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What are you looking forward to this year? Me, I’m going to happily accept the free broadband speed upgrade that Virgin Media will give me over the next months. I will see if I can get an Asus Transformer Prime tablet. I’m hoping to see Forza Motorsport 4 in the pre-owned rack. But that is this year. Skip on many years. How about a Star Trek style tricorder? The Qualcomm Tricorder X PRIZE is a $10 million global competition to stimulate innovation and integration of precision diagnostic technologies, making reliable health diagnoses available directly to “health consumers” in their homes. I’ve got no ideas to put forward but it would be a really cool thing to have. Xprize was behind a few things that happened or are happening soon so someone will be working on it.

Originally posted by me on PC-Forum blog.

Yesterday I mixed up chocolate truffle stuff and today (yes they were supposed to be in the fridge for a good while) I fashioned these and dusted them with cocoa powder. Incredibly fattening but if eaten sparingly they won’t be too bad, I hope. Click the picture to see them a little bigger as I have to admit the small shot here does look a mess. I could have coated with chocolate but that might be a step too far, as well as requiring more effort on my part.

The time filling distraction is Bubble Spinner. I don’t do well usually. It is just something to stave off boredom. Today I was playing and hadn’t noticed how far I had got. I wasn’t concentrating. This is obviously the tactic I need to adopt as I managed 24,454 and level 13. It was a surprise when the game ended and I saw the score and lucky I took the time to take the screenshot. I expect I will be back to my usual scores of tens to hundreds again, but for today – yay me.

Those of you who pay attention and have a good memory – not those at the back of the class – will remember that one of the things that really ticked me off with my Dell laptop was the paltry 3GB of RAM they put in it. But I won’t start off on that again. So what to do? Buy more, of course. I could throw out the two modules and buy a total of 8GB, or for half the price, throw out the 1GB module and replace that with 4GB. So a total of 6GB. That seemed like a plan and one I went with. Next week I hope to get the update and do the deed. Will I notice any performance increase? Maybe. It isn’t as if I put big demands on this laptop. Just now and again. It is a shame I can’t upgrade myself so easily or cheaply.

I remember when my kids went off to school and came home with some infection that another kind child had shared because their parents did not want to keep them at home as they had to go to work. Or me going to the office where someone who thought they were indispensible had dragged themselves in to spray sneezes over the rest of the lesser mortals. Ah yes, the common cold virus being the major culprit in both cases. I had a visit from one of my kids and while they were here, they passed on a virus or two. Normally I shrug colds off quite well but this one has taken and provided me with the full range of symptoms. Needless to say that I do not appreciate trying to sleep with an alternating blocked and runny nose. The last few nights have been restless but I’ll survive, or so I hope. It should be waning soon. I stole the picture from the BBC site so I hope they don’t mind as I give them credit.

QR codes. I have seen them all over the place but had never got round to trying one out. So what better thing for a person to do than to make their own and see if it works. So here is one I prepared earlier, pointing to here. Not very exciting maybe, but a step for me in the right direction. I now have a reader app on my smartphone so might actually scan a few while out and about. Never too old …

Talking teeth here. So far I have had four extracted because they had been filled so much they just couldn’t hang on any longer. Another tooth lost a piece last week but luckily the dentist was able to see me today and patched it up. I don’t know whether this will last but I certainly hope so. He said it would harden within two minutes but I’m sure the patch has changed shape a little. But what do I know? I know I need my teeth, that’s what. It is a shame that when young, my siblings and I were encouraged to scrub hard with a stiff brush. I’m sure it was well intentioned advice but did damage my gums. Too late now so just look after what remains.

I’ve been up since 5. Outside has gone from dark to glum, but I’d rather be in Wales than anywhere else, so I am not complaining. No, I didn’t wet the bed. I rose from my slumber and went to Tesco to raid the freshly stocked shelves before the great unwashed pile in and make the place look untidy. Only kidding. Or am I? About four weeks until the shortest day so it will start getting lighter. Probably still glum, though. The picture is of my garden. I took it just for this post. I know it looks a bit unkempt but the wildlife prefers it that way and I like to watch it living wild out there, so we need that state to continue.

Yes, I went and did it. My new mobile contract is on Tesco mobile and the handset is a 32MB iPhone 4. Many of you will have heard me say “I won’t buy an Apple this or that” but never say never, and I know I’m not the only person to give in. Why? Well the top Android ‘phones from the likes of Samsung and HTC have shocking battery life. The new Windows OS is young and based on Win7 which is not the best underlying code and then there are the others. So out of the lot I decided they were all evil to some extent. Since Jobs won’t get my money then it doesn’t seem so dirty. But do not think this is the start of a conversion. I know I will hate Windows 8 with it’s ugly tiles but I’m not sure even that will drive me to Apple. Maybe an Asus Transformer or similar gadget when I need something. I don’t need anything yet. Time will tell.

Today I bought a second hand copy of Forza Motorsport 3 for XBox 360. I just had a hankering for a race game. I won’t pay full whack for the new, recently releases version and I don’t want the older versions as they are not much cheaper. I have started at the “easy” level which gives me advantages and indeed so far I have won every race. Forcing my way through the pack from the back can be fun even though I lose a bumper or so. I don’t think the other drivers will be so compliant in this and driving off at speed to let me pass when I get to the harder levels but as I am new to this, I’ll take all the help I can get. It will also allow me to get used to the controller and feel of things. Cracking fun and worth the £. It certainly fills the hours as it has the “oh just one more race” factor.