Andrew J Dunlop

If Microsoft succeed in taking over Yahoo! I am mostly not bothered as there are alternatives to most of Yahoo!’s services. The thing that worries me (not in a loosing sleep way, mind) is that Flickr will be destroyed. Microsoft don’t want to take over Yahoo! just to have another company in their portfolio, they will want to integrate its services with theirs and probably re brand them all. At the minute Flickr is a very well laid out site and quite minimalistic despite the large array of features it has.In this regard it is still very different looking to Yahoo!’s other sites. Now add Microsoft’s style of site to this and you have a mess, even worse if they go down the MSN branding route. Another problem is that the MSN sites and MSN messenger carry adverts, whose to say that Microsoft will just be happy to make a small amount of money they make on the Flickr pro accounts and leave it at that rather than plastering it will ads to make a bit more. I hope Microsoft loose this battle but failing that, that they think carefully before making any changes to the services they acquire.

[The mock up Microsoft Flickr logo is courtesy of dr_lopbot]

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Oh dear, Wikipedia Article on Dublin Riots
Who ever thought alowing this march would be a good idea?

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Finally he has made a good decsion. Scrap the rebate and stop being so selfish.

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Nuclear Power is a hard subject. On the plus side it doesn’t create carbon dioxide and is extremely efficient. On the other side of the argument their is the safety concerns (although I think there would be so many things in place to make sure it is safe) and the fact that the waste is impossible to dispose of and has to be stored up in the hope that no one will dig it up. The positives are for our short term benefits but the waste will be around of the long term. Should we be concentrating more on trying to cut back on the amount of energy that we waste away in our greedy western way?

Greenpeace did this protest because they knew that Tony Blair would probably be announcing a Nuclear plan for the UK. And we all know that when Tony announces something he will stick to it no matter what even if its obvious that he is losing. Maybe Greenpeace just realised that the state of the economy and amount of money in our pockets is more important to society and the Government than the environment and so had no other way of getting attention. Who can blame them and others who have to resort to the same kind of tactics (e.g. Fathers For Justice).

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Was getting up from watching TV last night to go to bed when all this shouting was going on outside. I quickly established that it was a drunk English yob (he had all the tell tale signs, was talking very loudly, had a near skinhead, wore an England football top). He was shouting at someone who was obviously not of British origin, blaming them for the London bombings. He was really laying into him saying it was his communities fault and he should do something about it. I was starting to get worried that he was going to get violent or that the other guy would get pissed off and hit the Englishman. I stood and listened for a while just so if things got out of hand I could call the police or something. Thankfully the guy settled down, probably partly due to the other guys mates appearing. They then went on to talk about other rubbish as if they were mates. It just really annoys me when people think that turning on people who are different is going to some how help things. I’m sure that part of the reason behind extremism is when they are discriminated against. So standing and blaming someone at random for the London bombings in a Rusholme street is really helpful. I would just like to congratulate our drunken friend for making me embarrassed to live in this country.

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I am impressed at how well London has recovered from the Bombings yesterday. Normaly when somethings strange happens Brits go a bit mad and end up in a state of confusion. But not this time.

Serbia post coming soon…

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