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An important choice to make: your browser, New update from Microsoft KB976002 is not very user friendly

Today a new Windows Update has been installed (KB976002)  which after booting up your PC will show a screen with the title..

"An important choice to make: your browser".
The window has a title of "Information Regarding Web Browsers".

It has an OK button to click on, if you click that then it shows the screen I have pasted in here, it also shows this if you click on the close button.
It shows a random selection of 9 choices of browsers.
Below each one are two buttons labelled "Install" and "Tell me more".
Apparently this update is something to do with Microsoft having to make people aware that they do have a choice as regards which web browser they wish to use, so the “Web browser choice screen” has been added to Internet Explorer users in Europe, its required by the European Commission.
This windows update is being rolled out in March 2010. So if you have not seen this yet then you will very soon (unless you have turned off Windows updates).

I think this browser choice screen is very badly thought out because there is NO option to click "I am happy to stay with my current browser choice, Ignore and don't remind of this again".
On my PC I have the latest versions IE8, Firefox, Opera and Chrome already installed yet as you can see the screen that shows does not say "Already installed" below those browsers.
Surely this is a fundamental error in the layout of this screen as its not very obvious what you need to do to ignore this Browser Choice screen.

If you click on the "Select Later" button then this just hides the Browser Choice window until you reboot next time.

On my Windows 7 machine, when you reboot after this update has installed you will notice that the shortcut to IE on your Quick launch taskbar has gone! I bet lots of people are going to google "My Internet Explorer icon has vanished on Windows 7" after this windows update has gone on.
You will notice as well as the IE8 icon vanishing from your quick launch bar that you now have a new icon on the desktop called "Browser Choice", if you run that then you will get the browser choice window.
I guess the idea of this is to force you to choose IE over other available browsers.

On my XP SP3 machines , when you reboot after this update has been installed it actually runs the Browser choice window without any interaction.

So what do you need to do?
Windows XP:
Well if you are happy with what you already use and want to keep things as they were simply click OK on the first screen then close the second screen. Now delete the Browser Choice icon from your desktop.
Reboot and thats it back to normal. It won't bother asking you ever again.

Windows 7:
Well if you are happy with what you already use and want to keep things as they were simply click OK on the first screen.
If you want to keep Internet Explorer goto the task bar and right click on Internet explorer and select "Pin to Task bar" then close the second screen. Now delete the Browser Choice icon from your desktop.
Reboot and thats it back to normal.
I do not have Vista any more so not sure how that behaves, perhaps someone can post a comment to say if its the same as Windows 7.

Hope this helps those people out there who are not sure.

The screen that shows when you click the OK button on the first screen takes you to this page :
http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm

For information about this Windows update :
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=976002

There is also a shorcut icon on the desktop which runs :
C:\WINDOWS\system32\browserchoice.exe

If you goto Start - Run and type msconfig and then click on the startup tab you can see its set to run browserchoice every time your computer starts up.


One thing I also don't understand is the selection of browsers its has to offer, Everyone I'm sure will know all of the popular ones such as Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome but also listed are several browsers that I have never heard of, also some that have not been updated for ages such as Maxthon which seems to have been abandoned back in 2008.
As a web designer I have kept en eye on what browsers are popular as things change over the years. There is an upto date table month by month which shows which browsers are popular. See this here :
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
As you can see people KNOW they have a choice of web browser with Firefox being a clear winner these days.
People that only use Internet Explorer are most likely people that don't even know that there are different browsers available, so to suddenly offer a bewilldering range of browsers to these people is going to cause trouble.

I dare say in the days to follow this update will cause lots of chaos with PC users not knowing what to do.

Andy

Human Health and Animal Ethics New Website

A new website has been started, called Human Health and Animal Ethics, which is specifically devoted to the subject of how protecting human health, far from being incompatible with defending animal interests in certain areas, is actually perfectly compatible with it.

This is because the main areas of animal exploitation, i.e. animal experimentation and animal farming for food, are those in which human health also suffers from those forms of abuse of animals.

Meat is generally bad for human health, whereas a vegetarian nutrition is the healthiest, as medical bodies and health authorities will tell you.

Similarly, the method of testing drugs and other substances for human use on other animals and of studying human diseases on animals has been consistently proven throughout the decades to be lacking of predictive value, extremely unreliable and therefore highly dangerous for human health, when its results are transferred to human beings.

This is why the tagline of Human Health and Animal Ethics is Ending animal abuse can seriously benefit your health.

2010 Ashbourne Shrovetide Football videos now online, Watch Tuesdays game here.

I have finally managed to edit together my clips from this years Tuesday game

Video Part 1 of 2:


Video Part 2 of 2:

Ashbourne Shrovetide Football, Tuesday 16th. Video footage will appear soon.

I have just got back from todays Ashbourne Shrovetide football game. I have never seen so many people turn out for a Shrovetide game.

I took this photograph at 13:41 outside the Green Man Royal hotel where the crowd can be seen wating for the ball to emerge. (see my Shrovetide map for the ball parade route)





Patrick McLoughlin threw the ball into the crowd at exactly 14:03:28 GMT
It was bitterly cold and was snowing quite heavy when the ball was on Sturston Road.
When I left the game the ball had entered a tunnel next to Somerfield where it ran under the Shawcroft car park !

No one really knew where the ball was until it emerged at the other end of the tunnel near the Duck pond on Park Road. It was extreamly muddy around the Duck Pond. This was the first time I had seen the game actually take place under the car park, must be pitch black in there.

A goal was eventully scored by Kevin Clarke for the Downards at 6:27 at the Clifton goal.

Watch this space as I will soon be posting a video of todays game in HD (720p) quality. May be a few days as I will have to look at all the video clips, then edit them together, then render the final movie in sony Vegas 9 then upload it.

If you are planning on going to Wednesdays game then you may find my Shrovetide Guide Map of use and also my last blog post about the 2010 Ashbourne Shrovetide Football Game.

2010 Ashbourne Shrovetide HD Video coming soon, keep an eye out for it.

Update Saturday 20th, Videos now live :

2010 Ashbourne Shrovetide Football - Part 1 of 2

2010 Ashbourne Shrovetide Football - Part 2 of 2

Andy

Stray dog frustration

This is the second time in as many weeks that I've had a call from someone who's found a stray dog. By law stray dogs are the responsibility of the local council and should be reported to their dog warden, but there's no guarante of cover unless the dog is found between 9 and 5 on a weekday.

Until a few months ago, the main police station in central Cambridge used to hold dogs overnight and over the weekend, but that seems to have been stopped, although the council website is still advising people to contact the police about stray dogs.

"If you find a dog in the evening or at the weekend, you should contact Cambridgeshire Police on 08454 564564.

You may be asked to take the dog to the police at Parkside police station, if you are able to do so safely."

and the police website still says that Parkside police station will accept dogs when no dog warden is available.

Ashbourne Shrovetide Football, Tuesday 16th, Wednesday 17th February 2010.

This photograph is one I took at Tuesdays game of the ball being presented to the crowd by Patrick McLoughlin.

Its that time of year again when the maddest game of football in the world takes place in Ashbourne Derbyshire.

Ashbourne in Derbyshire is host to one of the Oldest Shrovetide football games in England.


It was first recorded in 1682, though thought to date back to the 12th Century ,various attempts were made to suppress it over the years.

It has continued unabated ever since, and by 1928 it had become so respectable that the then Prince of Wales was invited to start the game. From that year on it was known as the Royal Shrovetide Football game.

The Game is played annually on Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday, and consists of two teams, one from anyone born to the North of the River Henmore, and one from people born South of the river, these are known as Upards and Downards.

The Goals are on the sites of Old mills, one at Clifton and one at Sturston, these are three miles apart.
A goal is scored by a player striking the mill wheel three times with the Ball.

The ball may be kicked, carried or thrown, but generally proceeds in a series of hugs invisible to the spectator. The game can last for many hours, finishing well after dark.

The game starts at 2pm in the afternoon, when a specially prepared ball - larger than a football and filled with cork which weighs around 4lbs is thrown in by a visiting guest of honor. The balls used for the Shrovetide games are made by Ashbourne man John Harrison who is turning up the ball this year.
The hand sewn leather balls are filled with cork chippings.
The balls are a work of art and take a few weeks to paint.

Rules
If the balls are goaled, then it will become the proud possession of the person who has goaled it. If no-one goals it, then the person that turned-up the ball gets to take it home.
The game starts in the Shawcroft Carpark (back of Somerfield supermarket), See my detailed map lower down.
I have provided a detailed interactive Shrovetide map lower down in this post which will enable you to see all the key points of the playing field which 3 miles between the two goals at Sturston and Clifton.

Ashbourne Royal Shrovetide Football is something that you just have to see to belive your eyes.




Here is a video I made of the game last year to give you an idea of what its like :



This year the game takes place on 16th and 17th of February.
On Tuesday Derbyshire MP Patrick McLoughlin will be turning up the ball at 2.00pm. And on Wednesday John Harrison who has been making Ashbourne Shrovetide balls for the last 20 years will have the honour.




I have lots of photographs and several videos from past games that you can view :

Photographs:
Photographs from the 2008 Ashbourne Shrovetide Football game.

Photographs from the 2007 Ashbourne Shrovetide Football game.

Photographs from the 2006 Ashbourne Shrovetide Football game.

Photographs from the 2004 Ashbourne Shrovetide Football game.

Photographs from the 2002 Ashbourne Shrovetide Footbal game.


Videos:
Video footage from the 2007 Ashbourne Shrovetide Footaball game.

Extra video footage from the 2007 Ashbourne Shrovetide Football game.

I will post my 2010 Ashbourne Shrovetide Football video this Friday, so subscribe to my Youtube channel if you don't want to miss it.

I have created an interactive map which shows all the key points in the game such as the turning up plinth where the ball is thrown, the two goals and the Henmore which is what determines if you are a Upard or a Downard, Click the link below the map for a large view of all the points of interest :

View Ashbourne Shrovetide Football game map. in a larger map

In 2011 The Ashbourne Shrovetide Football game will take place on Tuesday 8th March 2011 and Wednesday 9th March 2011. Jim Boden from Cubley and Frank Lomas from Kniveton will be starting the 2011 games.
Put these dates in your Diary.