Recently I’ve been having problems with Firefox taking an age to boot up. I’ve more or less fully migrated to Google Chrome, but still need Firefox for some pages that don’t quite work properly in Chrome. Thing is, it’s taking about a minute to load what used to be a quick browser.
After a dig, I found this little solution called Speedyfox. It is a tiny download (0.3Mb) and essentially all it does it optimise the Firefox database. It’s Windows-only at present but it’s knocked my load time down to nearer 10 seconds. Much more acceptable!
Another little utility I’ve started using is Backupify. Unlike such backup tools as the excellent Dropbox, Backupify doesn’t take things off your PC and store them online… it takes your online resources and backs them up. In this case, using the Amazon cloud.
Â
There are little utilities for over a dozen common online resources including Google Mail, flickr, twitter, facebook, WordPress blogs and so on. The format the backup is made in with oft-times not be hugely useful (a massive xml file, for instance) but it’s better than nothing. In the event of a serious failure, Backupify technicians will help you restore it in some fashion.
The site is in beta and that’s one reason it’s operating at a very low price right now – free. As long as you register before January 31st 2010, you will get free lifetime use of Backupify for nothing. Including all upgrades etc. After the deadline they’ll be offering a free version with less features and scaled pricing depending on various factors.
It takes the briefest of moments to set up each backup (except WordPress which involves downloading an installing a plugin). These will run initially over a week so they’re not hammering servers anywhere and then become more regular as smaller differential backups are taken.
You can checkout your history, browse files and get a report via the online interface.
It’s simple. It’s free. It’s useful. As far as I’m aware, it’s also unique. Highly recommended.
I don’t comment on new stories too often any more, but it’s nice to see Ryanair getting a hoofing now and again. A lovely report from the BBC about the Office of Fare Trading branding Ryanair’s charging of credit card transactions “puerile and childish”.
The most interesting points of note:
Ryanair are charging for card processing by having one free option – this is the law, but a loophole that must be closed
It costs Ryanair approximately 30p for each debit card transaction. They charge you £5. Per leg of flight. Per passenger
Their spokesman claims that “Ryanair is not for the overpaid John Fingletons on this world but for the everyday Joe Bloggs”. Yet they heap charges on these everyday Joe Bloggs’ and expect then to cough up
Also “passengers prefer Ryanair’s model as it allows them to avoid costs, such as baggage charges, which are still included in the high fares of high cost, fuel surcharging, strike-threatened airlines such as BA.” Which is cobblers – name me anyone who likes buying a £5 flight then finding out it’s going to cost them £40 with fees, luggage, check-in and a cab ride as it lands 85 miles from the city advertised after all the buses have stopped.
What is the point in advertising “low cost flights” when people are now figuring out that, while the flights are indeed low-cost, all the “optional extras” such as checking in (erm… can you fly without checking in?), hold baggage, going to the toilet (is this actioned yet?), cabin baggage (soon, I believe?), paying by anything other than MasterCard pre-pay… will all add to the cost?
If I go to BA’s website and book a flight to London at £30 do you know how much comes off my credit card? Exactly £30. I don’t pay a penny extra. And I get a drink and a snack on the flight. Plus a plane seat that doesn’t feel like it was stolen from a primary school pedal car.
I can book a flight that departs and arrives at a reasonable hour to a central airport with good transport links.
And when it lands I don’t get a bloody annoying fanfare on the tannoy telling me how great it is that we’ve landed on time.
Ireland has just, as of Jan 1st, put into place a law that the UK effectively ditched in 2008. It is now illegal to blaspheme against any religion on penalty of a very painful direct debit from your bank account. Up to €25,000. Ouchies.
Freedom of expression? Nope, no more. In fact, this “law” is just setting itself up to be repealed. It’s difficult to practice some religions without defaming (and therefore blaspheming) against others as their beliefs are at odds with each other. Who decides what classes as a religion in Ireland? If someone writes bad press about Scientology will they be fined? And how about the Flying Spaghetti Monster?
This law protects religions, but criminalises any body who isn’t religious if they voice their own opinions. Some may even argue that school textbooks containing information on evolution could, technically, be blasphemy. Are they going to take all the publishers to court? As a couple of the quotes on that page mention, Jesus himself blasphemed against the Jews. The quote itself is in the Bible. So they should all be removed from public reach and the printers fined appropriately.
Am I being over-reactive? I don’t think so. I’m purely saying that if you’re going to act on the law then it has to be a level playing field. Everyone must be treated equally regardless of why they’re blaspheming.
After all, why should some people be protected for having religious views at the detriment of a completely harmless group who now face prosecution simply for not having a belief at all?
Despite really not being in the mood, I was convinced to go to a party in Paisley with Scott – one of the student teachers I worked with on a recent placement. Five pounds a ticket for the nearby pub, and back to his afterwards with about a dozen folk.
So I ended up in a bar called “kilty kilty” in Paisley at around 10pm having already guzzled half a litre of strawberry milkshake with vodka in it. Well, it was only just over four pounds in Asda. And it was pink. And smelled nice.
Let me make it clear to any younger readers that excess consumption of alcohol is neither big nor clever. It is, however, a tradition at new year in Scotland so I simply had no choice other than to go ahead with it.
Scott and his pals arrived from dinner shortly after and a pool was put together to fund the drinkies. Pints of 70/- gave way to shots of whisky (with a free half of beer – impressed), then some Italian lager and then the dreaded Jaegerbombs.
The DJ was a bit crap, to be honest. When you’re in a bar for less than 2 hours and you hear no fewer than three records played four times each you know the daft sod’s left half his CDs at home. Still, it was all background anyway and I enjoyed a nice natter with a lot of the guys.
Midnight, bizarrely, was counted down at three minutes to the hour. I checked my phone – time set over the mobile network – and watched the TV screens showing the live broadcasts on BBC. All confirmed – the muppet was counting from 10 seconds far too early!
Nobody seemed to notice, though. Any excuse for a knees-up. I had two random girls come up for a new year hug. One kept coming back. And back. And back. I think she was counting seven by the time we left. Her friend kept trying to snog me, but (and I hate to be nasty but I doubt she’ll read this) her mouth smelled like something had died in it. A long time ago. And was currently rotting.
I politely pecked her cheek instead.
Time to stagger over to Scott’s which we did via a not-crowded bar doing karaoke. Well, three of us anyway. One of the girls needed a pitstop and we enjoyed a brief bit of warmth before the final push to the flat in the nippy outdoors.
The party was a party. More beer, my first Newcastle Brown Ale of the year and some good chat that I can barely remember. People started to drift off around 4am and I was one of them, opting to walk back to Elderslie rather than pay the outrageous new year taxi fares.
This is where I realised that I was back in the UK. I stuck my thumb out along the main road as cars went past and nobody stopped. It was -8 degrees Celcius (thankfully my beer jacket was nice and snug), dark and I was by myself. I didn’t mind the walk but I just know for a fact that had I been in Australia, Vietnam or one of many European countries that some kind soul would have picked me up.
Not in Britain, though.
Instead I plodged along until I got quite close to my destination when I saw a window open and a light on. Music was playing and a couple were chilling in the kitchen. So I asked if I could have a cuppa. They readily invited me in and I spent another hour or so chatting to random strangers and being force-fed Apple Sourz and Bacardi Breezer. And tea.
It must have been around 6am when I left to walk the last quarter mile or so to my aunt’s.
Definitely not what I was expecting, and a good new year overall. Of course, thanks to Scott and his girlfriend for inviting me. And to everyone I talked to. And of course to the people in the downstairs flat who let me in! Maybe it’s just people in cars who are selfish.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://i0.wp.com/img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?w=840)
