http://www.edugeek.net/blogs/webman/ en Tue, 21 May 2013 20:10:25 GMT vBulletin 2 http://staticc3.cdngeek.net/images/misc/rss.jpg http://www.edugeek.net/blogs/webman/ http://www.edugeek.net/blogs/webman/102-snowfall-closes-britain.html Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:58:19 GMT Reportedly the coldest weather to hit the Great British Isles in donkey’s years, the country was brought to a stand-still due to adverse conditions.... Reportedly the coldest weather to hit the Great British Isles in donkey’s years, the country was brought to a stand-still due to adverse conditions. The cold weather front was sent from Russia with love, presumably because they felt sorry for us with the continuing economic crisis we’re facing, and wanted to give us something else to whinge about.

What I’m talking about readers, is snow. A fellow associate describes this English phenomenon as, "that thing the weather does where rain gets frozen". A fiendishly accurate attempt at science I must admit.

In the Northern parts of the country, several inches of snow had fallen during the night between Sunday evening and Monday morning. Schoolchildren and adults alike awoke with excitement with the prospect of building snowpeople and riding HSE-approved sledges down hills of no more than 10 degree gradients. The public were warned that police were carrying out extra patrols to ensure correct usage of snow enjoyment equipment.

Chantelle Osborne-Royd, 24-year-old mother of seven from Middlesbrough said, "I cannet wait to get me sledge out like, I love the snow. The kids are all at big school like and they aint closed thank god – gives me plenty time to mess about before me community service."

Several minor collisions occurred on the A19 during rush-hour this Monday morning, but reports say the weather was not a contributing factor in any of the cases.

South of Yorkshire, however, was a completely different story. In the capital, it is reported that several flakes of snow had fallen somewhere on the ground. Chaos quickly ensued as London was taken completely by surprise by the “heavy” downfall, affecting all aspects of city life for residents and commuters alike.

Buses were forced off the road because of the high chance of getting snow on the tyres. Transport for London also encountered problems on the Underground when early-morning passengers unwittingly brought microscopic amounts of snow onto the platforms via their shoes. For no reason at all, every underground station was immediately closed. The knock-on effect was unimaginable - something nobody would have thought possible. No one was able to get to work.

In a statement from TfL, Iona Ford said they regretted having to withdraw all methods of transport to the public, but made it clear that this sort of weather condition hardly ever happens so are unable to plan adequately.

Buses and trains weren’t the only methods of transport affected by the unprecedented levels of snow. An aeroplane due to take off from Heathrow skidded across the runway shortly after one of its tyres travelled over a snowflake. It burst out of the boundary fences at speed, completely destroying the Sipson residential area. Many passengers were injured in the ordeal, with some eyewitnesses describing the incident as “catastrophic”, and “the worst airplane disaster in the history of mankind.”

It was thought that the education of thousands of schoolchildren would also be badly affected by the snow, as most teachers did not turn up for work. A teachers' union spokesperson commented, "Teachers have the right not to go to work - they simply don't get paid enough to attempt to travel to work in these conditions. We are making good progress towards giving each teacher a 4x4 to help in these circumstances." All was not lost, however, as cover supervisors and teaching assistants rallied together to deliver lessons which have been hailed by some parents and students as, "the best lessons yet."

It remains to be seen if the country will be open for business as usual tomorrow with another 1 millimetre of snow predicted to fall during the night. ]]> webman http://www.edugeek.net/blogs/webman/102-snowfall-closes-britain.html http://www.edugeek.net/blogs/webman/78-2009-apple-unveil-ipod-grain.html Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:37:58 GMT At an exclusive product unveiling today (just 3 months since the last iPod hit the shelves), Steve Jobs of Apple announced they have developed and... At an exclusive product unveiling today (just 3 months since the last iPod hit the shelves), Steve Jobs of Apple announced they have developed and are about to release the smallest iPod to date. The iPod Grain, as the name implies, is about the size of a grain of sand. The new addition to the music player line-up from the Jesus Phone maker comes with a non-expandable 1TB of flash memory for all your songs.

Speaking of songs, the Grain exclusively plays formats in Apple's proprietary format to maintain vendor lock-in and piss people off who prefer the free, open source, innovative and superior Ogg Vorbis format for their audio. To put songs on the Grain, the latest version of the inferior and unpopular music manager iChoons must be used. Connection comes via magic only as there is simply no room for pico-USB or micro-Firewire connections on the Grain. Simply place the Grain near your iChoons-enabled Intel-based computer and your music will instantly be available on the Grain.

Being of miniscule size, the battery issue was an enormous hurdle for The Orchard to overcome. Hugh Jass, a tech boffin from Apple, said "We've developed our own battery technology for the iPod. We religiously believe people should be freed from the burden of having to change batteries, so we made it non-changable. This is best for everyone." He continued, "When battery life does eventually die, it doesn't really matter as the Apple sheeple will buy our latest player at the time anyway."

Actually listening to songs on the Grain proved somewhat problematic in initial trials for the style-conscious. The same magic used in transferring audio to the Grain is also used to send the audio to your ears; by simply placing the Grain in one of your pockets. Of course, the analogious "Apple-white" earphones were made redundant with this new technological advancement. All is not lost, however, as Appleites will be pleased to know they can purchase new and improved Grain-compatible fake earphones to ensure people know they have an iPod.

The Grain is packaged in a shiny white box measuring 6 inches on all sides; and is available for the lowest-ever extremeley-good-value-for-money can't-get-better-than-this price of $475 (£575 GBP) from any Crapple store. ]]> webman http://www.edugeek.net/blogs/webman/78-2009-apple-unveil-ipod-grain.html