Firstly, I better offer my congratulations to Si, who became a father to Oscar James Jobling on Tuesday. Well done mate, I'm sure you're going to make a fantastic Dad :)

Secondly (and on an unrelated note), I made some rather large steps towards getting the house wired up for a decent network. Despite having wireless, it has at times become a little unreliable, and so hopefully by the end of tomorrow, all that swinging from rafter to rafter in the loft and avoiding dropping through the ceiling while chewing on cavity insulation will have been worth it.

Thirdly, I have unfortunately succumbed to a MacBook problem of my own - looks like hard drive has gone bye-bye. I've tried a number of things and scoured the Apple forums, but no luck with the remedies suggested yet, so tomorrow I will phone up and get it replaced under warranty. I'm really hoping there is some limit to the damage as I could really do with getting my most up-to-date calendar and address book off there first. Damn.

Finally, I did forty lengths of the pool tonight (or 1000m), which is my usual target when doing serious paddling (as opposed to lying on the bottom of the pool or dive bombing the weak). I've refrained from doing further than this in the past few years since when I arrived at Loughborough I discovered the pool was twice as long (being Olympic size), and you die get tired twice as quickly. Being the one sport I really enjoy and that doesn't involve losing an entire day (golf) or losing teeth/eyes (hockey) I should do it more often. Pool membership has been down on my list of things to do for a while, but at the moment I'm more concerned about trying to remember the times of all those appointments I've booked in for.

One of the great benefits of having relatives who live elsewhere in the world is that when they visit they bring strange and exotic gifts. Proper coffee, proper cookies, proper (Tim Horton's) donughts, Lucky Charms. It was a travesty when the chief executive leprechaun decided to discontinue his UK operations a few years ago. I can't bear to thing of all those disillusioned British Austin Powers-watching youths for years to come,

"Daddy, what does he mean? Why is it funny that 'they're always after his Lucky Charms'?"

For those of you who need a pop culture injection - I suggest you listen to this. Shame on you for not getting it first time.

Auntie Kiki is now on a plane going back home. As expected, due to her motivational nature, things started to get done around the house. Things like rearranging the kitchen with Mother at 1am in the morning with only a double scotch and the cat. Yes, it sounds mad, but when Auntie Kiki is about, the Higgs household operates differently.

We went out for a Chinese last night in Redditch. The place was really nice, and the food was pretty fantastic. Auntie Kiki bid her farewells to spend her final night with another aunt and uncle and the rest of us came home. And that's the end of the half term week. We even get an hour more sleep tomorrow as an extra bonus.

Well I hope it is anyway. Thankfully I have never had the problem of what became known as RSS (Random Shutdown Syndrome), but I did get a phonecall from James yesterday all worried because his Macbook was turning off intermittently. I knew exactly what it was and told him he was going to have to call AppleCare. If you are not familiar with this problem, Apple has acknowledged that some of the 1st generation Macbooks short circuit when the product gets too hot, and it becomes a recurrent issue. Until now the only solution has been to send away the Macbook to have the logic board replaced or the heatsink changed. Hopefully, no more.

Last night Apple released new SMC firmware which they say should solve James'/the problem. All you have to do is make sure your system software is up to date. I knew James' software wouldn't be current, so sent him some instructions. If you don't know how to keep your Mac system software up to date (it's free) then read on:

1. Click on the Apple in the top lefthand corner of the screen
2. Choose Software Update... from the menu
3. Wait a for your Mac(book) to get the list of updates
4. Make sure all updates are ticked and let it download
5. You probably will have to restart, especially if you have not done this before
6. After restart, do the same thing again (and keep doing it) until no more updates are listed in the Software Update window.

If you've not done this before you will have downloaded plenty of bug fixes and solutions to other problems such as the fan making too much noise.

If your Macbook is suffering and shutting down too quickly to run updates, I am informed that pointing a fan at it and raising off the desk slightly should keep it cool for long enough. If the update does not solve the problem, contact AppleCare.

Either way, problem or no problem, if you have a Macbook, I advise you download the SMC Firmware Update 1.1 from Software Update as soon as possible.

While attending to visiting relatives, much everything else in life has had to go on hold. On Monday I did a full day of work before going out for some food with the Parents and Auntie Kiki, then on Tuesday afternoon we ended up in Birmingham for a few hours. Yesterday we took the long and winding roads to Aber to visit Sister One at uni and that started at 7am and ended at 12pm after basketball match spectating, curries and all.

I'm now back, up and at it, sweetened only by a cashback cheque for £80 from my phone contract people. If only I could wake up to a surprise cheque for £80 every morning, it would make breakfast all the more enjoyable.

I suppose I also need to plug Firefox 2 as well. Go get Firefox 2.

Auntie Kiki arrived on Saturday and we went out for lunch. Yesterday we went over to our relatives in Redditch for Sunday lunch and she's now staying over at ours for the duration.

In amongst all the socialising, I've been chipping away at work, trying to flog my uni books on Amazon (no one responded to the ad I put up in the department which would indicate to me someone removed it) and playing with Facebook, my new social toy. As a principle, I hate social network tools, not because of what they represent (which is brilliant) but generally how badly they are made.

MySpace (crap), Bebo (better) but the pick of the bunch has to be Facebook which everyone I know has been telling me to get on for ages, but until this week it was impossible as they weren't allowing you on without an alumni email address. That situation is no more. You can sign up whoever you are, whatever you do, so I did and have been very impressed. Finally a site that isn't an overwhelming assault on your eyes, and with some genuinely useful features. I urge you to use this one if you use no other. All we need now is cross-network integration...

I'm over the moon to here the two cheapest versions of Vista include a no-running-in-virtualisation clause in the EULA. Nice one Microsoft.

The cat was a little bemused this morning to discover that she had mail. In amongst the envelopes was the "RSPCA Animal Survey 2006", and being the only animal in the house, the cat was clearly the only person this applied to. After a quick discussion, the cat simply told me that she was neither interested or able to write a reply to the survey and decided to return it. It does beg the question what the RSPCA were thinking; surely they know that the vast majority of UK pets have a level of literacy prohibitive to filling out questionnaires?

Oh yeh, and Internet Explorer 7 is now out and available for download, so if you do insist on using the Microsoft browser, then upgrade today. It's free and hopefully will help make browsing a little safer, not to mention make all web developers a little happier. Alternatively do whats best and start using Firefox. Version two will be out soon...

The two most elusive things in life are firstly, the path to prosperity, and secondly, free wifi in Birmingham. After an hour or so searching for a suitable place to get a coffee and setup an office, Dave and I finally found a suitable coffee shop tucked out the way near the Pallisades. With the wifi catered for, the prosperity is still pretty elusive, but after some discussion, hopefully a little closer.

I had to bind together the ends of a couple of projects today, but there are a few strands still sticking out that I'm hoping to fix in tomorrow and so that I can really push on with weightier projects that need my attention.

Currin made an appearance on BBC Radio Leicestershire this morning. Poor Currin, was on the road from Southampton at 5.30am this morning to make it to the studio, but upon realising that he was still going to be late, phoned ahead to warn the studio. Unfortunately they didn't get the message and Currin got a phonecall three minutes before he was on air to get ready. Problem was he was still on the M1. He came off the motorway and answered the call in the nic of time, thrown promptly into a conversation on business and enjoying the fantastic technical echo of his own voice. When they asked him "Have you got a question for our entrepreneur?", he simply had to answer, "Erm, not off the top of my head"

It actually didn't sound that bad, although my attempt to record it failed. I think he was more concerned about his performance than most of the listeners, who wouldn't have guessed the trouble he'd gone to just to say he's going to Harvard for a while.

This isn't going to be a long entry; today, I need to dedicate brain power to business tasks, not blogging.