As I mentioned before -Today, September 19th is International Talk like a Pirate Day.

Arr, there be a fine array of booty present today, from where I’m sitting.
Now, I just have to find meself a wench, and some loot.

Google doesn’t like Australians, or Britains, or New Zealanders, infact — they don’t like many other people.

What the heck am I on about? Well… Google have this rather annoying habit of releasing all sorts of cool functionality.

Like, say Google Talk, or more specificly Google Talk integration inside GMail. That wasn’t available for months after it was made available to people who had their settings on “English (US)” (as opposed to “English (UK)”)

Now they’re at it again - Google Personalised Homepage is great. I use it, so do a bunch of friends — but they’ve released a bunch of stuff on the US version, but none of the others have it (not even the Canadians).

It’s not just the neat new tabs they installed - it’s some other pretty major bits of functionality - like Quick Add for the Google Calendar module, and various other bits of cool.

C’mon Google - get your act into gear!

Edit: As Ian points out - We don’t have Froogle here in .au yet. Sjeez, it’s like a conspiracy.

Some information that might be helpful.

First, you’ll need to get a Work Visa - UK Visas is the place to go.

As for getting jobs - Ian gave me this bunch (thanks Ian)

The sites I use are:
- www.monster.com
- www.reed.co.uk
- www.hudson.com
- www.hays.co.uk

Also, for developers, the Joel on Software job board might be a good place to look too.

(Yes, I’m thinking about it…)

Updated 2006-09-16:
Changed video cards from the 1900GT to 1600Pro, it’s about $200 cheaper, and available now, instead of a 1-ish week delay.
Updated: 2006-09-15
OK, so we’re going out to get a new TV tonight — one of those 32″ LCD panels sounds good.
We got an LG 32LC2D 32″ LCD Panel. Very nice Also, ordered the bits for the new PC, and a new motherboard and videocard for the HTPC box.

Since we’re getting that… and I thought I should upgrade my home PC again (it’s been 18months, about the usual for me).

My current PC will become a Windows Media Centre box…

So, here’s my PC at the moment:

Kumi

• Athlon 64 3500+ (Single Core)
• Abit AV8-3rd Eye
• 2GB RAM (2x 1GB)
• 200GB SATA (Boot)
• 2x 160GB ATA/160 (RAID-Stripe)
• (ext) 320GB SATA (USB2)
• ATI Radeon 9600 XT
• Dell 2405 FPW - 24″ LCD Panel
• 1x DNTV Live! Pro
• Lian Li 1000B Case
• Lite-on 52x CDRW
• Lite-on 8x DVDRW

New PC Setup (final):

Shiika

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (Conroe)
• Abit AB9-Pro
• 2GB RAM (2x 1GB)
• 1x 320GB (SATA II)
• (ext) 320GB (USB2)
• 1x DNTV Live! Pro
• ATI Radeon 1600Pro
• Lite-On 16x DVDRW
• Lite-On 52X CDRW
• Lian Li 1000B+ Case
• Dell 2405FPW - 24″ LCD Panel
• (Running Windows Vista-32bit Ultimate - RC1+)

Kumi

• Athlon 64 3500+ (Single Core)
• Abit AV8-3rd Eye
• Foxconn Foxconn NF4K8AC-RS (PCI-e Motherboard)
• 2GB RAM (2x 1GB)
• 200GB SATA (Boot)
• 2x 160GB ATA/160 (RAID-Stripe)
• (ext) 320GB SATA (USB2)
• ATI Radeon 9600 XT
• GeCube Radeon X1300 256MB HDMI PCI-E x16 (Audio over HDMI capable)
• Dell 2405 FPW - 24″ LCD Panel
• 1x DNTV Live! Pro
• DNTV Live! Dual Hybrid PCI-Express
• Lian Li 1000B Case
• Lite-on 52x CDRW
• Lite-on 8x DVDRW
• Media Centre IR Remote, + IR Sender, IR Keyboard, etc.
• 802.11G PCI Card
• (Running Windows Media Centre 2005, initially - Vista-32bit Ultimate when it releases)

So, the new home network will look something like this:

Just learned about State of Play IV being held in Singapore next year (January) — Neal Stephenson is giving a talk.

I’ve got no idea what the conference is really about (It’s sponsored by a few Law schools) - but it sounds interesting.

Plus, Singapore is pretty close, and fairly cheap to get to for me.

I think I’d like to go…

Someone (I forget who) linked to XKCD - a Comic drawn by … someone.

It’s a mix of funny, serious*, funny, serious-funny, funny, and deep - not to mention a healthy dose of making jokes at others expense.

Oh, and don’t forget the Velociraptor house assessment - Funnily enough, I do this at random points… if I leave my bedroom window open at night for example.

Considering what to get next:
* Camera Gear
- Sto-Fen Omnibounce Diffuser for my 430EX Flash
- Dedicated TTL Off Camera Shoe Cord
- Light Tent
- 5-in-1 Reflector

About

* PC Upgrade
Because of a bunch of coinciding component ugprades, I can’t upgrade without replacing a bunch of things (RAM and Videocard are the two main things - but a PSU is there too)
- Intel Core 2 Duo CPU (currently the top-of-the-line desktop CPU atm)
- 2GB RAM
- 320GB HDD (or more)
- New Video Card (Dual DVI-D and HDCP support, thanks — this card will last 2-3 upgrades, and I’ll probably get a HDCP monitor some time in the future)
- Additional HDTV Tuner. (SBS Movies rock, and I want to record them all)

All up - about $2,300.

I need to get some IDE->SATA adaptors so I can take the bunch of IDE drives and plug them into the SATA controller.

This is my last post on TV stuff for the moment… honest

Marking Time is on again on the ABC. It’s a 2-part Miniseries written by John Doyle (although you might know him better as Roy Slaven, from the comedy/sporting duo Roy & H.G), who also wrote Changi.

For local interest, it’s been filmed in and around Singleton.

Marking Time, Part 2 is on ABC TV (and HDTV) this Saturday, September 16th 10:10PM. (Right after Rockwiz on SBS) Also available on DVD.

Someone recommended Weeds to me. I guess there’s no chance of it being shown on TV here.

Oh — and Spooks, Season 5 is starting in just a week or so! (Can’t wait!).

For any Americans, you should be watching the Battlestar Galactica Webisodes as they come out.

For the rest of us, we’ll just have to suffice with the Season 3 cast photos.

Get your fix of the Cylon hotties now.

And lets not forget the human hotties Starbuck, or Dualla either.

Before you ask, no, it’s not a porn film — it’s a movie I saw on SBS (no, not even SBS style soft-core porn).

It’s filmed in Munich, and is in German. Very very funny — It’s basicly a film about three girls (college students) searching for an apartment, and how each searches in their own way.
It’s kinda cool recognising all the different places they go in Munich.

Check it out - Girls on Top 2 or Mädchen, Mädchen 2 - Loft oder Liebe. (Literally: “Girl, Girl 2 - Loft of Love” — yeah, sounds like a porn film title)

(I’ve gotta go dig up a copy of the first film now…)