features just happened to coincide with FriendFeed’s acquisition by FaceBook which prompted much fear, uncertainty and doubt amongst the FriendFeed community, some of whom are looking for viable alternatives if FriendFeed development comes to a halt (or worse, the service closes).

Louis Gray and Rob Diana have both adopted Google Reader which has helped to spark interest in the service and Google is already making additional tweaks and improvements in response to user feedback.

Personally, I have started to develop (yet another) network of people sharing content of interest and already I can see a change in the way I consume content in Google Reader. Firstly, I scan the ‘Shared Items’ of my group and I tend to find that, by the time, I get to my conventional list of feeds, most of the articles of interest have already been brought to my attention eariler by the ‘Shared Items’.

However, there is a problem with de-duplicated posts and even with 50 ‘Friends’ managing the signal to noise ratio promises to be an issue. The social features are relatively new and there are a few rough edges in Google Reader (people keep getting dropped from ‘Groups, people can’t comment on an article without being a member of a group) but for me, Google Reader has the potential to supplant FriendFeed as it focusses on the content (news, blogs etc) that interests me (rather than LOLcat pictures).

I also believe annotated shared items are much more valuable and than a plain, old, tired, outdated blogroll.

Here’s my feed of ‘Shared Items’. If you use Google Reader, it would great if you could share your ‘Shared Items’ feed in the comments below as I would be genuinely interested in seeing what you’re currently reading and enjoying.

building a Tumblr community

I am finding this hard. Normally, I find content I like and browse subscriptions of those people and so it mushrooms rapidly but this isn’t always easy (or possible) on Tumblr.

I’m sure I am missing something. Where am I going wrong ?