The Top Gear Stig is Michael Schumacher or is it?

As I saw this today, it had to be shared. Is this totally true or just a way to introduce Schumacher onto the show. The show wanted to keep this private for quite some time, but it's going to keep people talking (great for its ratings).

If you watched Top Gear on Sunday 21st June 2009, then you would have seen that Schumacher lift the helmet making us believe he is the stig. You can see some pictures of this from the daily mail. Alternatively, you can see a clip of this on the BBC website. You could also view the full episode of the new series on the BBC iPlayer.

If Schumacher is the Stig then don't forget that he helped Top Gear beat the German Presenters (Sabine Schmitz, Carsten van Ryssen and Tim Schrick) in the England vs Germany challenge when the stig beat the rally driver in the final race (Jeremy was pretending that it was James May to help Top Gear win the challenge).

If you think this is not true, or have any opinions to share about this, please share your comments.

Apple angers it's fans as well as me

Believe it or not this is true. I thought I'd add to my annoyances of Apple with another article I saw online from the BBC. This is along with comments I made to fellow colleagues at work.

Any company in business has the idea of making something that people will buy. That's great when it comes out, but then they decide how can we scam money off people with a small amount of effort? How about small tweaks?

Going back to the iPod it all started well apart from the fact Apple decided that Firewire should be the dominant method for transferring files from a MAC to an mp3 player. However by alienating Microsoft the mass market would go elsewhere.

Fair play when they realise we need to support MS Windows. This allowed the money to come in. Additionally PCI manufacturers made money for making cards with Firewire ports. When the third generation came out I decided to get an iPod. The best thing for me was that know one I knew what an iPod was let alone owned one. For me the 20GB iPod was worth it for the long run, but were expensive too. Owning one was nice for listing to music on my long walks.

Drawbacks of 3rd Gen:
- The cost of this model was £300. This is far higher than the 6th Gen model of 80GB worth £180 (much cheaper now).
- The battery life was awful. You should get 8 hours playback and would be lucky to get 6.
- The battery degrades quickly and Apple wanted £100 to replace and install a new one. I decided to by a replacement elsewhere and install it myself for £15.
- USB charging unavailable yet 4th Gen don't have this problem.
- When the 4th generation came out, Apple forgot about their customers and decided to to give us features they gave to the 4th gen model (they were possible to add to 3rd gen). Remember this: our money helped you develop newer models.

Coming back to iPhone owners:
Back when we owned early iPods that should last the test of time (yet support does not), Apple ignored us. Proof of this can be found online if you look for articles about 3rd gen iPod classic upgrades.

If you have brought an iPhone v1 and paid a costly O2 contract due to exclusivity, then welcome to my world (along with older iPod owners). Version 2 brought in 3G that should have been in version 1. Now version 3 offers other minor tweaks (like faster loading of games). If I was you, forget about the ridiculous price tag. Other phones offer great functions too, look elsewhere and don't get ripped off. Small tweaks and lots of money out of your pocket, it's your fault for encouraging this behaviour.

Outside of the Apple talk:
Why do people by a personal computer called a "mac"?
- Because Windows is rubbish.
- Programs are better on the mac.

This is a PC, not a mac. It is and always will be a personal computer. The dock is not great and you could be searching through a long (unordered list). Windows quick launch and start menu are great.

From a person that has use Windows, Unix, Linux and have used a Mac, the Mac is expensive hardware and software. If you want to do this properly, buy a computer and install the Mac OS (Leopard or whatever animal it is). At the end of the day you are paying a company that is using Unix / Linux source code and charging you a fortune. Many distributions of Linux do not cost any money and you can learn a lot from them.

Support Lifecycle:
If Apple are loyal to their so called fan base, then they should provide support for years to come. For example Windows 2000 is supported till the 13th July 2010.
- How long is the MAC OS supported for?
- How long is the MAC hardware supported for?
- How long is the iPod / iPhone supported for?

Final note:
This is about software installers (linking to my previous post). Why is iTunes 8.2.0.23 41.6MB (outside of the package of 74MB bundle) and WMP 11 only 24.5MB. Windows Media player offers so much functionaly and even sorts artists individually compared to iTunes Library (where multiple artists are not separated).

I know I've ranted from iPhones, iPods, Hardware and software, but feel free to have your say as all comments are welcome (minus swearing).

Apple Software

Have you ever noted that when installing iTunes on Windows for your iPod you have some options of what to install. When you run the installer, some of us like to choose what should be installed.

In the installer, you can say not to install "software updater" and guess what happens after the install, it installs it anyway. Now if that happened with other software, we would all complain, yet with Apple software, nobody does. I thought I'd mention and let others pick up on this. Next time you install the software, see if you notice this too.

If you would like to remove it, please install CCleaner. There is an option to remove it, but beware as the next Apple software install will add it back even when you say no.

You will need to remember to stop the following services:
- Bonjour
- iPod Service
and remove the registry key in HKey Local Machine that is called iTunes Helper.

NB. This is on version 7 and higher in iTunes. Possibly earlier, but 6 was along time ago. As for Quicktime and Safari, please let us know.

Audio Blog

To make all posts more accessible on Blogger, I have added the ability to listen to all my posts by clicking on the link "((•)) Hear this post". This can be found at the bottom of each post. You will need flash enabled on your web browser.

Thanks to vozMe for this great service.

Rate My Motor

Do you like cars, bikes or other motors? If so then this is the site for you. Upload some pictures for your motor and shares some details with others. Let people rate your motor and see who comes out on top. It's all about keeping the hobby of motoring alive and you can share your thoughts with the motoring community online.

When uploading images, please try to hide the registration plate and only upload images that you own. If you like doing up your motor, upload the pics to show others how it is developing.

Rich - Poor gap shrinks

On a non-techy note, due to the recession, this had to be talked about. The rich are getting poorer. It's not just us poor people affected by the recession.

According to Philip Beresford who compiles the rich list, the number of billionaires has fallen from 75 to 43 with a total loss of £150bn.

On the up side, they are still rich and can afford their luxuries still. With all that is going on the gap between the rich and poor is finally dropping.

Conficker begins stealthy

Many of you may not know what Conficker is. This is a virus (worm) that runs on the Windows operating system (2000, XP, Vista and so on). Over the last few months this has been attacking many computers in industry.

Recent news about this is that it is updating. What's new in variant C is that it will take keystroke information and send this back to the attackers / creators. I would advise you to access secure data only if you are 100% clean of the virus.

Please have a read of the two articles from the BBC:
Conficker begins stealthy update
AND
Q&A: Conficker protection