Mr Mist’s Blog

So I have a new computer game to play with - UFO Afterlight. So far, so good. Laura got it for me and I played it late into last night before I noticed that lots of time had gone by and I was very tired. Quite an enjoyable jaunt into the occupation of Mars whilst battling and trading with the resident aliens. Lots to research and construct, too and then a number of varied tactical battles to fight out. I give it 8 out of 10 just now.

In other games it looks like we will soon be having to jump through a lot more hoops to get a passport here in the UK [news.bbc.co.uk]. Under proposed plans, from April, first time applicants will have to travel to a special centre where they will be interviewed by someone before they are allowed their passport. This will - somehow - confirm who they are. I am not quite sure how this works at the moment. From 2009 all renewals will face this same process - expect a much longer wait for your passport from then onwards, I expect.

All of this should cost lots of money and time for everyone. Super.

Here’s a story for you - a charity has said it will be making a complaint about Top Gear because of showing the Richard Hammond crash and making fun of people with brain injuries [news.bbc.co.uk]. This is so completely stupid. It’s almost as if people have nothing better to do than complain. Noone forced people to watch the programme and the humour was entirely in keeping with every other episode of top gear - something that regular watchers, who weren’t just tuning in so they could moan about it afterwards, would know.

Top Gear has a certain style to it. It’s funny. I personally would recommend that people who don’t find it funny don’t watch. How’s that for an idea? Honestly. A car that Hammond was in crashed in spectacular fashion at over 200 MPH. That’s hardly an advert for speeding now, is it?

So what’s new?

The release date for the last Harry Potter book has been announced as the 21st July [news.bbc.co.uk]. This will be a busy day for postmen. And readers.

I’m currently drinking tea.

Windows Vista is out [www.microsoft.com]. Already people are saying that there are security issues [news.bbc.co.uk] because it can act on voice commands that are played on mp3 files, rather than from actual people using the computer. The licensing on OEM copies is also meant to be restrictive, as you apparently can’t move it between motherboards. However, I was looking at prices and the Home Premium OEM edition is on sale now for around 70 quid, with retail being 205 quid. So at that price I may as well just buy an OEM edition, and, if I need to, throw it away and get another one if I upgrade the computer. Seems a no-brainer to me.

I forgot to mention this one before. Apparently staged accidents are increasing [news.bbc.co.uk] and, apparently, insurance companies are starting to question what were previously considered to be easily determined fault cases - such as running into the back of the car in front. Examples such as cars cutting in front and slamming on brakes, and people having addresses pre-written at accidents are citied as evidence of this sort of thing. Take a photo of everything is the advice, so keep those camera-phones handy! This sort of thing really annoys me to be honest face at them.