GeoffBlog.com

While I feel sorry for the 1,500 people who have now lost their jobs, I can't say I'm sorry to see the back of Tiny/Time . The original company, Time, seemed ok, but then like all good things they decided to buy Tiny and rename themselves The Computer World. As soon as they did this I had a feeling their days were numbered. Firstly why lose the strong name of Time and replace it with a blatant play on PC World. Perhaps they were trying to trick PC World customers in to their stores?! Also, if you ever had a chance to go around a Computer World shop, you would have been presented with lazy and clueless staff and a load of cheap looking PCs in a very drab, mid-80s designed store. Realising this was strategy was doomed to failure, they recently attempted to start trading under both the Time and Tiny brands again. Tiny pushed hard on cheap and massive plasma/lcd screens and became an online only brand. However their attempts to go back to the original business plan (selling

AP and UPI reported that the French government has raised its terror alert level from Run to Hide on their four level danger scale. The two higher French danger levels are Surrender and Collaborate. The rise was precipitated by a fire yesterday which destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralysing their military according to informed sources. Sorry, couldn't resist this! Also, I didn't want this site full of just sad stuff and rants!

Today saw another 4 bombs 'exploding' on three tube trains and one bus in central London. Fortunately it appears that in all four cases only the detonators blew rather than the bombs they were connected to. As you might expect there were scenes of chaos but fortunately no deaths this time around. All four bombers appeared to have escaped and a manhunt is on. I really couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the news, this is an identical attack (albeit in different locations) to the ones exactly 2 weeks ago. Are we now in the middle of wave of attacks? If those bombs had gone off, we would probably be looking at least another 50 dead.

Being a rather tall (6'3") kind of guy, I've increasingly become the victim of those automatic air freshener machines that are appearing in toilets around the world. In case you don't understand what I'm talking about, I've found a picture of one here . They are basically mounted on the wall, in a supposedly 'high' place, and then release a squirt of air freshener on a regular basis. Yes, and who cares? I hear you ask. Well, the problem is that in toilets with low ceilings, these machines are often at head height for people like me. As you might imagine, getting squirted by a neat dose of strong air freshener chemical is not exactly the world's most enjoyable experience. It's only a matter of time before someone sues a bar owner for blinding them - remember where you heard it first!

I understand (from sources) that this video is actually a few years old, but I'd never seen it before. Perhaps it's my love of dogs, or perhaps it's this particulary slow moving Tuesday morning, either way it made me laugh out loud - which is always worrying when you are alone! The bit that really 'got me' was the poor dog's bemused reaction to the thing as it fires off... chuckle, chuckle!

At the time of writing over 30 people are reported dead in a series of 4 explosions on the London Underground and bus network. Edit (19/7): Official death toll now 56