Those of us who are used to the nightmare of upgrading and installing software on Windows will relate to Bill Gates 2003 experience when he tried to download and install Moviemaker:

I decided to download (Moviemaker) and buy the Digital Plus pack … so I went to Microsoft.com. They have a download place so I went there.

The first 5 times I used the site it timed out while trying to bring up the download page. Then after an 8 second delay I got it to come up.

This site is so slow it is unusable.

It wasn’t in the top 5 so I expanded the other 45.

These 45 names are totally confusing. These names make stuff like: C:\Documents and Settings\billg\My Documents\My Pictures seem clear.

They are not filtered by the system … and so many of the things are strange.

It goes on and on….

[Uploaded on August 31, 2007 by nobihaya]

The Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen spilled the beans over progress made on getting Flash working on the iphone yesterday:

MACMILLAN: And then just to follow-up was on the Apple iPhone 3G — any update on Flash support within that device? Thanks.

NARAYEN: With respect to the iPhone, we are working on it. We have a version that’s working on the emulation. This is still on the computer and you know, we have to continue to move it from a test environment onto the device and continue to make it work. So we are pleased with the internal progress that we’ve made to date.

The exchange was made during an earnings release conference call on Tuesday. It is no surprise that progress has been made given the fact that mobile safari is built on exactly the same framework as the full blown Safari.

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[Uploaded on November 28, 2006 by Fleur-Design]

Lotus Cars has won two green projects from the UK Government Technology Strategy Board.

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[Uploaded on April 7, 2008 by Knitter Gal]

Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain have conducted an extensive study into the health effects of coffee drinking and have concluded that there is no relationship between cancer and coffee drinking and in some circumstances lowered the risk of heart disease.

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[Uploaded on March 17, 2008 by Carlo Alberto Della Siega]

A club to celebrate the love child between Steve Ballmer and Robbie the Robot, otherwise known as the Zune player has opened in downtown LA:

Zune L.A., formerly photographer Greg Gorman’s studio, serves as an office for a handful of the Microsoft music player’s employees during the day, but, after dark at events such as last month’s opening soiree, the tri-level space offers the company the opportunity to court L.A.’s tastemakers.

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If you are considering a Hummer…, originally uploaded by cSc - formerly Paint with light.

As part of the downsizing announcement this week, General Motors stated that they intend to do a “strategic review” of the Hummer Brand. A strategic review of course means selling the brand because like Ford, they have no money to invest in marginal niche products.

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For one otherwise entirely ordinary Auckland day each year, all Aucklanders are asked to capture a moment in their Auckland, in whatever way it manifests itself to them through a camera lens.

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Kabul Hillside [via flickr]

Kabul is definitely not a place that springs to mind when we build a list of places that we need to see before we depart this world, but if not for the challenges the Afghanis face, it should be:

Kabul is situated on a mountain plain and can be stifling hot during the day, then freezing at night. As the sun begins to set, the temperature drops noticeably and I suggest to Girish we return to the guest house. I’m getting cold and the prospect of walking home in the dark isn’t helping my nerves. At dusk the smog seems to intensify, bathing the streets and the city in an eerie light. The mountains surrounding Kabul act as a trap for dust and pollution, and with diesel generators providing most of the city’s power, don’t come here expecting clean mountain air.

You can read more about one Kiwi’s Photographic adventure in this week’s Sunday Startimes.

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Colin Murdoch, 79, the creator of the disposable syringe, the tranquilliser gun, the childproof bottle cap and the silent burglar alarm died on Sunday after a long battle with cancer.

He was a pharmaceutical and veterinary chemist as well as an inventor. Working late at night at the kitchen table or in his workshop, Murdoch became a self-taught engineer and patented 46 inventions, the Timaru Herald reported.

His most famous and influential invention for the well-being of humankind was the disposable syringe which he developed more than 50 years ago, amid concerns about cross infection between patients.

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