Archive for June, 2007:

Apple have recently released a Beta version of their Safari browser, for Windows.

Normally an addition to the numerous browsers available for Microsoft’s operating system wouldn’t cause much fuss at all. But, being a Mac product, everyone has something to say about it - including me.

Some have found it to be godsend, something they’ve been waiting ages for - if you’re one of these people, then why haven’t you bought a Mac already? Others don’t see the point in it.

Then there are those that have already installed it and are finding bugs and security flaws within the browser, hours after release.

I don’t really care much for it, as I’m finding Firefox (and IE7 to a lesser extent) to be perfect for Windows browsing. Though I find it incredibly useful in a development sense - as now I can test my sites in Internet Explorer 6; 7; Opera; Netscape; Firefox and Safari. All from the one PC.

I’ll be writing an article soon on how to successfully setup a Virtual PC for development use, but for now go and download Safari and check that your sites look and function as you intended them to.

The weekend just gone was nice and sunny throughout - perfect for a barbecue; a bike ride; a beer or a Sunday drive in a convertible. The latter of which, I was enough fortunate to experience.

My uncle recently purchased a TVR Chimaera, from eBay of all places. It’s an M-reg Chimaera 400 - a 4-litre V8:

It still looks as great as it did in the 90’s and sounds unbelievable.

Whilst experiencing the thrill of having the roof down, driving along Britain’s B-roads, I thought of owning one myself in the future - but the £2600 annual insurance makes me appreciate my 1.2 litre Punto and it’s £500 insurance premium.

Even though the car is over 10 years old, it is still in very good condition as we spent the afternoon fixing a broken hinge on the boot prior to having a blast.

Of course, I’m shite when it comes to reviewing cars, so have a look at pistonheads.com for a better slice of TVR pie.

As you may already know, we’re travelling to Botswana at the end of July, to help an orphanage out for a few weeks.

I visited Tunisia back in February, but as it was in the North of Africa, we didn’t need anything in the way of injections. However, South Africa is a different story - requiring us to have everything but Malaria, via injections from the Doctors. Malaria prevention is an option, but in the form of tablets.

So, today after work, Anneka and I went to get our injections - one in each arm. We have to return twice more to get top-ups before we fly, though the worst is over.

I seem to remember everyone dreading injections back in School, but it’s a different story now - with barely any pain at all.

I’m sitting here typing this with my arms feeling numb-er-er more and more. Fortunately, I have some beer to hand that should numb the, well, numbness.

A useful piece of information for those undertaking charity work - the injections were free to us, as we are volunteering - saving us £150+ (each), which can be spent on the orphanage itself.

Tonight’s episode was the penultimate of this year’s Apprentice, on BBC1.

The 5 remaining candidates were whittled down to just two, via a series of interviews with 3 of Sir Alan’s associates.

The surprise came when Sir Alan chose to put Katie through to the final two - the bigger surprise was when she didn’t really react to the great news. Instead, she sat staring at the table - later conceding to Christina and Simon, letting them go through to the final next week.

The outcome couldn’t have been any better, though I was expecting Tre to be one of the two, but his interviews went pretty poorly - as the interviewers uncovered the real truths behind his businesses.

So roll on the final next week! And for those less-observant out there, I can confirm that Sir Alan is going to hire the finalist sitting on his right. Which, I believe will be Christina as usual…