This is really just a post to test out the new Windows Live Writer program. I have been accepted onto the Microsoft Connect Windows Live Beta programme, so I feel duty-bound to do this.

On the same note, the new Windows Live Messenger 8.5 is great! The interface is slicker and the whole Windows Live suite seems far better integrated.

The latest version of my script has now been released. It will be published here until it is in the official scripts database.

Answer Phone records and displays messages which are sent and received whilst you are away, just like a telephone answering machine. These can be logged to a file on your hard disk, and also uploaded to an FTP server. This version has been rewritten from scratch for enhanced usability and performance. It is now very customisable, and can be used as a functional message logger for all messages.

New Features:

• New Options Interface with more customisation

• Can be configured per-status, for example to only work when Idle and Busy

• More timings for upload, e.g. on sign in, to prevent lag

• Recoded from scratch for enhanced performance

• Settings are saved individually for each email address used

As always, any feedback is much appreciated.

Why on Earth do we need another pass grade in the exam system? Aren’t A, B, C, D and E enough? Especially as everyone knows that only C’s or better are worth anything. Apparently not.

First someone realised that English students were not achieving particularly high grades. This left them with a number of choices: a) Improve the education system,  b) Make the exams themselves easier, or c) Lower the marks needed for each grade. Not wanting to cause too little controversy, they chose both b) and c).

So far, so odd. But now it has been noticed that lots of people achieved lots of A’s. This hardly shows that the A grade distinguishes the best candidates, as it should. The solution: don’t make exams harder, but introduce an A* grade. Why? Does it really need to be introduced? No. The A grade can be raised to the level that the A* will be at, and then the A still remains the best.

This is the perfect case of the stupidity of the exam situation. Will we have A**++! grades when the A* becomes easy?

I have completely rewritten Answer Phone FTP, and the third version is nearly ready for release. However, because I really want to make this one worthwhile, I am asking for anybody who wants to to please use it before release to find any obvious bugs. Please email me or comment here if interested. New Features:

• New Options Interface with more customisation

•  Can be configured per-status, for example to only work when Idle and Busy

•  More timings for upload, e.g. on sign in, to prevent lag

•  Recoded from scratch for enhanced performance

•  Settings are saved individually for each email address used

So, exams are over for another few months. They all seemed to go OK, hopefully no resits.