Firstly, Firefox bookmarks is dead easy. I used Firefox for Windows and am using Firefox on the new machine. So all I needed to do was copy the bookmarks.html file from the Windows machine. This is found in the followingdirectory:

Documents and Settings/<username>/Application Data/Mozilla/Firefox/Profiles/<random string>/

Alternatively, you can use the Export function from the Bookmarks Manager (Bookmarks -> Organise Bookmarks… menu item).

To import then, you then select the Import function from the Bookmarks Manager.  Dead easy.

I bought a Novatech Sorar Pro and installed Ubuntu 7.1. Novatech do not offically support Linux and provide no help or drivers, so it was a bit hit and miss as to whether it was going to work, but I did some research and reckoned it probably would. Anyway, 20 minutes after starting the install it was all finished. It recognised the widescreen display, wireless worked straight out, and the DVD R/W was no problem.

It’s been a few years since I last used Linux and i have to say I was impressed by how far it has come. The setup was seemless and the whole experience was straightforward.

My next job is to transfer all my mail and documents across…

My suspicions finally came to rest on Norton Internet Security.  I’ve been using it for years now as both firewall and anti-virus, and have never had any issues with it.  Except for now.

 I’ve uninstalled it completely and replaced it with freeware version of AVG Anti-Virus and PC Tools Firewall Plus.  It now boots and awakens in seconds.

What more can I say.

 About time really :)

(Wordpress download)

The interesting thing is how the choice of chocolates divides people. From memory there are something like 8 different kinds, including fudge, toffee, nuts and orange flavoured varieties.

There are those that will only eat one or two kinds, and those like me that just stick their hand in for a random one. The most interesting though, are those that profess they do not like this one and they do not like that one, then they eat them anyway and confess that, actually, they are ok.

The BBC News has an article on the Abbey offering a mortgage at 5 times the joint salary of a couple. Large multiple mortgages are not uncommon, but this is the first major high street lender to do so. It looks like the traditional 3.5 times salary multiple has most definitly gone out of the window.  However, this does not make the houses any more affordable, just that you are tied to larger monthly payments.
I’m sure there are many complex reasons why house prices are continuing to rise. Personally I think the biggest issues are a lack of available properties (full stop), and an increase in buy-to-lets. Many people are releasing equity in their houses to fund a buy-to-let, or moving their money from more traditional investment schemes. This removes more properties from the market for first-time buyers and exacerbates the supply and demand economics.

Whether the property market ever settles to something more affordable I don’t know, but I can see a few possible scenarios evolving from this:

1. We have a two-tier property society: the upper tier own all the property and the lower tier rent from them.
2. Parents and relatives are expected to contribute massive financial backing to their offspring to buy houses. Unfortunately I can see this already with the media hyping an expectation to obtain large deposts from parents.
3. People don’t buy houses until well into their 30s, with the knock on effects of starting families later in life.