"Russ Andrews" to the rescue..?

I have found http://www.russandrews.com/ - they claim to have h140's in stock... about £30 more expensive than Amazon, but hey, if they have them....

I have placed an order, time will tell.

It's not my week!!!

I have just recieved an e-mail from Amazon - they have cancelled my order for an iRiver H140, they are unable to source them... :(

I have just spent 30 minutes searching the web - just about everyone who advertises that model is out of stock with no idea of delivery times, and the manufacturer has discontinued it...

I don't want the replacement -The H340- 'cause
a) Don't need colour - its for playing MP3's!!
b) Don't want reduced battery life that goes with color screens,
c) Don't want to spend an additional £70 for features I don't want,
d) The H340 does not come with a LCD remote and finally...
e) Rockbox is close to being available for the h1xx series, it is some time from being available for the H3xx series

Broadband Speed - on the up again....

Those nice people at BT have just re-configured by broadband connection - It's now 2MB, and it's the same price as I was paying for 1MB...

No firm news on the car

Spoke to the dealers again today, the Scenic is still in Southampton, and still blocked. I have two possible delivery dates (to arrive at the dealers) 2nd March and 8th March, they won't know for certain until it actually arrives (possibly 24 hours before...?)

So for now, I am going to have to assume the 8th, which means I won't be able to pick it up till the 10th or 11th :-(

Enjoying my day off

I decided quite late in the week that I needed a day off. It's a six day week this week (it's my turn for the 8hr Saturday!!). It's been very quiet on the support front this week, that coupled with a full complement of staff, has made the days positively drag, so I just needed a day at home to recharge the batteries.

It has worked out quite well so far... Two packages arrived in the post, that would have otherwise involved me running all over the West Midlands to go and collect them, and the weather has been very cold with a continuous fall of snow - not the greatest of weather to ride a powerfull motorbike in.

I have managed to spend a couple of hours playing with CSS again, and have made a few changes to www.redbreva.com to test out some of my new found skills. I downloaded and installed a Firefox Extension yesterday - 'HTML Validator' : HTML Validator is an Mozilla extension that adds HTML validation to Firefox and Mozilla. The number of errors of a HTML page is seen on the form of an icon in the status bar when browsing. The details of the errors are seen when looking the HTML source of the page. The extension is based on Tidy. The only pages I have seen so far with no errors are my own CSS test pages!!

In addition, as one of my parcels was Dreamweaver MX 2004, I have started to move my websites over from Frontpage 2003. FP is fine, in fact the 2003 version is actually quite good, but it's whole file transfer routines just seem so unreliable - Sync seems to have a life of it's own, and there is next to no progress information when it is actually transfering files. The other parcel is Visual Studio.net 2003, not got around to installing that one yet... lets get the CSS stuff out of the way first.

I have also taken the opportunity to book an appointment with the dentist, as the soreness and swelling has subsided in my mouth this week, the temporary denture is getting more and more loose - this is causing me difficulties with eating (again!!)

Aaarrrrrrggggggghhh!

Phoned the Renault dealers today to see what the current situation was with the new car. The original confirmation letter from Renault was that it should be delivered to the dealers on the 23rd (today)...

I was less than pleased to find that it was

1. Still in Southampton


2. 'Blocked'


3. they have no idea why it is blocked


4. It may not be at the dealers till the 8th March

I have to call them back again on Friday to see if there is anymore information available, but it does beg the question... When were they going to tell me it had been delayed? I have already agreed (and recieved) a price for my old car with a new owner - who was expecting to be able to collect it on the 1st - and have booked a days leave from work to go and collect the car!

Today has been a good day...

... for my mouth.

I have had only a mild discomfort at worst, and luch time managed to eat a BurgerKing chick strippers meal... Real food at last (OK calling BK real food is streaching the point a little, but it's better than anything else I have had this week.

Job Application

I am going to be applying for another job this week... Still within BT, but this post is as a "Consulting Engineer". That rather grand title means getting out and about to customers site to assist with installation of complex IVR/CTI solutions.

It pays well, is a job I would really like to do, working with a team of guys I like, chance to work from home when I want to and a car... On the downside: frequent nights away from home.

I will be applying, even tho' I don't have all the requirements - Periphonics IVR experience, experience delivering projects to tight timescales etc., but then again very few people within BT do, so... hey ho - nothing to lose!

Must go. just off to tweak the CV....

Still in pain...

This temp denture is still giving me grief... Today is the first day it is not actually really sore. My eating has been crap all week, soup, pasta, mince, rice etc. and even some of that hurt!!
I have lost over 5lbs in weight, and saved about £12 in dinner money, so it's not all bad.

If it is still sore tommorow, I am going to go back to the dentsit and get it checked out... I am sure the plate is not meant to be this loose!

On account of the fact that I have been feeling miserable all week, I really havn't done much, hence no updates or new entries since last Sunday.

A couple of updates...

The bike came back from the shop on Thursday afternoon, but in the space of a 2 minute ride it's hard to tell if there is any significan improvement in it's condition...
It seems the plugs were "well crapped up" - I believe it's a technical term - and "the throtle's were out of balance"
Ah well, get some fuel tommorow, and see how it gouse on the way to work (It's been way too cold to ride for fun this weekend)

On the mouth front, I have been struggling to eat for a few day : Oat-so-Simple and warm Weetabix have been my sole intake for two days. Yesterday, I was feeling a) a little more adventurous and b) VERY hungry, so I cook Pasta with Mince. It was really nice, I could eat it without pain or choking!

I was told I could leave the plate out overnight (after the first night), so on Friday I did just that - Big Mistake!! Putting it back in on Saturday morning was like having needles in the roof of my mouth. For now I will continue to smear the back of the plate with Bonjel every few hours, and leave it in overnight!!

Blue 'Ground Effect' lights in your PC

You know how all the 'Cool' cars have blue LED's and stuff on them now? It makes them go faster and handle better I believe... Well what if you want your computer to go faster?

Well you can have a 'window case' with some fancy lights inside... you can fit really cool round cables to the drives, you fan change the fans to ones with LED's in... but the memory chips just sit there lookin.... well uncool

NOT ANY MORE : Crucial have produced Ballistix memory with blue ground effect lighting AND red/yellow chasing LED's - You just know that it's got to be running fast now!

Ooooooooohhhhh.... Want That One!!

Over on Engadget is a piece about a 600GB DVR from Toshiba

600 GB!! Beats the 40GB on my Sky+ box into next week! It's enough for 300 hours of TV........ Want One!!

Front Tooth has been Extracted

Not pretty...


This is what fits in the hole...


And together it looks not to bad...


It's feeling quite sore now the anasthetic has worn off, it's really uncomfortable and talking is a nightmare - I sound like a right numpty, my tongue just doesn't know where to go!! I have to keep it in overnight (just for tonight), then I can take it out to rinse my mouth with warm salt water.

The worst thing tho' is the continual wretching... I suppose I will get used to it eventually, but until then it's unbearable!

I have to go back in 4 weeks for a checkover, to see how well it's all healing

iSkin for iRiver on it's way

I am not a big fan of the hard leather case supplied with the iRiver, but I was keen on the iSkins soft cases available for the iPod. Will it turns out that iSkins also make an iRiver version

I have just ordered one - GHOST - which is a) white, so will match with my headphones :) and b) it glows light blue in the dark - cool!

At £24 it's not cheep, but it is really funky

PS Update on the iRiver - delivery date is estimated to be 25th Feb to 2nd March

Now it's the SV's turn for some TLC

After the last week or so when the Megane seemed to get all the attention (New Tires, Rear door light switch etc.) it's the turn of my beloved SV1000 to get some Tender Loving Care...

For the last few weeks it's been getting progressively rougher when running. If it was a four cylinder bike, I would swear it was only running on three!! The exhaust gases on the right hand side seems to have a greater pressure on them, and the fuels consumption seems to have dropped by about 10%

Tonight it was taken to Streetbike, where tommorow it will have it's 4000 mile service (it's only done a bit over 3000, but it's almost 12 months old and that's the closed 'official' service) I should get it back tommorow afternoon, and hopefully it will be to it's exciting best.

CSS made Easy

I have been talking quite a lot about Cascading Style Sheets recently, to anyone unfortunate enough to look even slightly interested. In the process of boring people to death, I realised that not only do most web users understand the concept, but I don't know it well enough to explain it to them...

Here is a website that seems to make a good stab at explaining it in simple terms

Browser Exploit that does NOT affect IE!!

Oh no! It seem there is a 'proof of concept' at large that allows a malicious attacker to spoof the website address shown in the URL bar. This bug can be exploited on Firefox, Mozilla, Safari and Opera, but NOT on Microsoft's own Internet Explorer!!

But, before MS starts rejoycing too much, it should be pointed out that the only reason that IE is not affected, is that 'International Domain Name' [IDN] is not actually supported on IE!!

Google you way around the states

Google have launched yet another beta service onto the unsuspecting public : Google Maps

If you live in the United States of America, it shows the whole world, however to the rest of the world, it only shows the USA, that's not fair...


Oooohhh hang on, to Americans the USA IS the whole world!

Another new toy on order...

I have decided it's time I changed my MP3 Walkman, the reasons?

1. The Archos FMR is fine, but just a lttle too bulky and heavy for use in the Gym.


2. The sound is a little 'Flat' with the new headphones.


3. It's been two years since I last changed my walkman


4. I can afford to change it


5. I want a new toy!

What to choose, that was the question. Actually it was quite a simple decision...
New player must:

• Have a remote control, with display, so that you can change tracks, volume etc on a treadmill in the gym


• Be relatively small and lightweight (see point a above)


• Have good sound quality


• Have good battery life (in excess of 15 hours) and not go flat if left in your bag for two days (So no iPod then!)


• Have a Drag'n'Drop interface to explorer (No sync software here thank you very much)


• Have "Folder and File" navigation, an ID3 database is OK, as long as it is optional


• Have 40GB or greater capacity (I currently use approx 30GB, and have to 'manage' my audio books to keep some free space)


• Have a USB2 interface


• Should support multiple audio formats (MP3, WMA, OGG etc)


• It MUST be able to run Rockbox firmware

The last point is the killer... The only currently produced hardware that supports Rockbox is the Ondio 128 Flash player, but porting work is underway to allow it to run on the http://www.archos.com/products/overview/gmini_120.html and 2xx range, and the iRiver H-1xx and H-3xx range

I have no interest in colour and video, so the H-340 is out as it is too expensive, the remote has no display, and it won't be ported untill AFTER the H-1xx series.

I am not too impressed with the look of the Gmini range, I know this is purely person taste, but it is a Personal MP3 player, and it just doesn't float my boat

I have listened to the H-1xx with my new 'phones and it sounds really good

So, decision made the iRiver H-140 it is, where from - Amazon.co.uk - £239.99 inc VAT and P&P

An improved MS Paint - Paint.Net

It is a paint program designed entirely by students at Washington State, and written using Microsoft's .NET Framework.

Paint.NET is the new way to easily create and edit photos for a variety of purposes.

Maintaining some of the best features of the original MS-Paint application, Paint.NET also includes new, powerful tools. Such new tools include a history storage for undos and redos, and powerful multi-layering which is often seen only in high-quality, expensive photo-applications.

This product was engineered with the latest in graphics and coding technology such as the new C# language from Microsoft, and the GDI+ graphics libraries.

These programming frameworks allowed for the creation of a speedy, responsive application with an amazing array of graphic capabilities. While the details of the code is not important for the end-user, you will surely be amazed at the usability and power of Paint.NET.

if you have Windows 2000, or Windows XP and need a better bitmap editor... Go get a copy here

Another useless website

This one has no useful point whatsoever, but is still fun for 30 seconds or so

PS it's Star Wars related...

Easy 'Flash' creation?

Powerbullet Presenter

Takes a MS Powerpoint presentation as it's input, and gives HTML + FLASH as it's output...!

No excuse not to build that fancy web page anymore (the one you have been putting off till you can find a couple of hundred of spare hours to learn how to use Flash, so that you can justify spending that much cash to buy it in the first place)

WTF!!!

You remember the case of the non-functional light switch on the car?

Well now it's working! yep! Do nothing and it starts to work... No idea why, and don't really care. Just as long as it's working at the end of this month when it goes to it's new owner

If you have an interest in Mobile Phones...

Try TheFeature :: It's All About The Mobile Internet

In their own words -
TheFeature - An opinionated, independent voice focused on issues relating to the development and deployment of the wireless and mobile Internet. TheFeature's coverage ranges from basic education to technical and business news to sociological issues. TheFeature is also a community where its users can meet one another, exchange opinions and make the wireless revolution a reality.

Family Tree

My mother has recently got interested in finding a bit more about her maternal family line - her mother died when she was only 6

So I signed up with http://www.ancestry.co.uk and have found:
Her Mother: Lily Violet Craling (B 1899)
Her Grandparents: Frederick William (1859) and Sarah Craling (1864) Nee - Cole
Her GreatGrandparents : Edward (1835) and Elenor (1831) Craling, and (unconfirmed as yet) George and Susan Cole

My mother was always convinced that her motherwas from Irish stock, but it turns out that Edward was born on the Isle of Man

Sods Law II

On Monday I went to the Renault Dealers to collect a rear door light switch, when I got home - it didn't fit properly... It actually worked, but was too deep to allow the interior panels to be refitted!
So yesterday I went back and got the correct one, came home and fitted it - fits perfectly, unfortunately it don't work. I don't think it's actually a switch fault, as shorting the contacts out didn't switch off the lights either!

Oh well, looks like a bit more digging with a multi-meter is the order of the day for Saturday!