SurfiOnline

Neowin.net have managed to get a little sneak peak at the upcoming build of Microsoft Windows Longhorn (Build 4074). It includes a new visual style, Jade, which is a combination of silver and blue. It also contains new icons, and various changes to the system tray.

Neowin will also be covering WinHEC, the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference. They have setup a blog in which they will be blogging daily to keep everyone up to date with everything Longhorn. WinHEC officially kicks off on Tuesday, 4th May.

Microsoft appears to have delayed the planned release of its next update to Windows XP (Service Pack 2) by about a month, reports CNET News.

Some malicious attackers in Brazil, Germany, and the Netherlands tried to use a Windows vulnerability to break into some of Australia’s largest financial institutions, including at least three banks, over the Anzac weekend.

On the funny side of things, if you’re interested in purchasing a wedding dress on eBay or are just after a laugh, check out this popular auction!

A young woman was pulled over for speeding. As Nebraska State Trooper Officer walked to her car window, flipping open his ticket book, she said, “I bet you are going to sell me a ticket to the State Troopers Ball.”

He replied, “Nebraska State Troopers don’t have balls.”

There was a moment of silence while she smiled, and he realized what he’d just said. He then closed his book, got back in his patrol car and left. She was laughing too hard to start her car.

Apple Computer Inc. on Wednesday unveiled iTunes 4.5, a new version of the company’s music jukebox software that contains many new features. Included in the new version is iMix, Music Videos, Video Trailers, a new lossless audio codec, free weekly downloads and Radio Charts.

[hr]

Apple Computer said Wednesday that about 5 million free songs have been given away through a Pepsi promotion, far fewer than the 100 million tracks that could have been redeemed.

The 5 million free tracks Pepsi gave away were included as part of Apple’s statement earlier Wednesday that it has sold 70 million songs in the first year of its music service. Apple said last fall that it hoped to distribute 100 million tracks in its first year, but when that figure was calculated, it was expected that more winning bottle caps would be redeemed.

Yeah, for those that have missed me, I am still alive (I know for some thats a disappointment.. but.. your problem, not mine ).

Whats been happening? Not much.

I have updated some things here on the Blog, as well as my Gallery. If you have recently visited the Gallery in the past few days you should have noticed that I have added a new album, entitled “Royal Easter Show”. This Gallery contains photographs taken at the Sydney Royal Easter Show this year. Sadly however, I didn’t get to take as many as I originally wanted.

   
Royal Easter Show 2004

I have also found myself busy working on a ‘top secret’ project, titled surfiArcade which is a soon to be released pubic and free gaming arcade (containing games such as Spank the Monkey, Tetris and all of your other favourites), which also maintains a top score of players and allows in-site-gaming challenges and tournaments. I will be posting more information about this later.

Have a great evening
~ Chris Boulton

I sometimes think about this, whilst thinking of other random things in my very “interesting” mind. Take the following for an example.

I live in a fairly quiet area. A place where you would expect people to get along and be nice to each other. A place where drugs are not accepted in the community. Last night, after being picked up from work and leaving down the “fast exit” we came to a halt just before the street as about six police officers and a “sniffer” dog ran out in front of us after this guy. They managed to stop him pretty much right in front of us and we got a “good” look at what was going on.

The dog had picked up a scent in the guys bag. The guy, probably in his late twenties/early thirties was dressed fairly poorly, and contained a patch over his left eye. He was calmly assisted to the side of the walkway and his bag was searched.

I think its pretty terrible that this is what the world is coming to, because my father also said he had seen the same police officers and dogs about 3 hours ago just down at the station with another group of people “pinned” up against the wall.

Whilst at work tonight, I began to think of changes in could make to my blog. When i arrived home and sat down, I realised that I had completely forgotten what I had previously thought of, so I sat back down again and just started “modifying” things.

Initially I changed the font faces and sizes in the CSS. Perfect, now the site looks a bit different. I also removed the Uppercase and small-caps CSS for headings. I think they look better ‘mixed case’. The result of these CSS changes is what you see now.

I then continued to gather my thoughts on what I could change. I had a look at the full post/comments page and began experimenting. I decided to separate the “Add your comment” section into tables, specifically shifting the “comment” text area and the “comment options” into their own tables.

You’ll also notice that there is a code formatting bar above the comment text area, allowing you to quickly insert [b]Bold[/b], [u]Underlined[/u], and [i]Italised[/i] text with the click of a button. Simple, eh? This is done using the “codebuttons” javascript I wrote for MyBB, as well as a new modifier i wrote for bBlog (modifier.mycode.php), as the other BB Code style modifier was “not up to par” (on my very high standards :rolleyes:).

Anyway, this is just the beginning of the changes to the site, there are many more to come. Let me know of any errors or browser compatibility issues you may be receiving.

First of all, I would like to wish everyone a very happy and safe Easter for 2004, even if you do not celebrate Easter due to your religion or other beliefs.

Another Consumer Holiday?
Personally, I think Easter has become just another consumer holiday such as Christmas, another excuse and way for people to spend their money. Don’t get me wrong or anything, I think it’s great that people give gifts to those whom they care about, or just to celebrate the tradition of the Easter season but it’s not just eggs anymore.

More and more people every year are spending their money, not only on eggs, but on other gifts such as toys, entertainment items and alike to give to people for Easter. Moving away from the traditional approach and gift? Maybe. Maybe I notice this because I work in the retail industry and deal with customers regularly, but have you also noticed how stores just happen to be having sales on other merchandise at the same time?

Let me know how you feel about this either with a trackback, comment or even an email using the Contact form above.

Happy Easter
Chris

Lyrics for Part One

Wouldn’t it be nice if the world were Cadbury?
You could surf inside a chocolate tube
Ride your board across the wave forever
Get wiped out and never get a bruise
And if a shark came up and tried to bite you
You could say ‘I’m chocolate – I invite you’
Wouldn’t it be nice?

Lyrics for Part Two

Wouldn’t it be nice if the world were Cadbury?
Chocolate roads and trees and birds and bees
Delivering all kinds of letters daily,
Every kind of purple parcel too.
And if the dog did try and grab a mouthful,
You could bite him back he’d taste delightful!
Wouldn’t it be nice?

Lyrics for Part Three

Wouldn’t it be nice if the world were Cadbury?
You could be a soccer super star.
The referee would blow his chocolate whistle,
A shot a goal would even break the bar.
And if you scored the winner
You could have the cup for your dinner.
Wouldn’t it be nice?

Lyrics for Part Four (July 2003)

Wouldn’t it be nice if the world were Cadbury?
Riding in the car would be a tasty treat.
Changing gears would soon become a problem
Cadbury dairy milk is so good to eat
When you arrive at your destination,
You’ll be greeted with an exclamation!
Wouldn’t it be nice?

Hehe.. Wouldn’t it be nice indeed?

Life.. It can sometimes be a pain in the rear end.. and sometimes it can just be absolutly awesome.

The last week has been pretty busy for me and I haven’t been able to get much done with my half yearly exams taking up most of my time – because according to my mother, I need to study. It feels great for me to say however that I only have two exams left (Information Processes and Technology and Geography – both on Tuesday) whereas people like Matt D have an exam on the last day of school for the term (Thursday). I suppose I will be sitting at home, probbably doing something very unproductive like always.

I can’t wait for the Easter Holidays. I can’t wait to escape from school and enjoy this slightly over two week break period. I can’t wait to be able to get up at like 1pm every day for those two weeks. I can’t wait to be able to spend time with the one i care about most. I actually don’t have many plans for the break, but i’m hoping that I will be busy with something, or be doing something that can be atleast classified as productive.

I might get back to the study now for my last two final examinations (but probably the easiest of the lot).. Laters..