Paul Wilkinson's Weblog

According to an article in this morning's Sydney Morning Herald

US Homeland Security officials were warned the bombers were plotting to use liquid explosives hidden in sports drinks or other containers in their hand luggage.

Once on board, the suicide bombers would detonate the explosives using a battery from a simple device like their camera or an iPod.

But, we all know iPod batteries aren't user replaceable

You never know what is lurking on people's hard drives. Dave Colvin found this video of one of our colleagues testing a web camera many years ago. Enjoy.

Whilst shopping for beds recently I came across the Pause by NZ company DesignMobel. The available accessories for this bed include a Bose soundsystem and iPod Dock built in to the bedside table.

Microsoft has announced their intention to ship a music player by Christmas. I think it is a good indication of what they are going to have to compete against when companies are building beds with iPod compatibility.

We just bought a new freezer. It comes with one of those energy star rating stickers stuck on the door. Starting with the new washing machine we bought six months ago I have noticed an annoying trend in these stickers. They used to be made of a kind of plastic that was held on to the metal with static & suction more than glue. They came off easily. The new stickers are paper and seem to be stuck on with superglue. They come off in a thousand tiny scraps and leave a horrible glue residue behind. The result, instead of looking at an ugly sticker on the freezer, I am now looking at uglier, partially shredded sticker!

Why do they need to put the sticker on anyway? I mean, of all the freezers, washing machines, fridges etc produced, how many are destined to be display models? Couldn't they supply the stickers for the retailer to stick on to the display model? The same with the stickers on your new TV that tell you it has "Super auto-vibrant constrast modulation" or whatever?

Anybody know of a good sticker removal product? Big Kev we miss you!

While browsing the Foxtel site today I discovered that the remote controls for the Foxtel digital set top box and Foxtel IQ box are actually universal remote, and can be configured to control your television, DVD, VCR and amp. I am sure that this information was not included in my Foxtel IQ manual. The manual for the remote explains how it all works. It even includes a learning feature, in case the code for your product isn't included.

I just received a glowing recommendation of my technical ability from Olivia. Apparently she told Kym:

"daddy is a good fixing man isn't he mummy, and I love him"

Apparently this praise was earned by re-attaching the door to her Little People school bus on Saturday night.

Should I update my resume?