http://www.blogrant.co.uk/ the rantings of James Collett en-us Matthew1471's BlogX / BlogX.co.uk Content © 2009 James Collett http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://www.blogrant.co.uk/RSS/Image.jpg http://www.blogrant.co.uk/ 100 100 Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:19 +0100 Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:18 +0100 Computing%20and%20Internet http://www.blogrant.co.uk/ViewItem.asp?Entry=55 http://www.blogrant.co.uk/Comments.asp?Entry=55 This morning when I unlocked my workstation I was greeted with a bizarre background image:-<br><br><p align="center"><img src="http://www.blogrant.co.uk//Images/Articles/Entry55_5709.jpg" style="border:none" width="40%"></p><br><br>At first I thought I was the victim of a prank by my workmates, but no - it was a browser window that I must have left open yesterday. It was the Google homepage. I guess it must have refreshed all by itself. It's quite a cool picture, actually, even though it does a complete 180 on the famous Clean Homepage ethos.<br><br>There was a message and link, asking:-<br><!-- Quote Snippit 1.0 (Edit the TEXT to what your quoting) --><br><div style="background:white; color:blue;">Curious about today's homepage? Add your own background image now</div><br><!-- End Of BlogX Snippit --><br>I'll let the lack of a full stop slide for now. The link takes you to a page where you are invited to create your own background image for your Google homepage. It announces:-<br><!-- Quote Snippit 1.0 (Edit the TEXT to what your quoting) --><br><div style="background:white; color:blue;">Google has more to offer when you sign in to your Google Account. You can customise pages, view recommendations and get more relevant search results.</div><br><!-- End Of BlogX Snippit --><br>All you have to do is:-<br><!-- Quote Snippit 1.0 (Edit the TEXT to what your quoting) --><br><div style="background:white; color:blue;">Sign in to personalise your Google experience. </div><br><!-- End Of BlogX Snippit --><br>Oh, I get it. If I do not like this new background image, I can put my own on there but only if I sign in.<br>As I write, the background image has changed. I suppose they have it set to refresh with a new image every so often.<br><p align="center"><img src="http://www.blogrant.co.uk//Images/Articles/Entry56_7639.jpg" style="border:none"width="40%"></p><br>I actually find this one distracting and it obscures what text thereis on the page. But it's okay - I can change it, if I let Google track my every movement.<br><br>I'm not opposed to sharing information that Google can use for marketing in return for an optional piece of functionality or an enhanced user experience. Not in principle, anyway.<br><br>But when it is forced on me like this, I don't like it.<br><br>==<br>Related article at the Guardian:-<br><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/oct/28/google-mobilephones?CMP=twt_gu" target="_New">http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2008/oct/28/google-mobilephones?CMP=twt_gu</a>... <a href="http://www.blogrant.co.uk/ViewItem.asp?Entry=55">Read More (2 Characters)</a> Sun, 9 May 2010 12:48 +0100 Computing%20and%20Internet http://www.blogrant.co.uk/ViewItem.asp?Entry=54 http://www.blogrant.co.uk/Comments.asp?Entry=54 <b>Open Source and Microsoft - never the twain</b>... <a href="http://www.blogrant.co.uk/ViewItem.asp?Entry=54">Read More (8921 Characters)</a> Wed, 7 Apr 2010 17:02 +0100 Computing%20and%20Internet http://www.blogrant.co.uk/ViewItem.asp?Entry=53 http://www.blogrant.co.uk/Comments.asp?Entry=53 Do you buy computers from Dell? I do. I have bought them for myself and for my friends, family and clients. Why do I do it? Because they are reputable and supply reasonably reliable machines and what you get for your money is pretty good value.<br><br>But I ha... <a href="http://www.blogrant.co.uk/ViewItem.asp?Entry=53">Read More (608 Characters)</a> Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:41 -0000 Computing%20and%20Internet http://www.blogrant.co.uk/ViewItem.asp?Entry=48 http://www.blogrant.co.uk/Comments.asp?Entry=48 I found a useful resource today, and I'd like to share it:-<br><br>I was (and still am) a big fan of Microsoft Photo Editor, which is a handy litle application that ships with Microsoft Office 2000. It enables you to do rudimentary editing of graphics files. I... <a href="http://www.blogrant.co.uk/ViewItem.asp?Entry=48">Read More (1913 Characters)</a> Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:07 -0000 Computing%20and%20Internet http://www.blogrant.co.uk/ViewItem.asp?Entry=43 http://www.blogrant.co.uk/Comments.asp?Entry=43 Here's a comment that I found on a post at SQL Server Central (http://www.sqlservercentral.com). This was one of the responses to an article on SQL Server, entitled: "Is It Worth Upgrading to SQL Server 2008" and it expressed my own feelings for me so succ... <a href="http://www.blogrant.co.uk/ViewItem.asp?Entry=43">Read More (519 Characters)</a>