Got a new PC - HP Core 2 Duo - which came with a 60 day version of Norton Internet Security.

After a few hours of playing with Vista, and very cute it is too, I thought I’d try and install something. So I started to setup Skype and entered all of the relevant details and got to the point when Skype tries to access its servers, which failed. I had a look at the Norton firewall to see if it knew about Skype or even let me poke a hole through for Skype to use. Anyway it knew about Skype as it was listed as one of the applications that it will allow through the firewall. Next thing I know is that IE7 has gotten jammed, in fact the whole machine is jammed, and then I got to see the lovely blue screen of death (BSoD). Joy (I thought it was supposed to be red this time around? Ed).

Rebooted the pc and Vista muttered something about it having failed recently. No kidding. I disabled Norton’s firewall, and does that yell blue murder when you do that, and enabled the Microsoft firewall. Reran the Skype setup which worked fine, it didn’t have any problem with the Microsoft firewall.

So it was Norton that mucked up the kernel and blue screened Vista. Pity that Vista came tumbling down so easily and all in the first 24 hours.

And wasn’t it Symantec, producers of Norton Internet Security, that’s been complaining about not being able to access the kernel in the 64 bit version. I wouldn’t let them get anywhere near it.

Quote of the day

‘Life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans’ John Lennon (1940-1980)

Suddenly got the idea that a Tivo would be a neat idea only to be told by a friend of mine that the darn things aren’t sold here anymore.

Seems that there was a communication problem between the folks at Tivo and Sky with their + thing and Tivo have gone west. The only way to get a Tivo now is through eBay.

Went to the Sky web site for the Sky+ thing and did some poking about to see how much it was, £99 and no monthly fee, so far so good. Then had a look at the FAQ.

Jeez, the frequently answered questions are indicative of some flaky old code. For instance “I am unable to add channels to my Sky+ Personnel Planner” and ”I am getting the message You cannot playback this recording/program on Sky+” and other heart warming questions such as “Programs are being deleted from my Sky+ planner, even though there is space available to record”.  And there’s loads more where these came from. Remember these are the frequently asked questions, so this kinda stuff happens a lot.

I was contacted about a software testing position at Sky a few years ago but the money was hopeless. Turns out that Sky wasn’t actually too bothered by the person they took on all they wanted was someone who ‘really wanted to work at Sky’. Why? 

Hence you get flaky code, I guess.

Quote of the day

‘What if this weren’t a hypothetical question?’ Unknown