James Titcumb

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 15 people you like and include me so i can see your answers also comment on my answers =D. You can’t use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Repost as “my life according to (band name)”

Pick your Artist: Bal Sagoth

Are you a male or female:
- Enthroned in the Temple of the Serpent Kings

Where do you live:
- Into the Silent Chambers of the Sapphirean Throne (Sagas from the Antediluvian Scrolls) / Valley Of Silent Paths

How do you feel:
- Beneath the Crimson Vaults Of Cydonia

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
- In search of the lost cities of antarctica

Your favorite form of transportation:
- Shackled To the Trilithon of Kutulu

Your best friend is:
- The Hammer Of The Emperor

Favorite time of day:
- Star-maps of the Ancient Cosmographers

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called?
- The splendour of a thousand swords gleaming beneath the blazon of the hyperborean empire (Part III)

What is life to you:
- The sixth Adulation of his Cthonic Majesty

Your fear:
- The Fallen Kingdoms of the Abyssal Plain

What is the best advice you have to give:
- Blood Slakes The Sand At The Circus Maximus

How I would like to die:
- And Atlantis Falls…

My motto:
- A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria

Sometimes I have the need to get on the internet using my laptop instead of my lovely HTC Magic. To do that, I’d have to get mobile internet, which is yet another expense I don’t really want. Before I go ahead, I’d like to strongly discourage doing this on a regular basis. Vodafone’s “unlimited” internet is 500MB fair use policy, which when using a laptop can be used up really quickly – so proceed with caution! In addition, I do not know your contract to confirm that this will not void your warranty or violate your terms of service. You carry out these steps at your own risk and are provided here for informational purposes only. Basically, if you mess things up and Vodafone (or whoever your carrier is) comes knocking on your door, I’m not being held responsible. Read the rest of this entry »

This bears slight resemblance to the already widely publicised anti-trust/monopolising cases against Microsoft for bundling their own software with their OS, without offering the alternatives (read here (Windows Media Player) and here (Internet Explorer)). Admittedly, the competition for browsers and media player software is much higher than instant messaging software, but it’s slightly related.

Many Windows users will have already seen this install software, which is now downloaded every time you want to update a program, such as Windows Live Messenger. The program itself isn’t my concern, rather the automatic ticking of nearly every other Windows Live software on the list. I only wanted to update Windows Live Messenger, yet the program had automatically selected Mail, Photo Gallery, Toolbar, Writer, Family Safety, Office Outlook Add-on and Office Live Add-on for additional installation. That is an extra 128mb – a paltry amount, by most accounts, yet still an amount I have no need for.

To rub salt into the wound, post installation the default option is to change your search engine as well as fix your homepage. Rumours on the Internet are that if you do not remove the “Set my homepage” link, then the program installs an additional program that forces your homepage to stay the same; apparently (although I have not had first hand evidence) to the extent of not letting the user change their homepage for themselves. The idea behind it is to stop spy ware changing the homepage, yet this seems counter-intuitive to not allow users to change their homepage at all… As I said though, I cannot confirm the legitimacy of this rumour, so it may be speculative.

To summarise, Microsoft shouldn’t have these additional pieces of software automatically selected for installation – a less savvy user (family members come to mind…) might not look at this list and add these unnecessary pieces of software to their system.

Yes, at last, with 100% thanks to Newnet, I finally have internet. I won’t repeat my praises too much about how excellent their tech support is, and how much of a pleasure it was to deal with them and get the problems sorted. I highly recommend them to anyone at all.

Yep – we’re live and kicking again! Asgrim.com now works, well ahead of schedule, so top marks to 1and1.co.uk so far!

Now all I need is internet at home… gah!