Micky’s Neighborhood

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Screenshots

See also

• http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/DOS_BootDisk
  
• http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Livecd
• http://git.cgsecurity.org/cgit/testdisk/

It's almost Christmas, so I thought I'd compile a list of holiday music to get people in the mood. Hope I'm not too late with it - it's just what's been lying on my computer in that hardly used folder "Xmas music". :)

WYSIWYG
That's right, there is such a section actually, on which one doesn't need to waste too many words, because you get exactly what you'd expect when you look at the covers and the artists. But, they're good background music, nevertheless, while preparing the meal or doing those last minute changes to the Christmas tree.

...Snowed In by Hanson (1997), Merry Christmas by Mariah Carey (1994), A Winter Symphony by Sarah Brightman (2008), If On A Winter's Night... by Sting (2009), Midwinter Graces by Tori Amos (2009), and One Wish - The Holiday Album by Whitney Houston (2003). And be honest, ppl, you all can at least hum those songs. :)

Oldies / goodies

First it's the living legend Etta James here with 12 Songs Of Christmas (1998); and then another, sadly gone legend, Frank Sinatra: his 2008 compilation album, Nothing But The Best, comes in a special Christmas Edition as well, which contains a 2nd disc with 12 classic Christmas songs, also featuring Bing Crosby, Fred Waring, and The Pennsylvanians. As for Céline, I wouldn't call her actually old, but these French-language albums were released long before she even entered the international stage, and so Céline Dion Chante Noël and Chants Et Contes De Noël (1981 and 1983 respectively) are quite interesting to listen to. And we have another multi-talent, The Divine Miss M, or simply Bette Midler: and though 2006's Cool Yule contains mostly classics, I have to ask: have you ever been wished Merry Christmas in Hawaiian? :)

Misc

A Very Special Christmas (1987)

A compilation album, that actually marked the start of a series, A Very Special Christmas from 1987 features among others: Winter Wonderland by Eurythmics, Do You Hear What I Hear? by Whitney Houston, Gabriel's Message by Sting, Christmas in Hollis by Run-D.M.C., Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) by U2, Santa Baby by Madonna, and Back Door Santa by Bon Jovi. Think it's good to have, if you can find it somewhere. ;)

Now Christmas 4 Canadian Edition is a must-have: a compilation and it's new too, having

Now Christmas 4 Canadian Edition

been released this year. It contains tracks like Let It Snow by Diana Krall, Joy To The World by Faith Hill, Christmas Tree by Lady GaGa (unbelievably silly that'll make you at least grin from start to end :D), Santa Baby by Kylie Minogue (a b-side to Please Stay), Christmas Wrapping by Spice Girls (b-side to Goodbye, but only recorded with Mel C and Emma, Vicki and Mel B having been quite pregnant at the time; originally it was committed by the new wave formation The Waitresses). So, it's absolutely recommended.

Richard Clayderman - Silent Nights

Only the diehard fans are aware that the ex-Nightwish star, Tarja Turunen's first solo album

Tarja - Henkäys Ikuisuudesta

Single songs
I've a few tracks that sit barely in a "misc" folder, but they're just as good as the albums themselves. Let's see...

Aqua - Greatest Hits

Next batch is quite mixed. There's I Met An Angel (On Christmas Day), b-side to Céline's single That's The Way It Is, from 1999. A favorite of mine, Declan Galbraith, hasn't really done anything traditionally holiday-y, but Walking In The Air from his '02 debut album can definitely be listed here, as well as the explicitly "Christmas Bonus" Guardian Angel from his '07 latest, You And Me. And something silly again, I guess Love Actually has been a movie you couldn't miss (especially around this time of the year) - Billy Mack (actually Bill Nighy ;))'s cheesy Christmas Is All Around just have to be in the collection because it's so bad it makes it awesome. :D

Gackt
Put him in a separate section, because of several reasons. One being he's one of my absolute favorites, one of the two favorites I don't only love and admire but actually deeply respect and worship too - of all those I like, I only call two people Artists, Gackt being one of them. Another reason is that the song I'm strongly suggesting here has been a phenomenal hit in Japan (where Christmas traditionally doesn't even exist, mind you!), first released in 2001, and then released again in 2002, 2003, 2004, and as a box set, last time in 2005 as well: spawned several different versions, with featured artists and without them, in Japanese, in Korean, in Chinese (Mandarin), and even in English.

Gackt - 12gatsuno Love song

If you're only grabbing one Christmas song this year, make it be 12gatsuno Love song (12月のLove song, for you Japanese-minded out there; or December Love song for the English ones). It's extremely good in setting the mood, and though being a love song as well as a holiday one, it's far from being cheesy or cliché'd - Gackt IS simply that good. In all the years I've been single, I couldn't help but hate all love ballads; I'm not particularly fond of Christmas either because of all the stress thanks to family; and yet, I have to listen to this one at least twice every year at Christmas time, and I just find it beautiful. Go and hunt it down. Please. You'll do yourself a favor.

If you've been using social networking (and/or microblogging) service Twitter for more than a day you'll have no doubt been bombarded with followers that don't seem quite on the up-and-up.  You are right to be suspicious, and I'll tell you why...

Some Twitter users are, in actual fact, emotionless killing machines sent back in time from the year 2012 (when the catastrophe that is London hosting the Olympics triggers a series of unfortunate events foretold by Jim Carrey in a film 8 years previously).  Until that time they are relatively harmless but they do pose a great annoyance.

So, here's a simple five-step way to tell:

1. The person has a number at the end of their name
2. The username and name-name seem kinda at odds (this is a bad example, sorry!)
3. Their web link is a TinyURL (or some other URL shortening thingy-ma-bob)
4. They're following over a 100x more people than they have following back
5. They've tweeted a big fat ZERO (or thereabouts)
6. Oh yes, here's number six of my '5 Signs Your Follower Isn't Human'... They can't be arsed to upload an avatar
   

Friend or Foe - Five simple signs...

If you're in the UK and have either opened a paper or watched the TV news today (December 22nd) you'll have seen a shedload snowload of reports about my hometown.  See, we were - apparently - the worst hit by the wintry weather yesterday and through the night.

The worst hit places were the town centre, the ring road and the major roads feeding it.  I wasn't in any of those places but I did happen to stumble upon a car that had crashed after it had (obviously) lost control on a downhill bend.  The driver managed to take out a signpost, a few tree branches and a family friend's hedge.

Of course, whenever I see anything even remotely interesting, I whip out a camera phone - in this case my Samsung i8910.  Despite it being able to record in high definition, it's not much use in the dark - as you can see...

And here's some pictures (again, taken with the i8910)

The Hills Have Ice

Signs of Struggle

Park and Hide

A Washington DC cop didn't see the funny side when folk started pelting his unmarked car with snowballs.  The crowd of grownups had chosen his vehicle 'cos it was a Hummer.  Well, he wiped the smiles off their faces (temporarily) when he exited the vee-here-call and drew his gun.

You don't bring guns to a snowball fight

Here's where things turn from strange to stranger - the crowd started throwing snowballs again whilst chanting 'You don't bring guns to a snowball fight'.  Here, watch the video (from Reason.tv)...

According to today's News of the World, Fergie could soon be selling copies of family heirlooms on shopping channel QVC.  The Duchess of York, not to be confused with this Fergie, that Fergie or the other Fergie - and certainly not Feagal Sharkey, is hoping to launch a range of crap - including biscuit tins - to be sold direct to sofa-constrained shoppers.

Royalty Value & Convenience

Diamonique to Duchess: What Fergie could look like on QVC

I've come across some more weird and wonderful gift ideas in the past week or so.  The following two aren't wonderful in the least, just weird...

It's not how I roll

Scare any remaining friends you have left with this!

I love StatCounter.  It truly is the 21st Century's greatest invention.  Oh, okay, maybe not the greatest - but it's got to be right up there, hasn't it?  I mean, if it wasn't for StatCounter I'd be blissfully unaware that anyone ever bothered to read this humble web log of mine.  I'd also not know that US Department of Defence (sorry, Defense) has a keen interest in Playmobile and/or Roman Coliseums...

Hey Sam

Doing a routine check to see who had dropped by I noticed the above and was, quite frankly, a tad concerned.  Oh my God, what have I said (without thinking) now?  Am I in a spot of bother?  As it turns out I think I'm in the clear.  Phew!  Didn't want to be stopped from entering the country in future.  'Sam' just has an interest in toys, and I guess, Sony Ericsson phones...

Dodig. I dig. We all dig

DoD + Playmobil = War games?

BTW, FWIW USAISC stands for United States Army Information Systems Command.  Are they trying to learn a thing or two from the Romans?  And if they are, would that be a good thing or not?  Hmm...

I won't pretend that I know all about the technology behind LTE - that would be a disservice to my readers (all five of you..)  But, from what I gather it's where the mobile interweb is headed and it knocks spots off of what we have at the moment.  Whether it lives up to its promises, who knows.  I just wish I lived in Slough right now (yes, I know - be careful what you wish for and all that).

Phone manufacturer Huawei, probably best known for their dongles, joined forces with Telefonica's O2 to run trials of '4G' in the mobile network's home town sometime this year.  When exactly, who knows?  Anyway, lucky punters were able to reach mobile broadband speeds I can only dream of getting through my home ADSL.

According to Broadband Genie, Huawei's VP for western Europe claimed LTE would be able to handle up to 20 times as much data as current 3G networks.  It's all down to how the tech behind it uses bandwidth more efficiently, I'm led to believe.

When will see a consumer rollout?  Who knows, but I'd put money on LTE offering me super-fast speeds years before BT Openreach or Virgin Media get 'round to hooking me up.

Yesterday in London, UK Google launched a massive advertising campaign for the Google Chromium Chrome floss free libre open open-source browser project !

Chromium aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all users to experience the web. The Chromium site contains design documents, architecture overviews, testing information, and more to help you learn to build and work with the Chromium source code.

STOP PRESS and now on the front page of The Stylist and The Shortlist too !