UK PM unfit for purpose

Given his recent comments about the whole AV referendum he's either completely ignorant about it, suggesting he's not competent enough to be PM, or he's being blatantly dishonest about it, going so fat as to drag the BNP into it which is enough to make him unsuitable for the position. If the BNP get more votes through the new system, then that woule be a fair reflection on how the public voted and this is what he should have issue with, not the method of counting the votes which reveal this tendency (if indeed one was to be revealed at all).

Google has defended recent changes to its search system that reduced the prominence of some popular websites.

Microsoft whinging again. I'm just glad Google went ahead with this change because I was on the verge of giving up using it due to the amount of crap coming from the likes of Ciao. These kinds of sites should quite rightly be pushed to the background as they offer virtually no useful information about any of the searches that brought them up.

These content farms are the worst kind of sites on the internet. They offer nothing new, no unique content and all they are are holding pens for other advertisers. Good riddance to them!

Meta M357 alarm removal

Well, that's it. I submitted a query to Meta via their web form last week and didn't get a response so I've removed the alarm from the bike. It was a lot easier than I though. Apart from the ignition and ground wires, everything else was just spliced onto existing wires, like the indicators, etc. All I had to do was to snip off everything and tape over the wire end and then rejoin the ground and ignition wires back at the wiring loom beside the battery - No big deal. Seems to me that anyone who was experienced in these matters could have the alarm stripped out of the bike and everything put back to the original state in less than an hour (taking into account the time needed to remove and refit the fairing and other bits.)

Works fine and I doubt I'll be using a Meta for the next alarm I get. Since the alarm obviously wasn't working I decided to take it apart and see how easy it might be to analyse. As it turns out the copper on the base of the circuit board was corroding and the piezo sounder had some bad corrosion on the negative connection. Seems to me like the potting compound they used had too much water content and ended up damaging the alarm. Poor design by the looks of it.

Luke Flanagan TD gives up cannabis, but for the wrong reason

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0323/breaking56.html

He gave up smoking the stuff not for his health, the health and safety of his family or anything sensible like that. He gave it up because he didn't want the Gardai calling around to his house and upsetting his family. What a hero! What a gobshite!

Interesting news but with a disturbing element

Elite systems are valuing the market for recycled Spectrum games on the iPhone at $150,000 which is kind of nice, but then they talk about going after copyright infringers. I do hope they mean the sort of people who're currently selling emulators and game bundles to punters who don't know any better and which are all available for free as I would hate to see them go after sites like World Of Spectrum which are responsible for keeping these games marketable in the first place.

Manic Miner lives on!

Elite Systems are selling signed prints of the Manic Miner artwork for the knockdown, reduced price of... £50! Signed, you ask? By Who? Who do you think?

Despite my cynicism, if circumstances were different I would have already bought one before writing this!

App Store, Shmapp Store! What's in a name?

I see Amazon are attracting the attention of Apple's lawyers for their intention to call their android app store, "Appstore". I really doubt Amazon will find many people rooting for them, least of all those who were burned by the stupid one-click patent dispute (was it really over 10 years ago? Hard to believe the years have gone by so quickly!)

Then Microsoft wade in: "An app store is an app store," Russell Pangborn, Microsoft's associate general counsel said in January. Like shoe store or toy store, it is a generic term that is commonly used by companies, governments and individuals that offer apps," he continued.

Yes, just like those rectangular information display things that people were using on their monitors for years before Microsoft realised there was gold in it. What were those things called again? Boxes? Squares? Portals? Ah yes, Windows, weren't they?