Journalhttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/en-GB2010-07-29T17:34:40ZSquarespace Site Server v5.11.5 (http://www.squarespace.com/)Today I mainly received...http://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2010/7/29/today-i-mainly-received.htmlMike Caine2010-07-29T09:14:29ZSpamI have a number of domains, most of which aren't really used, but I do have three in regular use and their email goes through a server side spam filter. The result of this is that when I check the spam filter each day I often see hundreds of exactly the same spam trapped there all sent to the same handful of addresses dozens of times.

Today's spam made me laugh...

Dear Customer,

This e-mail was send by myowndomain.com to notify you that we
have temporanly prevented access to your account.

We have reasons to beleive that your account may have been
accessed by someone else. Please run attached file and 
Follow instructions.

 

Ignoring the fact that I run my own domains and am effectively the admin for their email, etc., how sensible would it be to email someone telling them you had blocked access to their email?

]]>iPad Day Arriveshttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2010/5/28/ipad-day-arrives.htmlMike Caine2010-05-28T21:30:00ZTechnology iPadToday was the European launch date for the Apple iPad. We'd pre ordered a 64Gb WiFi / 3G model on the first day they were available to pre order and were expecting ours to be delivered this morning.
 
Sure enough it was delivered to me at work at around 11:00 and I opened the box to check it was safe inside. I knew it needed connecting to my home Mac to activate it so I resisted the temptation to take off the protective covering and power it on.
 
At lunch time I went home and plugged it into my Mac and pressed the button to power it up. It was soon connected to iTunes but as we'd ordered a 3G model it was insisting I inserted the SIM card before I continued. Trouble was, I'd ordered an O2 SIM and it hadn't arrived yet as I was missing one package containing the SIM and the VGA dongle.
 
I eventually got around the problem by ejecting the iPad and then reconnecting it. This time I was able to pair it up with iTunes and it started to sync. Bearing in mind what I'd heard about the first sync takes hours I immediately cancelled the automatic sync and set about altering the sync setting to enable me to get a smaller selection of apps, music and films copied over in my lunch break.
 
Some hour and a half later (yes, I was late back for work) I had a good selection copied over was able to have a quick play. What I saw impressed me. I was really going to like this device.
 
In the evening my wife and I were able to have a better look at the iPad, play with a few apps, buy a few more along with some books and get to know it a lot better.
 
I bought the iWork suite apps, Pages, Numbers and Keynote, which look and work really well on the iPad. The on screen keyboard is obviously a lot bigger than the iPhone's keyboard and I find it very easy to type on.
 
My favourite iPad app so for though is probably Pinball HD which is obviously a pinball game with three different tables. I think Scrabble on the iPad, with the tiles held of a companion iPhone app look well worth a look as well.


]]>Podcast Zerohttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2010/5/20/podcast-zero.htmlMike Caine2010-05-20T14:03:54ZPodcast TechnologyI've heard plenty of talk about inbox zero in the past on GTD (Getting Things Done) blogs and sites and I've never really had a problem with it; I don't get that much email.
 
What I do have a problem with though is the number of unlistened to podcasts I have, which, along with the number of "unread" audio books from Audible I also have all add up to a huge amount of listening time. I could never really get below sixty podcasts left to listen to and as some of them were date sensitive I wanted to listen to them before I made inroads on my audio books.
 
I recently pruned some of the outstanding podcasts to get rid of ones I was unlikely to ever listen to and with my new exercise regime of walking for at least an hour each evening I eventually reached podcast zero - I had none left to listen to. I must admit to a slight frisson of panic as I'd never reached zero podcasts since I first started listening to them some years ago.
 
I needn’t have worried to much as by next morning new episodes had arrived in iTunes and I had something to listen to again. Nowadays I find that watching video podcasts on one of our Apple TVs and having an hour or so each day to listen to audio podcasts helps me keep on top of them and even have some time to dip into my audio books.



]]>Porsche Club "Ace Cafe" style meethttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2010/5/16/porsche-club-ace-cafe-style-meet.htmlMike Caine2010-05-16T19:49:00ZBoxster Cars PorscheI cut our own grass today; not as much fun as the ride on mower but then our garden is far smaller.

Photo: Two Boxster RS 60s in the pit lane
 
In the afternoon I washed the Boxster and took it to the Ace Cafe style meet at Grandstand. The pit lane full of Porsches with other marques in the rear area of the grandstand. It seemed a good turnout for the first time event with some very interesting cars to see. I wish I'd taken a lot more photographs but I was still messing around with video on my Canon 5D MkII

]]>Porsche Club GB Dawn Raidhttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2010/5/15/porsche-club-gb-dawn-raid.htmlMike Caine2010-05-15T18:16:00ZBoxster Cars Driving Isle of Man PorscheI was up at 05:30 this morning for Porsche Club GB Dawn Raid. Around 60 Porsches met at the TT Grandstand for a lap of the TT Course before the road got busy with traffic. It was the first time I'd attended one of these events and wanted to tag along at the back of a group. The groups were sent off with only a small interval between them (less than one minute) which I felt wasn't really enough of a gap as the lead car in the group behind me soon caught me up while we still within Douglas due to traffic lights, roundabouts, etc.


Photo: Porsches in the TT Grandstand pit lane prior to the dawn run

The English Porsche in front of me lost touch with the group due to traffic and the roundabout so I stayed behind the driver to make sure she didn't get lost on the lap. She may have done it before and knew the y way, but I had no way of knowing. We didn't really get much of a chance to pick up a bit of speed until we'd passed some traffic after Kirk Michael.
 
I lost her at the traffic lights in Ramsey and aware than another group was behing me at the lights and the "rule" about not overtaking any Manx Porsches I decided to pull in and let them get past. I needn’t have worried as I was soon behind them on the mountain and even getting held up by them. The person who told me about it being slower than going out by yourself was correct, there were a couple of fast drivers but the rest were no faster than any locals in a half decent car
 
We were pulled over for a short break at Creg ny Baa. I guess the rest then headed back to the grandstand; I headed home for breakfast.
 
Later than morning we went back down to my Mother's house and my wife gave the back garden a few more cuts with the ride on mower while I did the awkward edges and bits under the trees with a Flymo. By late afternoon I was knackered from my early start and struggling to stay awake so I went to bed early.

]]>The ride on mower arriveshttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2010/5/13/the-ride-on-mower-arrives.htmlMike Caine2010-05-13T17:23:00ZFamily Garden HomeMy cousin Simon Caine died 3 years ago today, aged 49. I was depressed about being 52 recently but I guess it's better to be alive and still clocking up the years!
 
The Massey Ferguson ride on lawnmower that I'd ordered a couple of days ago was delivered to my Mother's house this morning. I borrowed some scaffolding planks from the house being refurbished next door and started the slow job of getting the mower up the steps at the side of the house to the back garden.  After about half an hour I eventually got it up to the garden and set about giving it a long over due mowing.
 
I eventually cut it four times, each time on the next lowest setting, until it started to look half decent again and not the mess it had been for so long.

]]>Ordered an iPadhttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2010/5/10/ordered-an-ipad.htmlMike Caine2010-05-10T10:54:00ZTechnology iPadI've been waiting for this day for a while. Today was the first time we could pre order an iPad in Europe. I'd have been happy with a 32GB WiFi model but my wife really wanted us to get the 64GB WiFi / 3G version so I "gave in" and ordered one.
 
Can't wait for 28th May when it should be delivered. I've already started buying iPad apps for it.



]]>Manx Motor Museum and Tholtan Bistrohttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2010/5/9/manx-motor-museum-and-tholtan-bistro.htmlMike Caine2010-05-09T19:46:00ZBoxster Cars Eating Isle of Man PorscheWe took the Porsche Boxster down to Jurby to visit the Manx Motor Museum. There were quite a few old buses but not much else, although two old lorries and a tram from the Upper Douglas Cable Tramway were quite interesting. It would be nice to see a bit more variation of the vehicles on display, perhaps some of the old cars and bikes that are tucked away in garages and farm building all over the Island could be loaned to the Museum?

On the way home we stopped off at Tholtan Tea Rooms and Bistro in the Tholt y Will valley. I half expected it to be a "greasy spoon" type cafe and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a really nice little cafe / bistro doing an excellent Sunday carvery. Mindful of my diet I just had soup and a coffee. We will make a booking for Sunday lunch one day though.

]]>Tablet Operating Systemshttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2010/4/9/tablet-operating-systems.htmlMike Caine2010-04-09T14:30:31ZAndroid Apple Microsoft Technology iPad

So Apple now has an iPad tabled based on their mobile phone OS. Google seem likely to announce a series of tablets based on their Android mobile phone OS shortly.

I wonder how long it will be before Microsoft announce a tablet based on their phone OS rather than their desktop OS? As they're currently changing the name of their phone OS from Windows Mobile to Windows Phone I wonder what they'll end up calling it if they release a tablet version?

Surely Windows Mobile is the better name - doh!

]]>Glad to be homehttp://www.mike-caine.com/blog/2010/4/5/glad-to-be-home.htmlMike Caine2010-04-05T20:30:00ZTravelDue to our evening sailing from Liverpool being cancelled and us having to get to Heysham for the afternoon sailing we'd decided to have an early start this morning to leave us some time if the Easter traffic slow and congested.

As it turned out the traffic wasn’t too bad, apart from one dangerous nutter who kept undertaking, speeding up, overtaking and then slowing right down. I couldn't work out what he was up to, was he trying to get us to race him? I was glad to see the back of him when we stopped at Lymm Services for a break before continuing on to Heysham.
 
The afternoon sailing was quite busy due to the evening fast craft sailing being cancelled and although the first half of the crossing wasn't too bad it did get a bit lumpy as we neared the Isle of Man. I was quite glad to get off the boat and get home safely.

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