I've been off travelling again, and I must say that the light aspect to travelling (reduced load, few bags, and living with a restricted wardribe) help to focus the mind on where we waste materials and power. You can live economically if you have to, but as a rule we tend not to.

While I was away, my wife was dealing with the entire house buying process, which wrappd up on thursday after my return and signature. We move in at the end of the month, but we are already thinking about the running costs of the house while we think about setting up and organizing the various utilities to reconnect us and set up the accounts.

Last week I moaned about the quality of those cheap mobile phone batteries you can get from eBay (Mobile batteries, cheap and nasty, or expensive; what a choice).

Part of my reason for wanting a spare battery is that my existing phone doesn't seem to charge properly. I use a USB charger attached to one of my machines. I use USB chargers because they don't sap so much power when the phone isn't plugged into it - compared to a wall wart that is - and they are a practical solution when I travel, because I only have to carry a load of cables.

Last week I moaned about the quality of those cheap mobile phone batteries you can get from eBay (Mobile batteries, cheap and nasty, or expensive; what a choice).

Part of my reason for wanting a spare battery is that my existing phone doesn't seem to charge properly. I use a USB charger attached to one of my machines. I use USB chargers because they don't sap so much power when the phone isn't plugged into it - compared to a wall wart that is - and they are a practical solution when I travel, because I only have to carry a load of cables.

Last week I moaned about the quality of those cheap mobile phone batteries you can get from eBay (Mobile batteries, cheap and nasty, or expensive; what a choice).

Part of my reason for wanting a spare battery is that my existing phone doesn't seem to charge properly. I use a USB charger attached to one of my machines. I use USB chargers because they don't sap so much power when the phone isn't plugged into it - compared to a wall wart that is - and they are a practical solution when I travel, because I only have to carry a load of cables.

Last week I moaned about the quality of those cheap mobile phone batteries you can get from eBay (Mobile batteries, cheap and nasty, or expensive; what a choice).

Part of my reason for wanting a spare battery is that my existing phone doesn't seem to charge properly. I use a USB charger attached to one of my machines. I use USB chargers because they don't sap so much power when the phone isn't plugged into it - compared to a wall wart that is - and they are a practical solution when I travel, because I only have to carry a load of cables.

All of the problems with the Halo 3 beta release this week seem to have clouded the interesting stuff - like what it's actually like to play.

Of the comments I have heard (including those as part of IGN, who also have some wonderful videos of the multiplayer levels), one of them is that the quality of the rendering does not look that different from Halo 2.

Now, I don't know which version of Halo 2 they have been playing, but Halo 3 looks much better to my eyes, and this comparison video does a pretty good job of showing the differences.

All of the problems with the Halo 3 beta release this week seem to have clouded the interesting stuff - like what it's actually like to play.

Of the comments I have heard (including those as part of IGN, who also have some wonderful videos of the multiplayer levels), one of them is that the quality of the rendering does not look that different from Halo 2.

Now, I don't know which version of Halo 2 they have been playing, but Halo 3 looks much better to my eyes, and this comparison video does a pretty good job of showing the differences.

All of the problems with the Halo 3 beta release this week seem to have clouded the interesting stuff - like what it's actually like to play.

Of the comments I have heard (including those as part of IGN, who also have some wonderful videos of the multiplayer levels), one of them is that the quality of the rendering does not look that different from Halo 2.

Now, I don't know which version of Halo 2 they have been playing, but Halo 3 looks much better to my eyes, and this comparison video does a pretty good job of showing the differences.

All of the problems with the Halo 3 beta release this week seem to have clouded the interesting stuff - like what it's actually like to play.

Of the comments I have heard (including those as part of IGN, who also have some wonderful videos of the multiplayer levels), one of them is that the quality of the rendering does not look that different from Halo 2.

Now, I don't know which version of Halo 2 they have been playing, but Halo 3 looks much better to my eyes, and this comparison video does a pretty good job of showing the differences.

The headline of this utiarticle caught my eye. The contents even more so.

I've been using Retrospect for 12 years now as a backup solution for my Macs (and PCs), and I've worked with and spoken with the guys at Dantz, as it once was, a number of times. Once in possible preparation for a backup on enterprise backup using the software.

The lack of support, and more importantly on going releases, on the Mac platform is something of a concern. Retrospect had more or less got the backup, and particularly enterprise backup, market cornered. Why would you let your company lose that kind of market?