Best error mesage ever...

I'm very concerned I might have discovered a serial query killer. It's purposefully victimizing my code. Now I've caught this in time, but I thought I should spread the word. Everyone must be vigilant.

Downloads and Uptimes

Look at all the updates I've got...



Why so many? As you can see some of them are pretty old, I've just not been in the mood to make my fella reboot, I'm getting pretty good uptime Fu right now,



Parallels needs an outing tomorrow though (It's conspiring against my uptime), time for Vista RTM to get its tukkus (sp) onto my Parallels machine. Which itself is currently archived to an external somewhere, just gotta chase down Office then for the new version.

In a heads up I'm probably going to ditch my Napster subscription soon.

e-music are offering double free trial downloads at the moment and with no DRM and a decent collection of Miles Davis and classical, sounds perfect for me.

No they won't have the latest Christina, joking, but I'm sure their collection is one to be proud of. Did I mention no DRM ?

New mac ads.... you know I love 'em

Available at apple.com - no I'm not providing a link, it isn't exactly hard is it ?

"Please be a C++ gui programming guide" F'ing AWESOME. It feels like they are now playing up to the love that people have for our Mr. Hodgman ? Whereas Justin looks like he needs a hair cut.

In overview, I can't quite workout where Apple appear to be going. the C++ book didn't look useful on the mac. The emphasis on "iLife Jazz" is indicating that although they've pumping out one with Mac in a business suit Macs are not for serious computing ?

Whilst picture from that conference attest that the Apple platform is in its ascendancy with the "geek squad" as a colleague put it, Apple don't seem to be pushing that line. We've see no super computing videos using a cluster of Intel Power Macs. No ads harking back to the days of the Wallstreet mac ?

Just ads with Justin looking cool and him and John looking kooky and unhip. I really think they should be pushing the ads with the hacker community. Although the arrogant, suave espresso drinking, paul smith scarf (See the header img) wearing mac user in me screams - "No the intelligent ones are already making the correct decision"

Release the dogs of war

Technorati Profile

Then I must click a release the spiders button, it all sounds rather scary.

iStick

STICKY SITUATION:
German scientists have developed a walking stick that calls for an ambulance if the owner falls over. The Fraunhofer Institute for Experimental Software Development in Kaiserslautern invented the "I-Stick" to help elderly people. If a sensor in the I-Stick registers that it is in a horizontal position, the result of someone falling over, it sends a signal to a control unit, which plays a message telling the owner to pick it up. If the stick remains on the floor, the control box is programmed to call an ambulance or a chosen relative. The I-Stick is yet to hit stores, but its inventors are looking for a distributor.

I think this is from a recently daily GQ e-mail. Pretty decent use of technology if ever there was one.

Vista Flip 3D

After reading about it, after not being able to run it because of my lack of direct 3D emulation in parallels. After struggling to find it on a regular set up, thinking it was simply a replacement for alt+tab and thinking - yeah so that's the new alt+tab everyone is whaling about ?

I finally got flip-3d activated. I'll tell you it looks cool. It ran pretty snappy even though I only had 128 megs of video ram. Here are a few of my other early Vista RTM shots. Vista out of beta or RC runs noticeably faster, taking out the reporting code has up'd the antee heaps.
I do think that is seriously cool, the independent volumes per application.

Taking only 51 minutes to install with a mere three crashes, two of which during a required reboot anyway - isn't too bad.

Above is the rather natty thumbnail tab minimized affair, cute. A friend of mine was rallying the Windows cry "Guess what you can minimize a video and it keeps playing in the task bar" - Uh huh that's novel. The Widget bar is still annoying taking up valuable real estate full of pretty crappy widgets, gadgets I mean. Completely different, honest.

The UK joins the iTrip party

FM transmitters for media players are great, they allow any player device to send it's content to a radio receiver set to the correct frequency. They allow for podcasts to be played in a car or around the house. Personally for domestic iTunes listening I prefer the WiFi enabled Aiport Express with Airtunes.

The iTrip and other devices of its ilk have thus far been illegal in the UK, some archaic law about FM transmitters means those Brits who elected to use them in their vehicles or homes were criminalized.

That is soon to change according to UK communications panel, ofcom



The statement from the 23rd of November indicates that in response to consumer demand from the 8th December the ban will be lifted. It seems like a pretty ridiculous thing to ban in the first place.


What can you expect from a nation where you have to have a license to own a television.


The UK Apple Store is already offering transmitters of various types, iPod specific with dock connectors or those which simply plug into the headphone stereo jack on any player.

Ready, Set....Go (in 30 minutes)

Oooo I'm heady with excitement.

Smert' Shpionam

RIP Alexander Litvinenko,


After seeking refuge in 2000 he made some serious enemies, accusing the FSB of planting bombs that killed Russians and standing up for dead reporter Alexander Litvinenko,did not win him any further favors with the Russian administration.

Crossing Putin certainly seems to correlate with being disincentivised . It wasn't the FSB though, honest.

More here It is like something from an Ian Flemming book, Смерть Шпионам

I bet this doesn't get the coverage it deserves

This is an awesome piece of footage, honest good willed and shows that something positive can still be achieved, even if it is only a kick about.

Castle Wolfenstein on 360

I'm still mulling over getting a games machine, and an iPod etc. This piece of news got my thinking though - I loved Return on the PC, I was always a fan of the original DOS version - come on who wasn't.



Then combine that, with this news report and I'm seriously considering a purchase. The PS3 can blow for all I care - too expensive. Wii I'm too old to go learning a new fangled way to run and jump.

You know Christmas is coming when

...you start to see all the adverts for Black Friday. More importantly when everyone's favorite caffeinated fizzy drink rolls out the Festive labels.

Ex-KGB Chap Poinsoned

I appear to have tuned in to the 80s, I turned the wireless on and heard a report of the alleged thallium metal poisoning of a Russian who lives in the UK, a former Colonel in the KGB / FSB (Modern ducky version). Alexander Litvinenko a fierce critic of the current Russian administration, has lost his hair, is having trouble speaking and has been unable to eat properly since only a few hours after eating Sushi in a restaurant.

He has recently been involved in investigating the gunning down on Anna Politkovskaya who was executed some months back. Anna was an outspoken opponent of President Putin's policy in Chchnya, a position it is thought garnered her the evil eye of somebody in the Russian Administration.

To be fair Putin did pay lip service to wanting to find the killers, despite he would now receive less negative press and would appear to benefit from her death. Eyebrows are being raised and I imagine some people might think twice before crossing this man,


Litvineko, went to the UK some years ago and was granted asylum on the basis that he is somewhat a critic of Russian Policy in Chechnya. Litvineko is accused in his homeland or organizing terrorism and explosions in Moscow.

He was meeting some lawyer sort who allegedly had more information about the death of Politkovskaya, they met at some sushi bar or another and hours later Alex was unwell.

Photo from Flickr

Now I know some people who think Sushi is worse than poisoning anyway, I doubt though this is what they have in mind

Tonnes of Free WiFi

A picture of the sheer number of access points around that great coffee place I hung out at during that Web Conference, Chestnut Cafe.



I especially loved the "Free Internet For You Moochers"

Search Yahoo! for maps.

I love Yahoo!, I do - one of my first e-mail accounts in regular use was Yahoo! I am insanely jealous of Stammy's internship at Yahoo! They are in a bit of a weird place, they've got several systems, some of them are a bit disparate (flickr). Whilst they are trying to tie them up and have done a fab job with the geo tagged flickr pictures hooked up with their maps.

One problem still exists inside their search algorithm, they are failing in the self promotion stakes - Yahoo! has super mapping, but if you search Yahoo! for Maps - guess who they point you too first...

Yet another picture from my archive, this one taken when I was in London for that Wedding in September...

Single serving friends and drinking wine alone

This has been living in my To-Do folder since my trip to London, I was in a store and spotted these baby bottles of vino. I was going to write a big thing about Wine for one, maybe drinking alone. Instead I'll just reference that great part on Fight Club when Taylor Durdon meets the Soap Salesman and refers to him as the most interesting single serving friend he'd ever come across.

Here is the picture.

If Microsoft designed CSS

Continuing my adventure through my To-Do folder living in my Documents folder, it sits on my Dock and whenever I get a build up of crap on said Desktop, rather than letting the icons fester like some primitive animal (You know who you are) I, instead, throw them in the To-Do folder.

This does have the advantage of clearing my desktop and making me appear all efficient and on top of things. Is does however encourage the idea that out of site certainly IS out of mind.

ANYWAY I found this old snap shot of what appears to be a comment from some digg story or another ?

iPod shuffle

Got my hands on a shuffle yesterday. It is TINY. Very very tiny. I still don't buy the no screen idea. I could maybe consider sticking some music on it and heading to the gym, at that point I might cope without a screen.

Although if I'm buying an iPod (No I've still not got one) for the extra you might as well get a nano - and the extra capacity.

iBook battery problems

Along with getting a decent backup solution, a la my complete weekly clone. One of the other prime war of attrition I've been engaged in recently was to get the Maltese one to check the battery in her laptop for possible explosive habits - you know like a North Korean nuclear missile.

Well she was resisting, you see we've gotten ourselves in to a small competition about uptimes. My own fault really. Previously her iBook had managed nearly 30 days without a reboot and no ill effects - pretty impressive.

Well MTP relented and checked out her battery serial number, only to find out that the 14" iBooks are not effected and now her lappy has an uptime of a poultry...



and she's all bitter. My MBP is currently on...



Best i had was 14days then Software Update needed some attention and iTunes wanted to reboot. Parallels is a bit crafty when it comes to my uptime, it's a bloody conspiracy.

The register's podcast

Continuing blogging my way through my "To-Do" folder I found this mp3 of the Registers new podcast.



I first became a religious reader of el reg when a lecturer at college said it extolled my parallel virtues of cynicism and sarcasm.

RIP Milton Friedman

Influencing economic policy around the world, advocate of the free market and fantastic orator. From legalising drugs, to cutting taxes under any circumstance - he wasn't always agreeable but now he can enjoy his free lunch.

Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 - November 15, 2006)

Common Sense and the Law

OK I understand that the whole, "I didn't mean to do that honest your honor", is a valid defense when the ole bill are trying to feel one's collar for some questionable online habbits. It has to be, simply because right now with that massive information prime ordeal soup that is the web crica 2006, it can occasionally be said that some stuff just pops up - ON SCREEN.

That can be when you're searching for a crack, for the latest version of Office 2007, hackerish sites are adorned with all sorts of javascript powered banner ads.

Maybe you're searching for a new Mosquito Zapping game or some illicit poker rooms and the banner changes suddenly leading you to unsavoriness sort of sites that peddle peado stuff along side normal porn.

Could be, you are indeed searching out normal all american girl on girl big breasted action (think of the click through I'm gonna get off this puppy) and said girl on girl action has something less than acceptable on the same page, in a fenzied one handed clicking mission you might get the wrong link.

In those cases you really don't deserve to be going down, pardon the pun, for peado stuff. We can discuss the moralities of the above examples themselves later or indeed the morality of all porn / gambling another time.

That is why I'd hope that common sense is applied in all rulings whereas this...


Just smacks of a damn technicality, this dude didn't stumbleupon this vileness, we're not talking

"Oh shit I didn't mean to click that, eww a seven year old, that's horrid and has completely put me off for the rest of week"

NO this schmuck has gone through 370+ of these images that's no accident, and he's gotten off with it because of some smart arse highly paid lawer type with a nice cravat and an Armarni watch, all fired up after his morning Espresso wanted to take the spirit of the law and feed it some vodka and maybe some rohypnol, then take some pictures and place them on a Thai Child Porn ring's site.

Sorry to rant, but it annoys me. We've got old ladies getting cease and desist notices because of the DMCA and this creep walks.

It does link into this other article, also on the reg, about a new law in the UK. The whole "Queen's speech" thing isn't some 80's gay thing, it's just British.

Now I'm not into anything kinky, maybe some whipped cream and strawberries - probably my limit. However I do think it is a bit harsh that two consenting adults who wanna have a bit of rough, whilst not being my thing, can be criminalized in what to all intense and purposes seems like a bit of a knee jerk reaction.

And I must say...

Extreme depictions of such scenarios are no more depraved than graphic horror or war films.

Is a bit far, I never remember Humphrey Bogart saying the immortal words "Of all gin joints in all the towns mistress bitch you stormed in to mine and whipped me in a gimp suit for your pleasure" maybe it is that top shelf version "Castratemyblanca."

Free music from Nissan

I can't remember what site I found this on, maybe ZeFrank - however.


Takes you to a site that has about 4 different playlists for driving your Nissan, that you can easily download. No the music is not the best, but it is free and enjoyable enough.

Download speeds weren't bad either, might I consider buying a Nissan for my next car, probably no more than Ford - who hacn't given me free music, but did give me a free car CD case a few years ago though.

A bit of merlin magic, check e-mail only every half hour

So everyone loves, Merlin Mann and his productivity websites / podcasts. However I recently took on board some of his advice. People who know me know what a stubborn old bastard I can be, so to actually take advice and act on it - unheard of.



Yes that's correct folks... my mail is only checked every 30 minutes, and do you know what. It's amazingly liberating. I decided to try it after a recent altercation at work about my habbit of wondering off and not taking my cell with me, my personal phone I might add.

My boss was lecturing me again about how it is important that I am contactable, and if my cell is malfunctioning, the company would supply me with one that I must carry with me at all times. I tried to explain that I don't run ANY safety critical systems, planes don't fall from the sky, cooling rods don't fail to instantiate in my object oriented nuclear reactor.

After some acrid comment about e-mail without QOS is actually a more reliable communications tool for me that a cell I decided to, possible in a fit of pique, make it just slightly more difficult to contact me.

So e-mail is only auto collected every half hour, and do you know what has happened, bog all. No one died. No one even noticed. Except me, I get a clearly defined half hour whereby my computer is controlled by my schedule and not the other way round.

I have a fairly large list of mail rules anyway to sort things on the way in.

Then I have a smart folder of today's unread messages which I must attend to, now every 30 minutes, which takes mere moments then I'm back on task - after a crafty check of the digg homepage.

You see there is almost a rule of diminishing returns when checking e-mail every minute as I used to - you spend time sorting and time slicing in and out of modes and to be honest getting less real work done.

All hail Merlin for he knows the truth.

hubble bubble

I've got about 7 pictures on my desktop to blog about, for now I shall start with this winner I made earlier, I WAS REALLY Bored...



Enjoy.

I've not installed the EFI update yet, will report back when done.

EFI Updates, Whine anyone ?

Mac Book Pro Updates

Apparently I should get these... some for the iMac too

And the cupboard was bare...

Don't you just hate it, you construct a DVD layout, you prep all the videos, remove the ads add a pretty menu and then you grab the spindle to find that you're going nowhere.

Rumsfeld Apple Humor

I don't visit boing boing often, I came across this gem via Digg.com - here



Fab, night

Fallen in the ImageWell

I've been using the new ImageWell version 3 beta for a few days now.

Finally, an easier way to quickly edit your images and send them off to the web.

I upgraded from Version 2 which I've been using pretty much since I got my first mac. I had read they've given it some pretty major interface upgrades.

I use image well to resize the images I snap from the web, often screen shots I grab using trusty ++ - OK It's one of the different key strokes from Windows and the trusty print screen but even so I find it somewhat more powerful. Anyway to grab a window in Windows you've gotta try and remember Shift+Print Screen to get a particular windows, oh no Ctrl+Print Screen, or is it Alt+Print Screen.

Back to ImageWell.



ImageWell has been a Universal Binary since just after the Intel processors appeared on the scene. The current Beta launched in double time. The tip off I'd been given was right the interface has changed significantly.

Now you edit an image from a larger more responsive screen that has better visual clues to the available options. The different modes maintain across the two main screens.



Here from the edit screen you merely click on the image you are editing with and the tools avail themselves of your every desire. OK That's a bit strong, but all the norms are offered, rotate, zoom, and my personal favorite drop shadow. Previously that darling of the Web 2.0 generation was found under a Menu.

The reason I liked ImageWell is that you can set some locations and have the program upload your edited masterpieces right to it. Don't get me wrong it's not full fledged FTP app but it does the job. That function combined with TextPanda allowed me to upload an image and type a short code and I've got an image embedded into my blog post.

Version 3 takes this function further, once it's completed an upload you can have ImageWell automatically place the address of the image on the clipboard. So now I just upload and paste.



Looking at the details it adds a bunch of tags I don't care for, and some extraneous slashes I don't approve of. Shaves a few seconds off - all about the flow after all isn't it. ImageWell also stores an image history of the uploads it's made, which is great because if I used an image twice I usually forgot what I'd called an uploaded image in between and had to look the name up manually.

That is a theme that is often touted on the mac platform.

The other extra little nugget is this little dice living in the name bar at the top,



This lets ImageWell generate a random name for the file to be uploaded.

Given that it's still in Beta I've found version three very stable the only bug I've spotted is when typing in a width of an image, ie 409 for the width of images posted in this blog, I found it randomly entered 3 instead of the first 4 - strange I know.

That's all for now, until I find some more little wonders I shall keep you informed of any other info. about the RC .

Taking windows on date...

That is the 30th of January 2007 for those keeping count it is the 5 such date that Windows Longhorn, Vista or whatever has had over the past 6 years, starting back in October 2003...



It looked good didn't it... to think if they'd have been on time, I probably would never have bothered looking at a mac - ask my friends what I was like, just over a year ago.

Manchester gets a digital store

Manchester, UK already has two Apple stores in the Vision of Jobs, alongside, according to macworld magazine's UK website a service center or centre in Manchester.

Joining the line up this weekend is an Apple Digital Store this is a spin off from the aforementioned service center, GBM.

Find out more here

Fox's stem cell candidate...

She won, time to see if she delivers on her promise to push Stem Cell research.

Rumsfeld "Hey where did my career go?"

So Bush has had his ass handed to him, much like Rumsfeld's defence policies to him in other people's countries around the world.

Bush might stand at that podium saying he understands how the country needs a new direction, how he's gonna listen to everyone's views and harp on about the new responsibilities but lets face it I don't think him recommending a decorator is the kind of cross party support this country needs.

Well done for voting, whether you agree with the consensus or not at least you can say you were part of it. Is that not what other countries yern for ? The ability to change the political landscape the direction of their country by pencil and paper not grenade and gun.

That simple action is something that has been missing from many places around the world, is it our right to change our landscape with paper yet their landscape with bombs ? Is it ?

For those that didn't vote, you don't know what you're missing or how damn lucky you are.

Digg down....

I'd digg it, but that might be a circular reference... netscape anyone ?



Maybe it is an election special ?

Please vote

Grace, Fox, Fox and Midterms

Say what you like about Fox (TV), political leanings, it gave pretty short shrift to Rush Limbaugh's Fox Impression. They point out that whilst this time Fox (Brave Actor) may have supported a democratic candidate, McCaskill for Missouri. Previously he has support a republican candidate in 2004, Senator Arlen Specter - Pennsylvania, because he had helped double funding for Stem Cell research.



Fox hasn't been partisan, he's been selfish and rightfully so - he doesn't care which party, blue or red, does it - he just knows Stem Cells research is needed.

Dr. John Boockvar, a neurosurgeon and assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medical Center at New York's Presbyterian Hospital, called Limbaugh's claim that Fox was acting "ludicrous." Boockvar said those with Parkinson's have "on" and "off" spells.

"If there is one single disease that has the highest potential for benefit from stem cell research," Boockvar said Tuesday, "it's Parkinson's."

Please vote.

Coverflow functionality

Recently I've ripped three new albums to my iTunes library. I noticed coverflow configures its display to how you've organized the list of tracks you're coverflowing...

Here you can see the same cover art is repeated because my playlist is organized by Track



Whereas here the playlist is organized by album, the cover arts only appear once each.



this also applies to organized by artist.

A surge in blender purchases by cocain dealers

Another gem off of youtube, or was that utube ? Does this not smack a little of irresponsibility ? Despite all the don't do this at home style warnings, and "Don't breath that it" Why ? Won't a fine crystalline dust coat my lungs and make them stronger.

I can sense a rush on this particular model as coke dealers rush out to purchase this as an easy method of cutting that glass to mix with their products.

Another interesting night on youtube, night.

Saddam Death Sentence

I JUST Don't know. I don't really get why they bothered with a 20 year prison sentence too. I struggle with my own position on the death sentence, the fact that Iraq would implement this sentence surely is an indication that this is a country that isn't ready for democracy, I think.

Was it even a trial by our standards, hell we wanna force our idea of democracy into the region, I assume our standards of legal implementations too ?

I find UK Home Secretary John Reid's comments about this being an indication of the sovereignty of the Iraqi nation, obscene. The administrations of the UK and the USA didn't seem all too bothered about penetrating the sovereignty of that nation 4 years ago by invading.

An action I agreed with, I still stand by that opinion, I wont wavier simply because one, one of three, of the reasons that was laid out hasn't been proven. Personally and professionally I do believe Iraq was developing WMD. Where they a direct threat to our country, no, did they have links with Al-Queda, most likely.

That is where the risk of them having technology x & y came from, that and they would have been more than willing to turn Israel into a steaming hole in the ground with said technology - possibly a larger risk.

Do I believe that the Hague was effective, and should have hosted the trial, No. It failed, IMHO after the second world war, it has resolutely failed or is failing those who suffered in the Balkans. When they obtain a guilty verdict we place these monsters in cells with cable, big screen TVs until the day they die. Does that mean I think we should execute the ? NO - it means I don't know all the answers, something some of my friends think I don't realize much of the time - I do.

What to do, what to do... get food - I'm hungry.

Another Parallels update Build 1970

Well those crazy kids at Parallels have been at it again, today I found another release of their amazing Windows on a Mac and other OS Virtulisation software.



So it seemed rude not to install it immediately and it killed a few cycles at work, shhh. Build 1970 has come hot on the heels of the last big public release, that sounds Dirty... Oaten who ? The last big public release 1966.



The last big addition to the feature set covered an update to the networking stack. They added an additional mode that allows the Guest machine to apparently always connect to a network even when the Host machine is logged onto a PEAR type VPN, like the Cisco VPN using the proprietary VPN Client.

Usually when connected to this system it knocks out the rest of your computers network connections like those to the web and including those being used by a guest OS like parallels in Bridged mode. The latest upgrade to parallels means that if your host machine is logged onto such a restrictive VPN it shouldn't effect the guests network connection, however it will still stop it accessing the Host computer via the network.

Stupid chicken.

The other upgrade that popped up recently, is a further update to textmate. Checking the release notes, I spotted this diamond of an update:



That means no more pumpkin icon, :-( however I whilst doing some reading around also heard that textmate wasn't the only quirky app on All Hallows Eve, Quicksilver (The amazing application launcher + so much more from blacktree.com also got all dressed and obviously there was the obligatory google image makeover.

iTunes updates before bed...

I wonder what these will be, stability maybe ? More performance, possibly on the windows side a Virus scanner...they need one

Nite M

Boo, scared ya ? Pumpkin and textmate and ZeFrank

OK this is a bit late as I spotted it yesterday but didn't have a chance to blog it... I am getting quite in to ruby and rails etc, something about David Heinemeier Hansson's Germanic accent turns me on. OK That last bit is a lie, I have watched his how too videos in which he promotes textmate from macromatesas his editor of choice for rails.

I poney'd up the cash and bought a legit copy after a prolonged testing period. Imagine my surprise when I fired up the little blighter yesterday to find the icon had switched to a Pumpkin and the dialog boxes all were adorned with Orange Halloween faces.



Further more I opened an empty project to test something and found the display covered in spider webs...

Here you can tell why they only develop for macs, can you imagine this going down well on the PC platform. Helplines would be deluged with calls about the ghost in the machine, the virus ravaging files and destroying data, when it's just some developer having some fun.

In a vague linkyness I will send you all off to see ZeFrank with his Pumpkin pages

ps Regarding ZeFrank I now have the lovely old lady with her guitar singing "Welcome to the show" as my ring tone...here is the lady I'm on about. She also is my alarm noise in the morning too... well cool.

Duckies.

Windows Installer CleanUp Utility and Cisco VPN Client woes

I've been trouble shooting a problem with a VPN client install on a work machine recently. Obviously trying to fix VPN stuff requires testing remotely, a further pain.

This last time round I decided I'd upgrade the VPN client, I got hold of version 4.6 and attempted to install it. There was some horrid difficulty because the previous install version 4.0.4 had cracked up somewhere meaning, I couldn't uninstall - error 1271 don't ya know.

The broken install meant I couldn't run another install, apparently a module is broken...



Further to that, at one point during an attempted install the new version tries to uninstall the older version and balls' it up. It then sits in a rebooting loop atemping on every load to finish the install which means trying to uninstall again.

I googled around for a bit, as every good tech support does, and found a few people who had similar error messages, most of their resolutions weren't applicable, using system restore... didn't work on this machine. Manually removing the VPN client and reinstalling, yeah like I've not thought of that, tried the Cisco instructions and had them fail miserably.

Finally I started mooching around for a fix for broken uninstallers, which is what the cisco client seemed to be guilty of - I found this diamond in the rough. It must be pretty old as it sports, Windows 98 in it's compatibility list...



This bad boy presents a list of programs it thinks are installed, it then offers you the option of cleaning / removing another program's installer information... sweet. Although quite what Office has to do with it all I don't know...





One cleaned Cisco installer later, followed by a happy upgrade to version 4.6 VPN client and away we go...