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“Get yourself another tasty helping, as long as you are in possession of the requisite spondulicks.” Salman Rushdie; The Ground Beneath Her Feet; Picador Books; 2000.

This word just came out yesterday at work, or rather it’s shorter form sponds did. I don’t think I’ve used the word in years but it seemed appropriate at the time. Of course one reason for not using it is a general shortage of spondulicks, hard to talk about what you don’t have.

Ok, if you’re really too lazy to go google yourself…. it’s a (popular?) British slang for money, cash, moola, etc…

Well, not quite, but last week version 1.6 of the PS3 firmware trickled out to users and contained the infamous Folding@home application. If you’ve not heard of it, basically it adds your machine to a huge network of computers each running a piece of a simulation that in some way it is hoped will contribute to cures for diseases. The simulations are so huge that it could never be done with just one machine, or even one institution, but perhaps with millions around the world…

Anyway, if you have a PS3 you can enable it to run some folding of its own during its idle moments and therefore feel good about yourself. The interesting thing is the power of the beast as these figures show:

Now, many of the Windows machines are probably old pieces of junk but the difference between PS3 and Windows performance is huge. Its also beating out the Macs pretty good, too.

Finishing up some last-minute work on my web application, then its home tonight and Vegas in the morning! If you don’t follow my MINI blog, then you may not be aware that this weekend is A MINI Vacation in Vegas. 383 MINIs pre-registered for a long weekend of motoring and, er, spending money I am sure. Lots going on… we’re off to see Phantom of the Opera Thursday night, Friday sees us on a group jaunt to Death Valley, cruise up the Strip in the evening. Saturday I might be getting a little cosmetic modification done (to the MINI, not me!!), followed by a Poker Run and a big get together in the evening. And maybe I can throw a few quarters on the craps table, too.

Most of all its Vegas, baby. Pictures when I get back.

Ever the glutton of punishment that I am, this weekend I finally got all the application forms and supporting materials together to kick off my application for US Citizenship. I think its a 6 month process so I’ll start learning my “civics” information after the summer.

Yea, its March 17th again so lets all wear green and pretend we’re really Irish, or genuinely claim we’re Irish because 5 generations ago a cousin once ate a potato that they’re pretty sure was grown by leprechauns.

I totally don’t get it, really. But I think it’s time to give St. Andrew his turn in the spotlight. So this year, November 30th, lets everyone wear blue and get smashed on whiskey or good Scottish Ale. And, let’s face it, the Scots can drink way more than the Irish. You calling my pint a poof?

Ok, so I’ve told you twice now to go buy the Amy Winehouse CD and yet I don’t see it on your iPod/CD player/8 track device (mep excepted). Maybe this will whet your appetite.

Its only $7.99 from Amazon or iTunes, get to it!

A few things out today you might want to spend some pennies on:

• Casino Royale on Blu-Ray and DVD
• Amy Winehouse’s new CD, Back to Black
• God of War 2 for PS2, the followup to last year’s game of the year

See you at Fry’s?

Yesterday Sony unveiled the much-leaked, controversy-causing, Home product for the PS3. I saw this last summer and was pretty impressed with what they had already, and in this trailer it looks like they have gone a lot further. Part Mii, part second-life, parts unknown, there will surely be many people who prefer to spend their entire life at “Home” rather than with the rest of us. So sit back, watch the trailer and be impressed. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt that there’s a sexy English chick doing the voiceover.

Props go out to the following artists who I am currently jones-ing on majorly. Ouch, my iTunes balance!

• The Gotan Project Funky, hip hop, ambient, who-knows-what-else styled Tango. If this music doesn’t make you want to put a rose in your hair or between your teeth and get a groove on then you are officially dead. Check out Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre) (iTunes link) for a taste.
• Amy Winehouse Now my UK readers are saying whatever because she has been huge back at home for a while now. Here in the US I think she’s virtually unknown (only one track on iTunes), but her latest album is released in a week or two and you should check her out. You Know I’m No Good (iTunes).

Hmm… so I’m typing all this out for you good people when I had a sudden thought that I’d heard some of the Gotan Project before…. a little digging around and voila! Way back in Dec 2005, the honourable jschwa had them as a single of the week. All the more reason to add him to your RSS feed, the man got some style.

My google mail was unavailable for a large part of yesterday and has now been inaccessible all day today. According to a statement on their groups page they are “working on it” but no progress for my account that I can see. Or anyone else’s for that matter. It only a “small subset” of poor losers that are suffering but it is very annoying all the same.

In the meantime I added one of those twitter dealies to my sidebar…. but without the gmail interface its too much of a pain to update! Though I could use the cellphone if it didn’t cost 15c a pop (thanks Verizon!).