In the last week or so…

• My car gave up. Just decided that it can’t be arsed going any faster than 30-odd km/h. Luckily, this happened after I’d gotten off the motorway and was only a couple of miles from home. A mechanic friend of mine is having a look at it tomorrow. Personally, I think the clutch is knackered, but I know less about how cars work than I know about how womens’ brains work (i.e.: very little at all)!
• I DJ’d for a 21’st birthday party here in Donabate and, for the first time, used a big screen for music videos and messages to the party goers… was great craic altogether and the punters had a feckin’ brilliant time… one bad thing though was that the pub I was gigging in (and leaving my gear in over-night) was broken into later in the night (a while after closing)… by someone who was there at the party that evening but, luckily for me, nothing of mine was touched.
• I got a bunch of new PS3 games … loving the Simpsons game to bits – hilarious and fun, am stuck on Resistance 2 – killing alien scum in America, and getting stuck-in (online) in Farcry 2 – going to deepest Africa, meeting interesting people, and then killing them … I’m not much of a gamer to be honest – and I haven’t even touched Little Big Planet or Need For Speed: Undercover yet, 2 days after buying them as I’ve also been busy with…
• College assignments - they’re piling up! I just got my ‘Practical Skills’ (Studio Operations) one finished and I’ve to finish my ‘Broadcast Voice’ one (bit of paperwork to do) but just got ‘Media Law’ and ‘Marketing’ assignments today and have a group assignment for ‘Radio Management’ (applying for a broadcasting license from the B.C.I.) to get stuck into A.S.A.P.!
• Speaking of college, I got confirmation from Newstalk that I’ll be with them for work experience at the end of the month, working on the Tom Dunne Show – so I’m very much looking forward to that… should be a good experience working on a busy national station!

I’m pretty certain that’s all my news for now… right now I’m downloading the Windows 7 Beta… and I’m not really sure why… It’s thundering along at around the 300kB/s mark though, which is nice

Microsoft have come up with a follow-up to their first Gates & Seinfeld TV ad.

This time the lads are ‘connecting’ with people (by moving into their house and taking over the daughter’s pink bedroom)…

Microsoft’s advertising boffins decided to employ the services of one Jerry Seinfeld (he who is famous for creating a sit-com that was ‘about nothing’) and their ex-CEO and one of the world’s wealthiest men, Bill Gates. Makes sense I suppose,- could see them forming a credible comedy pairing… until I saw the ad they created…

Now, to be fair, this ad is just supposed to “set up the characters” and not specifically meant to be amusing… but it’s hard to see how it advertises anything that’s anything to do with Microsoft (unless they ARE actually going to make our PC’s tastier and chewier…)

There’s more of these to come so I guess, ultimately, time will tell whether this pairing works or not. For now, though, Apple have nothing to worry about. Their ads which are shorter and cleverer, still reign supreme.

Here’s Bill doing his “Yo yo yo, homeys!” pose. Anyone out there with Photoshop “skillz” want to paste a basketball shirt onto him? I would, but I’m rushing out the door to work… Maybe I’ll get on it later :p

Anyway,- Bill Gates (the man who, 4 years ago, said that spam would be eradicated within 2 years) has stepped down from his position at Microsoft and will now concentrate on his charitable efforts. BBC News have a good breakdown of the good and bad, the hits and misses of Bill Gates here. It kinda paints Microsoft in a bad enough light, making out that they eat other companies for breakfast, are slow on the uptake, quite litigious, and still enormously successful – all of which, of course, is true.

I wonder what Bill would make of this…

(a van I saw in Swords today)

● The fastest way to go up a hill? Zig-zag! … who knew, eh?

● Is this the bus of the future?

● I know Mulley’s an Elmo doll fan but would he be an less so if he knew that one of them recently threatened to kill a Florida toddler?

● The European Commission don’t trust Microsoft – well there’s a shock.

● Now that Blu-Ray has won the format wars (thanks, Toshiba! Glad I got a PS3 now!) it looks like the HD-DVD add-on for the XBox 360 is due to drop to 50 bucks.

● Google in your brain – good idea/bad idea?

● Unless we can change the orbit of the Earth, we’re all screwed… well… in 7.6 billion years that is!

● OSAlt – find open source alternatives to a huge range of commercial software packages. Nice idea.

● The trailer for the new Star Trek movie – supposedly, this is the Irish page – shouldn’t it really say “St. Stephen’s Day” and not “Boxing Day”..?