Bruce Willis’ character, Cole, is sent back in time to find out where a virus that wiped out most of humanity started out. Unfortunately, he’s initially sent back too far, and his scrambled brain ramblings about the future gets him locked up in an asylum. There, he meets Goines (Brad Pitt) who tries to help him escape. Cole is taken back to the future (his present), and then sent back in time again, correctly, to just before the virus outbreak begins.

There’s a major twist in the plot, when it seems that Cole, because of his conversations in the asylum, actually planted the seed of the idea of wiping out humanity in Goines’ head, as Goines goes on to form The Army of the Twelve Monkeys - the group blamed, in the future, for the virus. Phew, eh?

But that’s just the start of the complication. Cole’s assigned psychiatrist, Kathryn Railly, had been researching claims of people throughout history who suggested the world was going to end. Their stories match up with Cole’s, and it turns out that they’re all other people who had been sent back in time, like Cole had. Then there’s another twist when Cole starts to believe he is actually insane, and his time in the future is entirely in his head. And then there’s another twist at the end.

It’s all very confusing, unless you’re paying attention. But it’s cleverly done, and covers so many topics (mental health, germ warfare, time travel, animal rights) that it plays out like an expertly woven tapestry.

Verdict: 5/5

It’s been well documented that it makes some slightly… confused suggestions. Perhaps recommending Sepultura when the majority of your library is Kraftwerk or something. But I’ve not heard of it being actually totally stupid like it has been with me:

That’s right - Genius is telling me that I’m missing some Blondie tracks. Tracks that are RIGHT THERE in my library already. Amazing.

After some faffing around, I tried disconnecting my network cable and starting the 360 up again - and this worked. Plug in the cable, connect to Live, and it freezes. Naturally, and following the problems with Live all week, I assumed that it was Microsoft’s servers up the spout.

Then a post on rllmuk linked here. Turns out than an incomplete download of the new Pro Evolution Soccer game is to blame. And what was I part way through downloading when I switched my 360 off last night? Exactly.

So I disconnected the 360 from the network once more, started it up, deleted the incomplete demo download, and reconnected to Xbox Live. The result? It works once more! Phew!

Although not really important, they tend to prefer the size to be 1cm-per-week, +/- 1cm, so 31cm was good. Everything else was normal and as expected!

Anti-natal classes start next week!

And now today, as if it was feeling left out, my right hand has started to ache. Maybe it’s because I’ve been compensating for the loss of use of my left hand a bit, or perhaps it’s sympathy pains, but I feel I’m going to end the week pretty much handless.

That’s right - Xbox Live is down! And on forums the world over, it’s as if civilisation has collapsed. People are having to do other things! Like go outside! Or play with Lego!

Or just get on with it and playing offline like we used to in the Dark Ages.

• I can’t watch people at work use an interactive whiteboard if it isn’t exactly calibrated. Even if the pen and the on-screen pointer are merely millimetres out of alignment, it drives me up the wall. I genuinely can’t watch them operate it, and last week I actually stood up in the middle of a meeting, took the pen from the speaker, and calibrated the board myself as I couldn’t go on.
• All sets of stairs must have a handrail or bannister. This isn’t for safety reasons, as I rarely use it anyway, it’s just in my head I can’t abide seeing them without one.
• Games, CDs, DVDs and books must not, ever, be organised alphabetically. Usually, alphabetically arranging such items is a “socially acceptable” OCD, but in my case I insist they’re not. I can arrange by type, by date, by subject - but never, ever, alphabetically. It makes me uneasy.

I’m not the only one, right?

Although described as a horror, or a thriller, I wouldn’t really class The Wicker Man as either. It’s a mystery, with a somewhat horrific realisation at the end, but for the most part plays out like some sort of musical fantasy film.

Remarkably, much of the ritual side of the plot is actually based in reality, which adds even more to the story. Thoroughly recommended.

Verdict: 5/5

It doesn’t look amazing, but the HTC G1 - the first Google Android phone - is, for some reason, a necessity. It’s not even vastly different in size to my Vario III, although it’s slightly narrower and thinner, and a mite taller:

Shh!! Lets just pretend the “issues” with the controls don’t exist, yes?

And this is clearly the best track:

Imagine my surprise when I opened this month’s issue to find, along with the usual scammy scratchcards and flyers for home insurance, this:

That’s right!  You can buy one, or buy two for exactly twice the price! Staggering value, I’m sure you’ll agree.  However, it’s not as special as this multibuy bargain:

Well, I came home from work today to find out what they’d done it for! This, in fact:

Amazing. What a waste of time and money.

But, last month, it seems that SP1 for the .NET Framework not only fixes the problem, but doesn’t require a recompile of existing applications!

Brad Abrams : .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 Allows managed code to be launched from a network share!

Task 'Microsoft Exchange Server' reported error
(0x8004010F): 'The operation failed. An object could not be found.'

Googling it wasn’t much help, as there seemed to be more than 20 reasons for the fault. Emails were syncing OK, and everything else appeared to be normal. However, checking the Exchange (2003) server, and looking at the Offline Address List settings (alluded to in the majority of the search results), I found another error message. When trying to rebuild the offline address book, this came up:

There are no bindings.
Facility: Win32
ID no: c00706b6
Exchange System Manager

This gave me a bit more to go on, and thanks to this page, I eventually found this solution on Microsoft’s website.

Basically, I deleted the old offline address list, created a new one, pointed it at the Default Global Address List, then waited a short while for the servers to catch on to the change. I could then set the new offline address list as the default, and then rebuild it.

Then it was a case of waiting for the next list sync (I triggered it by changing the update interval for the offline list to a custom one forcing an update in the next 15 minutes) and then quitting Outlook on my machine, reopening it, and then downloading the address book from Tools > Send/Receive > Download Address Book…

Phew!

Yes, I know.