Ohw the Excitement =P

Right, I tis now officially ready for my splorer groups 4 day trip to the fringe festival(I'm gonna have to get up 6.30am-ish ='[ ). I can say this because as of five minutes ago I finished packing, and I be just a lil bit excited for tomorrow =D.

 ^^^ The packed stuff :).

 ^^^ The explanation of the packed stuff :) - I generally have a habit of over packing, and other than the kilt hidden away in there I think I've been pretty good this time :P.

 ^^^ Above, on top of the readers questions page's of PC FORMAT(cos I'm just that cool =P), is the my favorite hat of epicness that has unfortunately been damaged during packing =( (Ahwwwwww). As you can see the funny fluffy bobbly bit has managed to detach itself from the rest of the hat, rendering it utterly useless as now I look a bit like a cruise missile when wearing said hat. So that be the only slight downside of this evening. Tomorrow morning I'm(or rather after several hours of me begging tonight, my mother is) going to attempt to sow the bobbly bit back on^_= (YEYYYYY!!!!!). Failing that I guess the hat will become redundant, or may look good on a gnome.

So back to the Edinburgh thingidoodle. Me tis currently bouncing off the walls of my room in sheer anticipation. I wish tomorrow morning would come more quickly and hopefully I'll actually be able to grab some sleep between now and then(unlikely as it is).

On a random side note, another of my friends has just set up a blog, if your into sarcasm you'll love it. So go check it out at; http://drunkofftea.blogspot.com

Kokies I'm now off to avoid sleep, but before I go I just want to warn ya all that the next post probably won't be till Monday at the earliest(although I may make a tiny one tomorrow morning). So yeah have a good one until the kiddos :)

Weekly News Blast I - Apple, where did it all go so good?

A Brief(and if your lucky informative) Intro; 

If anyone has been paying attention to the tech headlines in the last couple weeks they'll have noticed that some rather big things have been going down. These events have drastically changed the face of the Technology industry as we, and most tech companies, know it. While seemingly unconnected these events do have one root cause and that cause is Apple. The company that in 1996 was on the verge of bankruptcy has been looking stronger than ever as of late and after the last fortnight is beginning to look ever so slightly stronger than god him(or her)self.

The Story;

So lets take a look at the events of the last two weeks;

Wednesday Aug 10th - In a barely published IP suit in a German court Apple wins a temporary injunction to ban sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab(the iPad's largest rival) across the EU(excluding the Netherlands), claiming that Samsung had "slavishly copied the technology of both the iPad and the iPhone." The Australian release of the device is also held back due to a similar suit.
Incidentally Apple surpasses Exxon Mobil to become the worlds most valuable company, and for the first time manages to hold the spot.

Monday Aug 15th - The first big splash was caused when Google sealed a deal to effectively swallow(read as buy if you wish a more accurate term) Motorola Mobility(the half of Motorola that designing and manufactures mobile phones) for £7.7billion ($12.1bn).

Thursday Aug 18th - HP, the company credited with laying the foundations of Silicon Vally and the largest manufacturers of PC's in the world, announced plans to stop making PCs, tablets and phones, in order to refocus on software. To this HP added that not only is it considering selling it's entire 'Personal Systems Group'(This includes its PC manufacturing devision) but it is also discontinuing the WebOS platform, and with it all WebOS devices. This includes the HP Touchpad which was released after a huge PR campaign a mere two months ago. On top of all this HP also secured a deal to buy Autonomy(a British software company) for £7.1bn($11.7bn) which is roughly 164% of the companies market value.

24 August 2011 - With a second, also less that brilliantly publicized, IP suit, this time in a Netherlands court,  Apple wins an injunction that in seven weeks time will prevent Samsung from selling and distributing the Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy S II and Galaxy Ace mobile phones in most EU countries(including the Netherlands this time).


So what does this all mean for Apple? 

What it basically means is that without really doing much Apple has had a very very very good two weeks.

Even though the Google takeover move of Motorola Mobility  puts Google in a stronger position to compete with Apple it was still a defensive move. A move that in hindsight is unlikely to allow Google to create the same design-manufacture-retail operation that Apple currently practices and with Google's stock value dropping by 10% since the announcement it would appear investors see it this way as well.

With HP's announcement less than a week ago Apple has managed to make one of the once great hardware giants drop to its knees and beg for mercy. By closing down it's gigantic(but only a little bit profitable) PC manufacturing division HP is not only agreeing with, but also acting on the prediction of Steve Jobs 18 months ago, that was that the iPad was "part of a revolution that would take us beyond the PC".

The final bit of good news for Apple is that HP's discontinuing of the Touchpad, and all other WebOS devices, only a few months after its launch combined with Apples continued victories in the IP courts against Samsung(and other manufacturers) could quite possibly devastate consumer confidence in non-Apple tablets. Think about it this way if the HP Touchpad, a tablet produced by one of the most reputable hardware companies ever, can go down in flames only a few weeks after launch, and the only true rival to the iPad has been shown to be merely an equally priced copy then who would really want to invest their hard earned cash in an iPad alternative?


My thoughts on the matter, and the point of this whole thingy;

As much as I do love Apple, and believe me I do love Apple <3, it is in my oppinion possibly becoming way to successful for the good of the consumer. It's getting to that point that Apple is beginning to develop a monopoly that seriously threatens continued development in the home tech industry. After all if there are no companies left with the resources to produce products that are serious rivals to Apple products then there is no real reason for Apple to continue to develop it's products at such a fast rate. Which ultimately is bad for us as consumers as not only will we have less choice when buying our shiny electronic gadgets, but we may end up having to fork out more cash for them(if there is no real competition then competitive pricing goes buy buy), and then still receive a product that could have been so much better but isn't as there was no need for it to be.

So I'm hoping, and so I believe are a lot of others, that Apple might actually suffer a set back(god forbid) during Samsung's EU Galaxy Tab injunction appeal. Before we all become victims of Apples success.

                                                                                                                                      
Hiya again people, this was the first in my new 'Weekly News Blast' in which I plan on covering a sometimes obscure, occasionally random or possibly major piece of news that occurred during the previous week. I hope you all enjoyed this first attempt.
                                                                                                                                      

Your thoughts on the whole affair :P; 

I'd love to hear your views on the topic so please by all means post them in a comment, and lets see what the world thinks about Apples continued success.

We're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Edinburgh?!?!?!

Woo, tis only three days till I'm off to Edinburgh with my explorer group to go to the last bit of the fringe =D. I honestly can't wait, it's a bi-annual tradition of ours and I've been present for the last two trips, which other than too of the guys that are tagging along means that I've also been more times than any of the other current splorers(the shortened and vaguely 'cooler' name that me and a few friends use), which is always good for bragging rights :).

Anyways back to the actual trip stuff, we basically stay on the grounds of the Beil Estate from Friday till Monday.The trip this year is gonna be scheduled kinda like this;
Fri - Travel to Beil, set up camp and then go to Berwick for the afternoon, before returning to camp for lots of fire and stories.
Sat - We'll actually have to get up earlyish today as we be off to Edinburgh(about 10mins by train) for the day. This is easily the best bit of the whole trip, we normally split into groups and go splore the street performers, markets and shops, then we'll meet up for lunch and afterwards go out and get back to sploring the city :).
Sun - Today still requires quite an early rise, in previous years it hasn't but this time we're planning on spending the morning in an Air museum (this part will be either amazing or horrid methinks), then we are off to the beach and swimming baths at Dunbar, after which we will have our bellys filled with fish and chips from the local chippy(this bit is always a highlight lol).
Mon - We get a lye-in today, which is always a bonus. Once where up we'll probably spend the rest of the day messing around on site, until finally we have to pack up and jump in the minibus that'll take us home(this is always a sad bit).

This trip is generally one of the more amazing ones we do as splorers, and like all camps we go on has its own traditions and provides us with plenty of epic storys. These I will unpdate ya all on when I get back, but in the meantime expect another post tomorrow, assuming I can be arsed. ^.^

Smith Out...

In the Beginning...

I created the blog. The blog was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of Me was hovering over the face of the waters of cyberspace.

And I said 'Let there be a Title', and there was a Title. It was 'Me, Myself and Some Random Guy' and I saw that the Title was good. So I separated the Title from the darkness of cyberspace. I called the Title 'the Title' and the darkness I called 'the Internet'. And there was clicking and there was loading, the first hour.

And I said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." And I made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And I called the expanse the 'Editing Suite'.  And there was clicking and there was loading, the second hour.

And I said, "Let the waters under the 'Editing Suite' be gathered together into one place, and let the 'Gadgets' appear." And it was so. I called the 'Gadgets' 'Followers and About Me', and the waters that were gathered together I called 'the Background'. And I saw that it was good.   And there was clicking and there was loading, the third hour.

And I said, "Let there be a second expanse appear over the Background, and let information be stored in this expanse in chronological order". And it was so. And I called the expanse 'the Blog Space' and in it future posts where to reside. And I saw that this second expanse was good.   And there was clicking and there was loading, the forth hour.


Finally I said, "Let a post be written to fill the 'Blog Space' and entertain any readers of this blog". And it was so. And I named this post 'In the Beginning...' and it was a rewritten version of the book of Genesis. And it was good.   And there was clicking and there was loading, the fifth and final hour.

                                                                                                                                      

Hiya people, I hope you all liked my opening, I kinda wanted to do something slightly different and there ^^^ it is :). Just as a side note this blog didn't actualy take me five whole hours, but the rewriting of Genesis while trying to maintain all of the grammatical horrors of Bible English did take an hour or so :'(. But I've come through it a better man, well I think anyways :P.

Ko, this blog is hopefully going to become a sort of Diary, a document of the main experiences I will have over the next portion of my life. Well thats the plan anyhows. What will probably happen is this blog will actually just  end up being a random assortment of achievements, experiences, stories and possibly sugerinduced hypernesss. Which will probably make for more interesting reading anyways.

Right, I hope you all enjoy reading this, and an update is on its way, I promise. =P Ow and before I close this post, one of my best friends has a much more complete blog going atm, so if you want some interesting reading I suggest you go to; http://logicalcomprehension.blogspot.com I guarantee you'll love it :) See ya all soon ^_^