Author: Carrie

  • For god’s sake Microsoft, support your own file formats

    The other day, a nice man at Microsoft sent me an interesting document in Microsoft Word format. I couldn’t open it, because I’m using Microsoft Word on the Mac. He’s on Office 2007, I’m on Office 2004. Office 2004 no likey Office 2007 files. Dear Mr Microsoft, I replied. Thanks for the file. Any chance…

  • Baby, this DVD is driving me crazy

    Mrs Bigmouth and I headed off to hospital yesterday for a 20-week pregnancy scan (everything’s fine, thanks) and on departure, the doctor gave us a shiny disc. Excellent, I thought. We’ve had one of these before. It’s a CD with some screenshots of the scan. It turns out it was even better than that. It…

  • Biffo’s book

    Mr Biffo’s book of chatroom silliness, Confessions of a Chatroom Freak, is very funny. I laughed so hard I ended up in America! Admittedly I was on a plane to America at the time. Not so funny: the tacked-on “blog entries” that were clearly the suggestion of the publisher. And the typography’s a bit crap.

  • A temporary interruption to one small aspect of the overall process

    The title is a quote from one of the vote-counting organisations, describing the Scottish elections. In some cases the number of spoilt or rejected ballot papers outnumbered winning candidates’ majorities ten to one. The problem, I’m sure, is that the two different voting papers – one national, one council – use two completely different systems.…

  • Case study

    If you travel a lot with your laptop, may I humbly recommend this little backpack from Incase? I bought one this week after my existing laptop bag gouged a nice deep cut in my shoulder. It’s got a dedicated laptop sleeve big enough for a 17″ machine, enough room for all the crap you carry…

  • Why blog?

    Oh no! I’ve been memed! I’ve been tagged by Rutty, who’s passing along the “five reasons why you blog” meme. So here are my five. Friends first The single biggest reason I blog is because I get so much email, I’m terrible at replying quickly. Blogging means I can demonstrate that I’m still alive and…

  • Vegas smells of cigars and cars

    I’m in Las Vegas at the moment for a work thing, and there’s absolutely nothing to say about the place that hasn’t been said earlier and better by other people. But I did pick up a handy travel tip: If you’re going on a long-haul flight and the first leg is a domestic one, when…

  • Paracetamol and a hot water bottle: the cure for everything

    I’d love to panic about Wi-Fi and mobile masts, but this is the stuff that really scares me. The elderly mother of a woman I know hasn’t been well for some time, and her GP has prescribed a few things – water tablets to help her kidneys remove fluid, warfarin to keep her blood thin.…

  • Lost in translation

    Ah, the joys of call centres. A company I spoke to last week sent me a letter, addressed to Migmass Strikes Again. Migmass is next door, dammit!

  • Mobile bloody masts and wireless sodding networks

    We’re doomed! says the Times. We’re doomed! says the Independent. Not so fast! say the people of Fark.com, destroying the Indy’s alleged expert with one beautiful, beautiful link and throwing in tedious little facts about the difference between ionising and non-ionising radiation, how radiation exposure works, where wi-fi sits in the electromagnetic spectrum and why…