Aehso’s Output

The ongoing take-over of Liverpool Football Club rolls on, this time with Steve Morgan, one of the bidders, withdrawing his offer because he didn’t want to be used as the club’s stalking-horse.

Now I know you’re not all Liverpool fans, and that story is probably quite boring, but pause for a minute on the phrase “stalking horse” - doesn’t strike up an odd mental image like what you’d see in a Gary Larson cartoon. That made me dream up similiar phrases and the best I could come up with was “spy elephant”. Amazingly, that’s not a GoogleWhack - it already returns 10 hits!

stalking-horse

1. means to disguise an objective: something used as a means of disguising a real objective
2. politics deceptive candidate for election: a candidate who is in an election only to conceal the potential candidacy of somebody else, to divide the opposition, or to determine how strong the opposition is.

So I’m a little bit of an Apple freak - I’ve made ‘the switch’ and I havn’t regretted it one bit. I still have to use a PC in work but I can live with that - I’d play too much if I had a Mac in work.
You may also have noticed from some of my previous postings here that I’m usually curious about what Apple are going to release next. That might seem odd to some of you but most Mac users fall into this loyalty trap (and worse).

But I can honestly say to myself that I am quite normal in comparison to folks who spend hours producing iPod Micro Concepts - designs for a product that doesn’t formally exist. It’s amazing the lengths these folks go to to and Apple themselves must just love these free concept contributions. Of course, you can be guaranteed that if Apple do release an iPod Micro it will not look like any of them.

Unless one of them was really leaked from an Apple design lab. Doh - now I’m at it!

So I’ve always wondered why I like eating hot currys - you’d think that eating something that makes burns the living bejaysus out of you couldn’t be enjoyable but I’ve finally found out why - they cause your brain to release endorphins

That Scoville Unit scale is pretty handy too - I’m looking forward to building up the ability to handle a cute little Jaloro…

The Age has a syndicated article about some researchers who’ve managed to get rat brain cells in a petri dish to fly a flight simulator.

They hope their research into neural computation will help them develop sophisticated hybrid computers, with a thinking biological component…It is also hoped that the research will provide the basis for developing new drugs to treat brain diseases such as epilepsy.

Of course, the military isn’t too far away from this one - wedged between the above two sentances describing notable goals
for humanity is the following:

One target is to install living computers in unmanned aircraft so they can be deployed on missions too dangerous for humans.

It’s not laser beams in space - Rat Wars possibly? Disturbing to think they are even trying…

Thunderbird 1.0 has just been released. I’ve been using the beta’s for some time now and it is a quality, lightweight product. Most importantly, it is not prone to the various viruses and worms that seem to hit every home PC within minutes of being connected to the internet. Of course if I had any sense I’d put linux onto my laptop - now that I’ve got a Powerbook I may well do that, maybe over Christmas if I can get my hands on a Gentoo distro before then.

Of course if you are not already, you should already be using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer. I’ve checked my web site reports and over 50% of you are still viewing using IE, the others primarily using RSS readers & Gecko based browsers). Shame on you IE people though I understand corporate policies can sometimes be binding. If not, try Firefox - don’t worry, you’ll be able to view the same world wide web, get fewer advertisments and your machine will be a lot safer.

News today from KopTalk Insider is that LFC consider the L4 Group’s offer acceptable:

RULE 2.10 ANNOUNCEMENT - RELEVANT SECURITIES IN ISSUE
Liverpoolfc.tv 05 December 2004
In accordance with Rule 2.10 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, the Club confirms that it has 34,823 ordinary shares of #5 each in issue. There are no other relevant securities in issue.
The Liverpool Football Club and Athletic Grounds PLC

5th December 2004.

Sounds good to me, better than Morgan’s offer anyway. Interesting that this was filed on the 5th, the day after LFC’s AGM. No coincidence. This guy Kraft really seems to have a head for running a business like LFC.
For a good write up on who exactly this L4 Group are, check out Dunk’s Editorial

More recent speculation that Apple may be going to release a PVR media system has got me all excited again. If Apple had (or licensed) something like EyeTV then they’d have nearly all the hardware/software requirements. They’d just have to wrap it up in a simple box and noone is better at that than Apple (Sony can get close sometimes).

The only component Apple are missing is a decent remote control, but hold on - wasn’t there recently some more speculation about an EU design trademark filed by Apple back in May 2004? Some may have subsequently thought it related to the subsequently released new iMac units but if you consider such a device acting as a remote control to a media server then it makes a lot more sense. All it needs is a lightweight windowing system, WiFi, a 10-12″ display and pen based input (given Apple’s Newton experience that should be no problem).

I just hope to God they make sure the battery doesn’t suck. Hmmm, maybe I should take back those comments I made about Apple’s share price.

Christmas shopping can lead you to some real gems on the web. Check out the description text of the DVD Of The Week at CD-WOW

(In case it’s gone by the time you get there, here’s a screenshot)

Yep, it’s a wonderful life…