Blog:Ellis

Gareth Hulmes, on behalf of Greater Manchester Police said: “We are delighted to be able to present the prestigious Association of Chief Police Officers 'Secured by Design' award to Ideal Care Homes and LNT Construction, which recognises their hard work and effective collaboration with Greater Manchester Police's Design for Security team during the design and construction of Lightbowne Hall. This achievement is a great example of working together to create safer communities.”

Lawrence Tomlinson, Chairman of both Ideal Carehomes and LNT Construction said: “I design all our care homes to be great places to live and it is encouraging to see the attention to detail paid to our homes recognised in this way”

ison Brownbill, Home Manager, said: “We have made a great start at Lightbowne Hall and we are all looking forward to making the home an integral part of the local community. Making such positive links with the Local Neighbourhood Policing Team at this early stage is a bonus for us.”

PC Andy Grimes, Gareth Hulmes, Sue Walker, Alison Brownbill, Sgt Ben Cowcill, PC Michelle Gee ,PC John Carroll

My Xbox 360 is in it's 3rd year of entertaining me now and has been great at doing so, what with all it's Fifas, CODs and Guitar Heros. Unfortunately it has recently been reluctant to do anything in it's old age and instead of displaying glorious High-Def gaming on my screen, it display the "red ring of death" around it's power button.



Reminiscent of Windows' Blue Screen of Death which still haunts my copy of Vista Ultimate to this day, it seems Microsoft just can't keep anything working for extended periods of time. Apparently they have extended everyone's xbox 360 warranties due to the widespread nature of this major malfunction, that is, if your warranty was intact in the first place. Mine was void the moment I 'accidentally' opened and flashed it to allow me to play game 'backups', so now the problem is mine and mine alone.

Lucky for me then that there's a couple of solutions on the Internet. The first being a £5 kit from eBay to replace Microsoft's idiotic, egotistical X-shaped heat sync. With that on the way to my door I looked for some temporary quick-fixes. The one that sounded the silliest seemed to be the one with the most success... Wrap your xbox 360 in towels....


Now I know when I was Ill as a child I was told to keep warm but
this seemed ridiculous. Apparently though the solder on the motherboard can crack, disconnecting joints, so by wrapping towels round your xbox for 15 minutes you are basically overheating it to the point where the solder melts a little and rejoins. Then unwrap and leave to cool for 15-20 minutes (Yes I realize I sound like the instructions on the back of a ready meal).

Anywho i tried it and no success, the next logical step then was to increase the number of towels and length of time, regardless of the fire hazzard. This time the fans stopped spinning at 19minutes so I quickly unplugged it and let it cool, fearing it would never light up again. Half an hour later... Success! I fixed my xbox with a towel! I Played for an hour with no problems, lets see how long this lasts...

That's right, after starring at static images on google earth for years, its finally got the big upgrade we've all been waiting for, 'Google Earth Live'!


Just open your copy of google earth and check for updates and hey presto, the whole world, from above, in real time!
Since the announcement this morning everyone's been waving their hands out of the window and watching it on their computer screen with a measly 3 second delay. Ok so it's not totally live but 3 seconds isn't bad and google promise to cut this down over the next year.

Some companies such as sky sports are angry at the new technology as consumers will now be able to watch sports matches for free. This is nothing compared to the public outrage that is going to come when google launch the heavily anticipated heat-signature addon in June that will allow people to be seen inside their houses. Google spokesman Frail Polos made a formal statement earlier today "Because the feed comes from satellites and not from cameras on earth it does not infringe current laws."

Have a play with it and drop us a comment with what you thought.

Ok so I've had my iPhone 16gb for like a month and now they are telling me I have to buy a new one in 3 months?


No of course I don't have to, but I do have to, it's what I do.



So here's the score, a high level VP at a big company who work with apple has confirmed that the next iPhone, believed to be marketed as the 'iPhone Pro' will be available to purchase in June. I'm all on board with the name by the way, it's just got a better ring to it than iPhone 2, which people would confuse with the v.2.0 firmware (Also be released in June)



The new iPhone, according to our mystery source, will incorporate a 3G chip for faster Internet browsing and hopefully video calling. Apparently a second camera will be hidden behind the glass in the top right of the phone. Apple originally said that 3G would drain the battery so either they have developed a low-power one or increased the efficiency of the battery (there's no way they'll release the iPhone pro with a lower usage time than the current model, which I will henceforth refer to as the iPhone Classic.)

Fans have been asking for 3G (along with a list of other features as long as Magic Johnson's arm) ever since the iPhone Classic was released , apple are famous for listening to consumers and that they have done. As if 3G wasn't enough Apple is in contract negotiations with Global Locate to provide the GPS chipset. They specializes in low power assisted GPS that is ideally suited for mobiles.

While this is of course great news for everyone, the 17months left on my contract hurt just a little!

My first blog... yes I'm 12 years late but I think thats right-on-money-fashionably late in terms of internet junk.

Why start now? I dunno probably because my final year uni project is due in and procrastination has been a theme ever since I first learnt the word on Sabrina the Teenage Which.

So there it was, it wasn't epic and i'm guessing only Morley will ever read it, but that still makes it worth the effort in my book!