Simon Bullen's Weblog

Don't you just love the snow !

There is nothing quite like a bit of snow first thing in the morning, the air is so still and quiet...........

Posted at 09:04AM Feb 08, 2007 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[0]

Wind Damage

So yesterday the UK was battered by 80mph winds, as usual during this time of year when we have had a large amount of rain and high winds are forecasted I tend to carry a chain saw around in the back of my Land Rover on the basis I will have trees down along the lane where I live.
It seems that yesterday was no exception apart from the size involved, normally I expect a couple of trees about 4-6inches in diameter to block my path, but last night it was more like 4-6 feet of english oak.

Two hours of chain saw work got me to the point of being able to drag the sections of tree aside with the use of the land rover, but it was still far too heavy and the wheels just spun so I had the call the local council out who moved them with a 17.5 ton lorry, that was all completed at 20:30 last night , 4 hours after I left work.

The next job is to retrieve some sections and use the oak as a new fireplace surround, something to do in the summer I think.

Posted at 08:54AM Jan 19, 2007 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[0]

Flickr

Mr Muffett has been nagging me to get a Flickr account for some time now, so I finally got around to sorting it out the other night. It is great for resizing photo's to use on the blog.

This is one of my better pictures:-



More can be viewed by clicking on the picture.

Posted at 02:23PM Jan 18, 2007 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[0]

Legal Seminar on Blogging

Dan Matte's blog is quite interesting regarding Sun's attitude to blogging :-

"I was scheduled to attend a seminar this morning entitled "The Legal Minefield of Employee Blogging: Important New Developments" that was hosted by one of the law firms here in Seattle. Unfortunately the event was cancelled. I registered online, got a confirmation but never received a cancellation notice so my trip downtown this morning was for naught. I'll just have to pick up those 2 hours of continuing legal education (CLE) some other time.

That minor inconvenience aside, I was looking forward to seeing what the legal profession's view of what has been going on for sometime in companies and with individuals. As with most things, the courts, company policies and laws are well behind what is actually taking place in the world. The title of the seminar itself gives you some idea the angle that will be presented. I'm curious whether or not any of the positive aspects of blogging will be covered so that companies can weigh the pros and cons and make their own value judgment or if it will be just a blogging is a bad thing and here are the tremendous risks you face by allowing it to happen.

We're taking a fairly conservative approach to blogging so far. Unlike companies like SUN where it seems like they allow anyone to blog as a representative of the company, F5 has a small group that has been designated as corporate representatives when it comes to blogging on behalf of F5. We have a policy that says what's okay and what is off limits to guide people. I think this approach has served us well to date.

One thing that is a grey area is what to do about employees who blog about F5 in their personal blogs? I presented at a new employee orientation session a while back and there was one new employee that I thought wasn't really paying attention about a week or so later I found what I had said repeated almost verbatim in that person's blog. There wasn't anything proprietary in what was written but it sure made me appreciate just how free information can be these days. We all know of the leaked email or memo syndrome where an internal document pops up outside of the company. But now the words that you say in a meeting can be transcribed for posterity for the world to see (and often while the words are being uttered thanks to WiFi). For some reason I view this as more powerful than someone verbally saying "I was in a meeting and Dan said..." Anyhow, while I would never consider encroaching on peoples' private lives and telling them not to blog about F5 (and who could enforce that anyway?), I want to be sure that everyone knows that disclosing proprietary company information has serious consequences.

Overall, my belief is that the benefits of employee blogging outweigh the risks associated with allowing it to occur. "

Posted at 04:40PM Jan 16, 2007 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[1]

Hells Angels Get iPod Dock

Listening to music on a motor bike, especially a hog, is generally seen as the motorcycling equivalent of an ashtray on a motorbike: pointless.

A US company, 2 Wheel Tunes, with a UK distributor, has come up with a series of great sound systems designed to let iPod and MP3 owners rock out while riding without the use of earphones. The company offers the Universal MP3/XM Sound System which will fit on any bike but, in these show pics I snapped last night, are hooked up on an eye-popping Harley.

The system includes a pair of custom made bullet-style speakers, and an amp that can pump out 50W from each of them. When you are sitting on the bike (jump now), the volume is deafening but the sound quality remains undistorted and clean. The MP3 holder is mounted on the handlebars while the amp is hooked up on the chassis behind the front wheel. The latest addition is the Dock N’ Rock System, a chrome plated system that mounts on the riser with the amp in-built.

Both systems cost around £300



http://uk.gizmodo.com/

Posted at 11:20AM Jan 12, 2007 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[0]

Sharp’s 108in LCD HDTV Wins The War Of Inches

The CES Show is always the place for companies to compare manhood sizes and this year did not disappoint. Sharp turned out to be the best endowed, however, with its stunning 108in LCD - yes LCD - HDTV. Plasma screens usually dominate the supersize HDTV category, and have done for years, but Sharp’s LCD offering put even the giant plasmas in the shade.

Even better, this is not just window-dressing, since it plans to launch it this summer for the well-heeled. There’s no price as that would just be too crass but, you can use the £40,000 price for Panasonic’s 103in plasma as a jumping off point.



http://uk.gizmodo.com/

Posted at 11:14AM Jan 12, 2007 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[0]

Tech giant Cisco to sue Apple over iPhone name

TECHNOLOGY giant Cisco is suing Apple over claims that it owns the iPhone name used by Apple to christen its new handheld device this week.

Cisco, obtained the iPhone trademark in 2000 after completing the acquisition of Infogear, which previously owned the mark.

Apple, which launched its new handheld touchscreen phone on Tuesday, has dismissed Cisco's claims as "silly" and "tenuous at best".

Apple spokesman Alan Hely said: "We think Cisco's trademark lawsuit is silly. There are already several companies using the name iPhone for Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) products."

He added: "We are the first company to ever use the iPhone name for a cell phone, and if Cisco wants to challenge us on it we are very confident we will prevail."

Mark Chandler, Cisco senior vice-president and general counsel, added: "Cisco entered into negotiations with Apple in good faith after Apple repeatedly asked permission to use Cisco's iPhone name."

Cisco said it would seek to stop Apple from "infringing upon and deliberately copying and using" the trademark.

http://business.scotsman.com/technology.cfm?id=56512007

Posted at 01:06PM Jan 11, 2007 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[0]

super hero test - well everyone else is doing it.

Your results:

You are The Flash

The Flash 85% Green Lantern 80% Iron Man 80% Catwoman 70% Supergirl 55% Superman 50% Spider-Man 50% Hulk 45% Batman 40% Robin 40% Wonder Woman 35%

Fast, athletic and flirtatious.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Posted at 10:51AM Jan 10, 2007 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[0]

Apple iPhone

iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone.
Available in the US now, summer for the UK.



Check out more at http://www.apple.com/iphone/

Posted at 09:12AM Jan 10, 2007 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[1]

just an illusion....

Check out more at mightyillusions.blogspot.com

Posted at 10:04AM Jan 05, 2007 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[0]

'Logic bomb' backfires on hacker

December 14, 2006 (Reuters) -- NEW YORK -- A former UBS PaineWebber employee was sentenced to eight years in prison yesterday for planting a computer "logic bomb" on company networks and betting its stock would go down.
The investment scheme backfired when UBS stock remained stable after the computer attack, and the ex-employee, Roger Duronio, lost more than $23,000.
A federal judge in New Jersey sentenced Duronio, 64, to 97 months in prison and ordered him to pay $3.1 million in restitution to his former employer, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement.
Duronio was convicted on July 19 of one count of securities fraud and one count of computer fraud in the 2002 case.
Duronio quit his job as a systems administrator in February 2002 after repeatedly expressing dissatisfaction about his salary and bonuses, the statement said.
He then planted malicious computer code known as a "logic bomb" into about 1,000 of UBS PaineWebber's approximately 1,500 networked computers in branch offices. On March 4, 2002, the "bomb" detonated and began deleting files.
Duronio attempted to profit from the attack, the statement said. He bought more than $23,000 in put option contracts for UBS AG stock, betting the stock's price would go down after his "logic bomb" went off.
But, according to testimony at his trial, the stock remained stable after the computer attack and Duronio lost all of his investment.

Posted at 11:34AM Dec 15, 2006 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[1]

The other Simon Bullen

Interesting day so far, I found another me, well to be precise another Simon Bullen who is blogging out of London. This Simon is slightly more artistic than me and writes an interesting blog about life, I suppose thats the advantage of not being a techie, and living in London.



The other Simon's Blog

Posted at 09:14AM Nov 29, 2006 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[1]

Muse - Black Holes and Revelations

Until the other week I hadn't even heard of Muse, now I am totally hooked. I have listened to many albums from many artists and only a very few have a produced an album where every track is superb, Black Holes and Revelations is one of them.
The others being Nirvana - Nevermind, Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon and Marilyn Manson - Holy Wood.
Black Holes and Revelations contains three outstanding tracks, Assassin, Take a Bow and the ultimate track, Knights of Cydonia. If you haven't heard this album do you self a big favor, take a day off work buy it, play it and chill, believe me you will not regret it.

Posted at 11:29AM Nov 27, 2006 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[4]

How do you want your steak ?

A couple of pictures of the menu from Berns steak house in Tampa Florida. The place was huge with one of the worlds largest wine cellars (over a million bottles) The food was excellent and cooked perfectly, if you are ever in Tampa give it a go. Sorry about the picture quality, phones don't have the best cameras.

Posted at 01:57PM Nov 16, 2006 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[1]

Nemo Sushi

Well I thought it was funny......

Posted at 11:22AM Nov 09, 2006 by Simon Bullen in General  |  Comments[0]