lewisroberts.com

BBC SPORT | Motorsport | Formula 1 | Schumacher makes shock F1 return.

Wow… I hope Felipe recovers completely and makes a return to F1 soon but this is some hot news! Schumacher is making a return to Formula 1 (assuming all goes well with a physical of course)

Should make for an interesting European GP in a couple of weeks.

-Lewis

BBC – Earth News – People steal meat from wild lions.

You’re ‘avin a giraffe mate!?

Lazy bastards! We’re at the top of the food chain, surely we (humans) can catch and kill an antelope!?

-Lewis

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Obama regrets ’stupid’ comments.

Quick, let’s jump on Barack for having an opinion/feelings!

Perhaps given his position he isn’t allowed to express an opinion or feeling just in case he hurts someone’s feelings? Well boo hoo. The cop should have applied a few braincells and looked at a few photographs dotted around the home before demanding the Prof’s ID. I assume that’s exactly why Barack called it “stupid” – which it was.

Barack, you keep being human mate. Ignore the “critics” – unsurprisingly that’s what their job is – to criticise.

-Lewis

PC Pro: News: Microsoft finishes Windows 7.

Looks like Microsoft’s Windows 7 development team have handed over the code for the new version of their operating system to manufacturers and OEMs.

I was so impressed with the release candidate that I’ve already bought my copy!

-Lewis

Take a look at this screenshot of Nokia’s Dialler on the N97. See anything missing? Yes, 10 out of 10, letters. you know, a, b, c etc etc.

Now normally, when you’re dialling a phone number, that isn’t a huge issue but if you live in America where they say things like “Dial 1-800 GOFORIT to get your new 6-pack ab cruncher system!” Or like in the UK where you have to deal with endless Interactive Voice Response systems that ask you to type in a letter from a password you set up when you were twelve, it makes life a little difficult when you’ve got no freakin’ letters on the dialler!

That’s not to say that Nokia don’t have it available on the system as per this screenshot.

Nokia, my friends, put the letters back on the dialler when you’re in a phone call – pretty please? Guessing just isn’t working for me.

-Lewis

Store

It won’t be a particularly extensive review, suffice to say that the Ovi store needs a hell of a lot of work before it can even be considered competition for Apple’s App Store.

The bad news for Nokia is that they encouraged the development and distribution of applications for the S60 platform but ignored any requirement (except the Symbian Signed certification process) to maintain control or any library of applications that became available for their devices. The resulting plethora of websites providing a better distribution platform and a bigger number of applications for the S60 platform than Ovi Store will make it nigh on impossible for Nokia to regain control and be the first point of call for applications on the S60 platform.

As a result of the lack of planning around application distribution on the S60 platform and the unmitigated success of Apple’s App Store, Nokia introduced the Ovi store in a rush, and it shows. They’re clearly aiming for a slice of Apple’s success but until they get the Ovi store past the current (in my opinion) Alpha stages of development, they’re not going to get much of it.

(more…)

Just browsing my RSS feed and wondered who they heck the BBC were batting on about so I thought I’d take a quick look at the article on BBC News then spotted the picture’s title. They produce the program but can’t even get the title correct. Hilarious.

-Lewis

Oof, looks like the rush to get hold of Windows 7 from Microsoft has killed their online store. A visit to the store yields an apologetic welcome:

Dear Customer,
Thank you for visiting the Microsoft Store.

Due to the eagerly anticipated Windows 7 pre-order offer we’re experiencing a higher level of demand on our website than usual. This means you can’t access the site right now and we’re sorry about that. We’ll be back up and running as soon as we can so please try again soon to get your hands on a copy of Windows 7!

We look forward to seeing you again.

The Microsoft Store Team

Let’s hope they get that sorted soon or Amazon will be the one reaping the rewards!

It’s definitely going to be the XP of the new generation of Microsoft OSs. I was fortunate enough to be on the beta test team for XP and I’m as impressed with Windows 7 as I was with XP so I’ve just ordered from Amazon after being very highly impressed with the Release Candidate.

-Lewis