Selling out

I've got no problem selling out, in fact I'd like to do it more often. Anyway, in the quest to gain some extra geld I've thrown in my lot with Google ads, hence the adverts above. I'm not allowed to ask you to click on them to increase any funds that might come my way. Anyway, any complaints feel free to add a comment or seven.
On a completely unrelated note, I've been looking at iTunes and the play counter. The fact that it only adds a play count when the end of the track is played is a bit odd in my book, personally I'd look for more than 50% of the track being played and use that. But I'm not a programmer. It does mean that if I want to skip the track or there's a bit at the end that I don't listen to, band banter for example, if I don't want an unrepresentatively low score on the play count I have to pan the play slide to the very end, leaving about 2 seconds worth of the track.
Yes it's a minor thing but there's not that much going on in my world right now.
In the news, thinking about Google, they've asked journalists to always use the capitol G when writing the name and to refer to web searching as web searching, not "googling". As mentioned on the radio, you might think that this was an odd thing, as the prevalence of google in people's minds and as a term for searching would result in people only using google, not AltaVista, yahoo or whomever, and yeah, I only use AltaVista for searches that I know google will give duff results for, or if google has been "corrupted" by excess links to a particular site. The reasoning behind the Californian companies request is that if a word becomes so used to describe a generic thing or action, it looses it's copyright protection to a degree. Most people think of Hoover for this, as a brand name and as a verb, but escalator is a better example, as it was originally a brand name and has now come to be generic for all constructions of type. Personally I think they're peeing into the wind somewhat, the engine and it's impact on society is too great. I can remember using it in the late 90s at uni and it took one use to replace all non technical search engines as the tool of choice. Even my mum, who's 60 and just getting to grips with the net, uses google, or at least knows what it is and what it does.
Oddly enough though, the spell checker on Blogger didn't recognise any forms of google, but did know AltaVista. Then again, it doesn't recognise Blogger or the English spelling of recognise either.
Still waiting to see if I've passed my forecaster training. Should know today, tomorrow at the latest. Gulp.

Nimrod, the mighty hunter. Rest eternal grant unto them.

Wanted to post something on this, a RAF Nimrod went down in Afghanistan a couple of days ago, killing all 14 on board. I don't know anyone on the flight (although I was worried for a while) but my heart goes out to the families, friends and colleagues of those that died. Nimrod are intelligence gathering aircraft and fly at high altitude so the chance of it being shot down is slim.
Should we need to be there? No.
Are we needed there? Sorry, but I believe that yes, we are needed there. And until the job is done and we can leave in peace, we must remain there. This is the price of being a nation with a conscience and the ability to do something about what happens 4000 miles away to people we will (generally) never meet. This is part of the reason I go to work and do what I do.
Comments to the usual address.
Jim.

Nowt much going on, so time for a post

This week I completed another unit on my NVQ that I thought I already had completed (regarding team work), saw a film, drove a bit, went to Whitby (photos to follow) and remembered something about the Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) I went out with.
Damn I loved that weekend.
Ways to tell that your group is military and not a civilian MRT:
1. The group is kitted out with the best equipment, mostly new or much loved.
2. They take "Bergans" on a "Tab" rather than "Rucksacs" on a "walk"
3. The white Landrovers have "RAF XXXX Mountain Rescue" on the side (a subtle one that)
4. Most civilian groups, when faced with an idyllic country farmhouse and stone walls scene, don't turn to each other and say, "stick a GPMG [General Purpose Machine Gun] on that wall and you could hold that farm until the cows come home!"

There are other hints, but those seemed to be the main ones.

Aside from that, I've found that Coke are doing a free songs from iTunes promotion, so with the occassional diet coke I've been taking advantage of this. Unfortunately there's a limit of 5 songs per person, which sucks somewhat considering that Kev told me when Mountain Dew did a similar thing in the states they put a 350 song limit on it. Which sounds much more reasonable, I mean I've known about it for what, 3 days? and I've only got one song left, after that, why would I buy coke instead of another brand? In case anyone's wondering (okay, I know you're not but sod it, this is my fantasy world, get your own one) the four so far are:
1. Linkin' Park and Jay-Z, Numb/Encore - very well used in Miami Vice, but possibly the best part of the film, except the guns and the cars, and the boats, and the girls. Honestly, Micheal Mann never beat "The Keep".
2. Sandi Thom, What if I'm right - I just like it
3. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World - as used in many films and the subject of a campaign on radio 1 to get it released as a single. One of the few versions of this song (What a Wonderful World) that I can still listen to, it was the last song at my grandad's funeral, but that was the Louie version.
4. Eels, Mr E's Beautiful Blues - Just because really.

Lot's of lists in this post.