How common is your name

Check out NameBrain and see just how original were your parents being when they named you?

Photoshop CS3 - Beta

Yesterday, Adobe announced a public beta of Photoshop CS3 , you will however, need a valid keycode for CS2 to be able to run it for more than 2 days...

EDIT: Deleting "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\AMT\application.sif" removes the 2 day limit!!

On the same day, Lynda.com have released a free preview showing some of the major new features. Best-selling author and Photoshop guru Deke McClelland has teamed up with lynda.com to create the first professionally produced instructional training on every new feature in Photoshop CS3.
Access this free preview training online at http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=327

Stopping the Form Spammers!

Some time ago I set up http://www.rockbox-themes.org to host themes created, by users, for use in the Rockbox alternative firmware program. As part of that site, I created an upload page to allow users to send their work directly to my inbox. However I seem to be attracting quite a lot of junk/spam thro' this route.

One solution may be to introduce a 'Captcha' graphic, you know the sort of thing - enter the following code to proceed (from a distorted image). Seems that this can be implemented quite easily, using code from here:

http://www.white-hat-web-design.co.uk/articles/php-captcha.php

A Totally Bizarre Site

Daily Monster

This guy seems to make an ink stain on a piece of paper every day, and then proceeds to draw around and with the ink blob to produce some truly amazing and totally bizarre pictures...

Definitely one to check out every now and then.

A Young Lady

The Biological clock has started ticking, and our new Teenager, is now also officially a young lady.

This is also the first time I have used the e-mail publishing feature, where you can send an e-mail to a 'Secret' address and it appears here!!

Nice Evening...

Last night I was in Chester with two friends from work.
We were attending a 'tech transfer' for a new server product from STRATUS on Tuesday, but arrived on Monday night to avoid an early morning start. We eat out at a rather nice Italian restaurant 'Piccolino' (32 Pepper Row, Chester).
The Pollo Valdostana was very nice, but the Tiramisu was really quite special... The waitress was excellent, the atmosphere was really nice and I would recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to visit.
verdict: Not cheep, but still well worth the money

New 'Look and Feel' for the blog

New Title, far more representative of the actual content, new colour scheme, Labels for each posting - still the same crap author tho' I'm afraid ...

Boy, am I tired

Tonight, I am working a 12 hour night shift at work, covering for one of the guys who wanted to attend the staff Xmas 'do'... It's currently just a little short of 5AM, and it's still almost 3 hours till home time! I have been awake for about 22 hours now, and am really starting to flag. Mind you , the overtime will be usefull, just after Christmas...

Amy's Birthday Party Pictures

Online at http://photoalbum.rockbox-themes.org

All pictures taken by Amy (Except the few with Amy in them) - I take no responsibility for the camera work!!

Amanda's 40th Birthday Meal

Online at http://photoalbum.rockbox-themes.org/

Can't Leave Alex out...

even tho' it's not his birthday, it seemed only fair to take his picture too... so I present Alex - Aged 8 1/2



As before, click on the image to view the 170 KB larger version

Amanda's 40th Birthday Portrait

With the success of Amy's birthday Picture I decided I had to do something similar to mark Amanda's landmark birthday too...



As before, click on the image to view the 210 KB larger version

Long Gap in the Blog...

Well, since the end of October, I have been a bit lacking in the Blogging department... What has been happening ?

OK, This week is obviously Amy's 13th Birthday - so quite a major event. We took her and a few friends to TGI Fridays yesterday as an alternative to a party. Much fun and merryment was had by all present, and the staff were fantastic. May take a day or two for my hearing to return to normal though... 5 (almost) teen girls in one car makes a Motorhead concert seem quite tame in the volume stakes...

Last Week, that was Amanda's 40th Birthday - another milestone event. On that occasion we took 18 guests to the 'Himely House Country Club' for a meal on the Monday night. Again, a good night was had by all - it turned out to be a late night for the kids (11pm on a school night is not really reccomended), but they coped well, and enjoyed it.

A few days before that, we were at Symphony Hall, Birmingham to see Katherine Jenkins in concert (again), and once again she was fantastic. Her 'guest' tenor was an Iclandic fellow named "Gardar Cortes", and he was quite spectacular in his own right - and thats from someone who does not really like Tenors!!

The 'BBC Good Food Show" was also a recent event - waaaay too much money was spent on that day! Including £20 for a small(ish) bottle of 12 year old, oak matured, Balsamic Vinegar!!

Finally, I got around to putting some pictures from Deb's wedding into an album. If I get time later I will try and sort out the Birthday Pictures for Amy and Amanda...

OK, enough time on the computer for this morning... I have two days off, and I really need to spend some time in the Gym - I have managed to put on about 4 pounds recently... That really has to go!

Amy's 13th Birthday Portrait

Following on from the picture I took last year for Amy's 12th Birthday,
I have this year taken one for her 13th!!



Clicking on the thumbnail above, will load a larger version of the image (179 KB)

I am rather pleased with this photo, and have ordered a couple of 8x10 enlargments for the garnd parents

Which browsers are using my website?

November - www.rockbox-themes.org

Rank	Browser	Hits	Percentage
1	Firefox 2.0	1525	31.47%
2	Firefox 1.5	1105	22.80%
3	Internet Explorer 6.0	1047	21.61%
4	Internet Explorer 7.0	374	7.72%
5	Opera 9.0	246	5.08%

So a good showing by the new boys, FF2, IE7 & Opera 9

Man Utd v Liverpool

I have just finished watching the Man Utd v Liverpool match on Sky Sports... I am very pleased to say that Manchester won 2 - 0, Paul Scoles scored the 1st on his 500th appearance for the club, and Rio scored the 2nd ( A contender for goal of the month)

Coolpix back from repair

On the 27th of August, I reported that the Coolpix 7900 was damaged whilst on holiday, and that it was with Jessops for repair.

Well yesterday, it came back. Fully working, and at no cost - Result !!

Running with Vista RC2

I downloaded and installed RC2 of Windows Vista two weeks ago, installed Office 2007 (Beta 2, Technical Refresh 2) and a number of other 'Must have' applications, and found that it ran rather well, and I am getting to quite like using it.

One problem, however, was that I was not happy to use it too much without any Anti Virus software installed. That was cured e when I installed Live OneCare 1.5 on a 180 day trial. This supplies AV, Spyware, backup, Tuning tools etc. and is compatible with Vista.

I am now a converted VISTA user, and have not needed to switch back to XP all week. That was until now...

1st: I recieved my BT Homehub, and found the software will not install under Vista, initially I thought it may be an IE7 thing, but it worked OK under IE7 in XP...
2nd: I have tried several times to use w.blogger v4 in Vista, and whist it runs fine, it fails to upload... hence the 20 day gap since the last posting!!
3rd: I have a web based training course to attend on Monday/Tuesday and that too will not work in Vista

So for now, it's back to XP - for a couple of days at least

2nd Round in a week!

With a few hours to spare again this morning, and the prospect of improving weather. I decided to go back to Warley Woods and give the new fairway wood a go.

The results were promising, my overall score was still not great for 9 holes (54), but it was 9 shots better than last Thursday, and it was mainly my putting that cost me - 3 and 4 putting was common place this morning. I also found three bunkers today, which obviously had an impact on the final score.

The Fairway wood is spectaular, I can hit it straight, and get about the same distance as the 3 wood. The biggest problem I had with this club was using it too oten, and overshooting the green a couple of times!!


6(4), 5(3), 7(4), 5(3), 6(3), 5(4), 8(4), 6(4), 6(4)
Total 54

Wicked - But totally stupid and pointless - web game

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/40255643/

You'd never believe that you could create an addictive game in just two seconds with a swipe of your mouse.But that's what you do with Line Rider, an amusing Flash cartoon in which you become the animator. Just click "Play," then "Continue."
Draw a line and click the new Play button you see at the top of the window and you're in business.The game's creator, who goes by the handle of "fsk," suggests you start by drawing a line from upper left to upper right. But try drawing a gradual, smiley curve instead and see what happens to the little toboggan rider who careens down your slope.The game was just posted on Saturday but has already been played more than half a million times by fans around the world. It's another productivity enhancement from Deviant Art

Equipment Upgrade

One of the things I realised yesterday, was that I am completely useless when it comes to playing any iron lower than a 7... I tried to use the 3 and 5 irons and just could not control the shot at all - and that was only if I actually managed to get the ball off the floor in the first place.

The other things I found were... A golf bag with only a single should strap, is very uncomfortable to carry, A golf bag with a 7inch top makes it very tricky to get individual clubs out, and finally, A bag that will not stand up on it's own is a pain. Not that I can really complain, it was a freebie from Barry, and has done the required job till now.

So today I paid a visit to DirectGolf at Solihull, and after trying a few clubs on their range, decided upon a 'Founders Club - Double Sole, 24° Loft Fairway Wood"... It is a really nice club, and made hitting the ball from the floor as easy as hitting it off the tee. I managed to place several shots at about 150 yard, all on line!! It is the most expensive club I have purchased to date - by quite a large margin £80 including Head Cover (cw £20 for my putter, and £6 - £7 for each of my woods/Irons). That has now gone in my bag, and the 5, 3 and 1 Irons have been consigned to the "Spares" container.. Maybe Alex can use them in a few years time?

I also treated myself to a new bag - A "Founders Club - 14 way Deluxe Divider bag" in Red/Black, and a "Proline Neon Aluminium Trolley"

Now lets hope the weather improves on Monday morning, so I can go and test them all out at Warley Woods again!!

1st Round in Years!

This morning I visited the 9 hole golf course at "Warley Woods"... The first time I have been back there in almost 30 years!

My previous visit was during my final year at school, when I had Golf as my option in Games. On that occasion I scored a truly terrible 72 for 9 holes. I was hoping for a somewhat better score today!

Well, the score was better, but not good! I completed the 9 holes in 63... still some 30 over par. My first 7 Tee shots were terrible, but I did finally start to get it right towards the end of the round, but the main problem was the putting... I found it difficult to 'read' the green, and with the grass still quite damp, I had difficulty judging the weight of the shots and managed to take four on the green more that once!!

The last two holes were much better, the tee shots actually carried some distance (160 yards+) and had a nice 'fade' to their path... still screwed up on the green tho'.. LOL

7(4), 4(3), 7(4), 8(3), 9(3), 9(4), 8(4), 6(4), 5(4)

Firefox 2 RC1

http://www.hardocp.com

Anyone interested in grabbing the Firefox 2 RC1 should head over to Cybernet and grab the version they need. Versions for Windows, Linux and Mac are all available so there is something for all you adventurous souls out there willing to try it out, regardless of the OS you are using.

There have been quite a few great visual changes going on since Firefox 2 Beta 2 was released. I think everyone will be much more pleased with how the theme is progressing as we head into the final homestretch. The tabs look much more streamlined and the navigation buttons don’t look so washed out. Oh, and we can’t forget about the cool new Refresh button in this release.

The Car Saga...

OK...

Since returning from Turkey, the car had shown a disturbing reluctance to start from cold, this coupled with a month or so of 'rough running' on tickover, and the fact that the [Service] light was comming on intermittently persuaded me to book it in for it's 1st service. The car has only done 15,000 miles in it's 18 months, so it was still some 3000 miles or 6 months away from a service, but 'what the heck' I thought... it has to go in for the door mirror repair, so I may as well do both at the same time.

On Saturday 26th of August, I had to go to the dealers to pre-pay for the mirror, and booked the car in for both jobs to be done on Friday 1st September (I had a days leave on that day, to be able to deal with it easily.)

On Monday 28th we took a trip to Lofty's house in Cambridge for his daughters birthday party, and were a little concerned when it took 5 attempts to get it started for the return journey. Once going, however, the car was fine and made light work of the high speed (70mph) journey back (A14 & M6).

On Tuesday 29th, Amanda tried to start the car to take Amy to Merry Hill (A Hot date with Harry !!) but it did not want to know. She then called the AA, who also failed to start the vehicle. The car was then towed away by the AA to the Dealers in Birmingham. (Amy got the bus and still met up with Harry, so that was OK) On the downside, there was no dealership courtesy car available, and as the vehicle was over 12 months old Renault would not cover the cost of a hire car.

On Thursday, the garage called to say that they still could not start the car, and that it would not be ready for collection on Friday as they needed to remove the cylinder head for more investigation - No compression in one cylinder!

On Tuesday 5th September I was called by the dealers, Renault had agreed to a complete replacement unit I.E. A new engine!! This would have to be ordered and fitted, and as such would take about a week. At this point we were offered the use of a hire car, which would be covered by Renault. On Thursday I collected the Nasan Micra 1.4 from Enterprise in Birmingham.

On Friday 6th, upon returning home at 17:30 I found a message on the answering machine asking me to contact the dealers re the hire car. I called back, but was unable to talk to the person I needed to, so a message was left for him to call me back.

On Monday 11th, Tony returned my call... it seems that Renault only cover the Car Hire whilst the components are ON ORDER, but as the engine arrived on Friday, I needed to return the car ASAP and that I was liable for thr weekend hire!! After some discussion, it wsa agreed that the dealers would cover the additionanal charges, so I spoke to Enterprise and took private hire of the same vehicle for an additional two days (at the Dealerships corperate rate of £15 per day)

On Tuesday 12th at about 16:00, I was informed that the car was ready for collection, and agreed to pick it up on Wednesday at about lunchtime. Unfortunately, I have an appointment on Wednesday AM for British Gas to come and fix a problem with my boiler... so I can't leave the house till after that has been done, and may well have to pay for an addition days car hire on the Micra, as that was due back at 11:00!! And to add insult to injury, I still have to pay for (most of) a service to maintain the warrantee (Air con. pollen fillters, brakes etc.) some £230

UPDATE #1: The very nice people at Enterprise didn't charge me extra, even tho' I was almost 2 hours late returning the car, and they gave me a lift back to the dealers - which was good of them.

UPDATE #2: Seems that Renault Birmingham have 'missplaced' the door mirror that I have paid for, and as such have not been able to fit it to the vehicle. I am now awaiting a call back from them to let me know when I can take the car back to have it fitted!! I don't think I will be taking my custom back to that dealership again...

Mrs D South...

There you are, my sister is no longer Deborah Bright, but is now Mrs Mark South...

The wedding was yesterday, held at the Mill Hotel at Alverley. On the whole the day went well, and the service was nice and informal (well at least, as informal as a wedding is allowed to be), and I did not miss the Singing of hymns etc. in the slightest.
There was a touching moment when Mark had to choke back his emotions during the "I give you this ring as a symbol of our marriage" bit, but he got through it and all ended well.

The photographer could have done with a bit more help trying to round everyone up, but that is a problem you are going to get when you have such a large area of gardens and hotel for people to get lost (or hide?) in... He was using a Nikon D70, and carried a D50 as his back up :-)

The buffet afterwards was excellent, and if that is typical of the standards of the Mill, we may have to go back for a meal some time!

There was one moment that took the edge off the festivities, Deb & Marks first dance was to "Who painted the Moon black" by Hayley Westenra, this was one of Amanda's dads favourite songs (Hayley was played at his funeral) and a combination of wedding memories, and Hayley was a little too much for Carol to cope with... Note, this was not Deb being insensitive, they had spoken to Carol weeks before and asked if she was OK with the choice of music, and she had agreed... you just can't always control your feelings

Our car is still in the garage, so Carol took us down there, before returning to dudley to collect my mom and Val... Thanks Carol, you are a star. We left with the party still in full swing just before 8:00PM, borrowing my Brother-in-Law's car to get back home, a Ford Mondeo, that compared to the Scenic drove like a tank!! But it is greatly appreciated, and thanks again...

Redbreva's Online PhotoAlbum, Beta 1

Check it out...

There are still a couple of issues at present - the date the picture was taken is wrong, exposure time on the Coolpix is not calculated etc., but overall, quite pleased with it.

The entire site is just two web pages (Album & Image), there is - of course - a Style Sheet, and the rest of it is data. Once I have ironed out a couple more display issues, and added the rest of the caption files, it will be time to migrate a couple of other existing albums over to this site...

EDIT #1: The URL has now changed, the album page is now in it's own sub-domain at http://photoalbum.rockbox-themes.org/ A few minor cosmetic changes have been made, but to be honest, if you notice, you are paying *way* too much attention... Still Beta1

EDIT #2:One thing that was bugging me, was the 'Back To Album' link from the images pages, it always returned to the top of the page. I have fixed that now, it uses 'Named Anchors' for every image, so it can return back to whence it came...

Back from My Hols

I just realised, it's been almost a week since returning from Turkey, and I have not updated my blog!

Well, Holiday was good, took lots of photographs, broke the compact camera, and spent way too much money.

Since returning, I have been catching up on e-mails (personal and work related) editing almost 400 images down to my printable selecting of 133, and writing my own 'web album' page in PHP... It's almost ready now, so keep tuned for a peak in the next few days. It has taken quite a bit of work this time, but it's all very generic, and combined with a few Photoshop Actions to generate the thumbnails etc, should involve minimal work to add to the album list.

On the negative site, the car was vandalised on Thursday evening - the passenger side door mirrow was snapped off! £230 for a colour coded replacement!!

The Coolpix suffered damage when a large flying insect can past my ear, just as I was about to take a picture.. The resulting "snatched hand" motion caused the extended lens to hit my arm and become stuck. It is currently back with Jessops awaiting repair - hopefully under guarantee.

The D50 was not used as much, it was a bit too warm to carry the large camera about too often, but I have been very impressed by the quality on the images taken.

Off on my hols...

I am going to bed very eary tonight, on account of having to be up, washed and dressed for 03:15 for a taxi to Birmingham airport...
We are off to Turkey for two weeks, and really looking forward to it... see you all soon.

Upgrading the Wireless network

I have just placed an order for new Wireless router & cards from Expansys:
D-Link DI-624 AirPlus Xtreme G ADSL Router	44.21
D-Link DWL-G122 11g Wireless USB Adaptor	22.09
D-Link DWL-G650 108Mbps Super G XR CardBus Adaptor	24.64
All prices are EX-VAT

First Look: Microsoft's iPod Killer

From Disinfotainment

First Look: Microsoft's iPod Killer, the iBob

A covert informant at Microsoft sent me a top secret picture of Microsoft's forthcoming digital audio player, the "iPod Killer."

Visit the above site to see the exclusive image...

Tiger Woods - The Swing

Nike have made a movie of Tigers swing using a military grade camera capable of 4000 frames per second:
http://www.nike.com/nikegolf/swingportrait/index.html?promoID=tw

Holiday is getting closer...

Just over three weeks to go now... Flight Tickets arrived yesterday, taxi to airport is booked (for 03:15 !!) I spoke to the agent in Turkey yesterday, and arranged the taxi from Bodrum airport to the villa

I just need to get my spare cellphone unlocked (so I can fit a turkish Pay-as-you-go SIM card, for use between us on holiday) and get international roaming enabled on my phone - so we can call home.

Firefox 2 - *Very* early version

I have downloaded and installed Firefox 2 Beta 1 today... It seems to have installed alongside Firefox 1.5.04 quite happily, so not too much risk in using it.

The one obvious change, which I really like, is that when you have several tabs open: The close tab icon in ON THE TAB, not all the way across the other side of the window! In fact - JUST LIKE IE7

From the bit-tech news site:
Firefox 2 Beta 1 has now been released to replace "Bon Echo" as the beta version of Firefox. Once all the bugs are ironed out and new features added, we should see a final release of Firefox two circulating by Q3 2006. Going a bit further ahead, Mozilla is also hoping to have Firefox 3 ready for Q1 2007, but this is not confirmed.

So what new features can we expect from Beta 1? Well, as with Bon Echo there is the new spell checking function which appears in text areas, particularly useful for forums. Close buttons for each tab, rather than being on the top right corner of the window, under the address bar. There is also a new security feature, anti-phishing which cleverly detects whether a website is a fake. Release notes can be viewed here.

For all you Firefox fanboys out there, Beta 1 is available for download in the usual many languages here.

New Toy

It's another MP3 player...

The iRiver H140 is a nice little machine, but the 40 GB HDD is starting to become too much of a limitation, and having started using the 4 GB Nano for the Gym I have taken a liking to the apple hardware and that scroll wheel... at least when it's running Rockbox!! In addition the H140 is starting to look, and feel, a little bulky.

So on Friday last week, I treated myself to a 60 GB Black iPod Video - it's rather nice :-)

Today I got around to installing Rockbox on it (I have been away all week in Maidenhead on a training course) and am currently starting to load it up with music. Once I am happy that it's all working OK, I may well put the H140 on e-bay and be rid of it.

As the nation held its collective breath...

... during Englands World Cup penalty shoot-out on Saturday evening, so did the BT national phone network.
Calls on the BT network during the quarter-final match against Portugal were down more than a third on what they would be at a normal Saturday tea-time.

But as the crunch game moved into extra time and then penalties something even more dramatic happened.
Colin Penney - duty manager at BTs national network management centre in Oswestry, which monitors traffic on the network said: Once the teams started taking their penalties, call traffic fell more than 80 per cent. It was around the same as we would expect to see at 12.30am.

With the final Portugal penalty and the end of Englands World Cup 2006 dreams there was a sudden surge in demand as the nation called friends and family to commiserate.

The figures for the previous England game against Ecuador were certainly marked but these were very dramatic, said Colin. Who knows what might have happened if England had got through to the semi-final and even the final? Well just have to wait another four years to find out.

Now That's What I Call a School Trip

Amy has just bought home a leaflet for next years summer school trip...

7 days covering three American cities: Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York... In the process taking in such sites as the Empire State Building, Liberty Island, Ellis Island, The Lincoln Memorial, The Liberty bell and Ground Zero

All in a grand total of £875

I wish they ran trips like that when I was at school!!

Weight Check

At 19:30 on 30-07-2005 : 14st 1lb, 26.7% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 26-09-2005 : 12st 12lb, 25.0% BF
At 17:30 on 24-10-2005 : 12st 8 lb, 24.9% BF
At 22:00 on 21-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 16:00 on 02-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.5% BF
At 17:30 on 30-01-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.3% BF
At 19:30 on 27-02-2006 : 12st 1 lb, 22.3% BF
At 17:30 on 27-03-2006 : 11st 13lb, 21.9% BF
At 17:30 on 24-04-2006 : 11st 10lb, 21.4% BF
At 21:30 on 08-05-2006 : 11st 11lb, 21.5% BF
At 18:00 on 22-05-2006 : 11st 11lb, 21.9% BF
At 18:00 on 19-06-2006 : 12st 1lb, 22.6% BF

The big problem I had this month was a week long training course in Maidenhead, way too much 'Full English', Cooked Lunch, Bar Snacks and Liquid Refreshment!! I actually gained 5 lbs in just one week!!! I have also not been getting to the Gym as regularly as normal.

Since then, I have managed to go to the Gym a little more often - still not back at full weights etc., but getting stronger, and as a result have lost most of the 'Maidenhead' weight. I really need to work a bit harder over the next few weeks to get back on track, as it looks like I may have another week of training coming up next month :-(

Great Day Out

Man, I am getting old...

Today we went to the BBC Gardeners World show at the NEC, and had a really great day... The weather was hot and sunny (27C), and I managed to buy some interesting Princess Lillies, some Fuscias (Hanging and bush) and a bunch of british Strawberry plants. Then Alex won a pack of 15 Busy Lizzies, and three Petunia's during an B&Q demonstration...

Once we got back, we planted everything up (Except Alex's Lillies, we need a large container to plant them up in, so that is a job for tommorow)

Diet Coke explodes with, um, flavor?

You may have heard about the geysers that geeks are creating by dropping Mentos mints into 2-liter bottles of Diet Coke. But have you actually seen the videos? Do you have any idea how the experiment actually works?NPR's been all over this story in the past few days but no offense, guys hearing about it on the radio leaves something to be desired. Hop on over and see for yourself how far 101 Coke bottles can shoot.
Watch the video

Told you 1 GB RAM was not enough!

Not even running everthing I normally would!

Office 2007 Beta

Downloaded this yesterday, installed it last night, and so far I am really impressed! Nothing fantastic, just everything is "better"...

Little things, like the fact that you can subscribe to RSS feeds in Outlook, so the list of articles appears like a series of e-mails, complete with notification when the are unread entries... saves visiting 7 ot 8 sites daily only to find nothing new has been entered...

Happy Birthday Alex

Today is Alex's 8th Birthday, and he is SOOOOOOOO excited it's untrue. He want's to get up early, open his presents, and then go to Debenhams at Merry Hill for breakfast!!

EDIT:
Alex is now the proud owner of an iPod Nano, which - once I managed to work out iTunes - he kept glued to his head for most of the day, He finally got the folder he wanted to hold all his football cards, and fantastic Meccano (Motorised Funfair type) that I am really looking forward to helping him with, an Airfix kit (Subarru Imprezza) and a number of other items... He really is an happy bunny.
No doubt that list will increase over the weekend, his party is on Sunday afternoon...

And yes, he did get his bacon sandwich at Merry Hill

8 MB Broadband - Update

After a week or so of it generally feeling a little unstable, and slower!!, my broadband conection seems to have stabilised at last..

I am currently downloading Vista Beta 2 ISO file, along with beta installions of Office & OneNote 2007 at a combined speed of 800 KB/Sec. The ISO file on it's own was running at 690 KB/Sec...

I have struggled to find many downloads that exceed 250, but am starting to realise that it may well not be my end that is causing the bottleneck!

Line mode	G.dmt	Line state:	Show Time
Line up time:	3:10:31:24	System up time	3:10:32:03
Downstream speed:	8128 Kbps	Upstream speed	448 Kbps
Downstream latency:	Fast	Upstream latency	Fast
Trellis coding:	Enabled	Loss of signal	0
Line attenuation:	19 dB	Loss of frame	0
Noise margin:	11.5 dB	CRC error	24
Line up count:	1	Total error duration	22 seconds

New Toys

Nothing too exciting, but I have been getting a little miffed recently by my PC's performance... OK it's running a Linux PC in a VMWare session using 512MB RAM and Photoshop CS2 and Dreamweaver 8, and that's not including the Firewall, AV software, Outlook, Firefox, Messenger, PGP etc etc etc... swapping from one application to the next is taking a VERY long time... so I have decided that as I can't afford to buy a new PC at the moment, I will upgrade the memory... So today I have ordered 2 x 1GB DDR3200's from crucial.co.uk. Unfortunately, I only have two memory slots and they both have 512MB's in at the moment, so if anyone knows a good home for some DDR2700???

The other new toy is a replacement for the Intuos 2 graphics tablet, I am now the proud owner of a Graphire 4 XL A5 tablet. The working area is double my previous one, so that should make it a bit easier to do what I need to do in Photoshop. The Intuos tablet looks like it will be traded for a Fuji Finepix 3 Megapixel camera tomorrow - should do the job for Amy?

Weight Check

At 19:30 on 30-07-2005 : 14st 1lb, 26.7% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 26-09-2005 : 12st 12lb, 25.0% BF
At 17:30 on 24-10-2005 : 12st 8 lb, 24.9% BF
At 22:00 on 21-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 16:00 on 02-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.5% BF
At 17:30 on 30-01-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.3% BF
At 19:30 on 27-02-2006 : 12st 1 lb, 22.3% BF
At 17:30 on 27-03-2006 : 11st 13lb, 21.9% BF
At 17:30 on 24-04-2006 : 11st 10lb, 21.4% BF
At 21:30 on 08-05-2006 : 11st 11lb, 21.5% BF
At 18:00 on 22-05-2006 : 11st 11lb, 21.9% BF

Still pleased... That's almost three weeks now that I have been pretty well unable to do any exercise.

Started back to the gym today, and managed to cover 2KM on the treadmill in about 12 minutes, I need to get that improved over the next few weeks!

Great Day

No kids today, they are spending the weekend with the Mother-in-law...

Out at lunchtime, bus into Birmingham, Coffee & a Muffin at Costa, Stroll around town (without having to visit 'Bear Factory' or 'Claires') before eating at the Mailbox (Red Peppers).
From there, a quick visit downstairs to Castle Galleries to have a look at one of the new Mark Spains they have in there...

damn, that would look Sooooooo good in the living room :(

Finally, cross the road to the Alex Theatre to see 'The Rock Horror SHow' - man that was a real hoot, it was the funiest, most entertaing piece of theatre I have ever seen - and that was only the audience!

Faster Broadband

Yesterday, bang on time, BT upgraded my service from 2 to 8 MB. Has it made any difference? well the simple answer is - not really sure, yes some things do seem to be really quick, but nothing significant yet.

I ran the broadband speed test at http://www.dslreports.com/stest?loc=3 and that is telling me that I am currently able to download at 274KB per sec, and upload at 41KB per sec... OK not too shabby, but nothing close to the claimed figures... Ah well it's still early days yet, so leys give it a week or so to settle, and try again then.

Weight Check

At 19:30 on 30-07-2005 : 14st 1lb, 26.7% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 26-09-2005 : 12st 12lb, 25.0% BF
At 17:30 on 24-10-2005 : 12st 8 lb, 24.9% BF
At 22:00 on 21-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 16:00 on 02-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.5% BF
At 17:30 on 30-01-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.3% BF
At 19:30 on 27-02-2006 : 12st 1 lb, 22.3% BF
At 17:30 on 27-03-2006 : 11st 13lb, 21.9% BF
At 17:30 on 24-04-2006 : 11st 10lb, 21.4% BF
At 21:30 on 08-05-2006 : 11st 11lb, 21.5% BF

Now, that I am pleased with... For over a week now, I have been pretty well unable to do any exercise, and the upshot is only 1lb gain..... W00t!!

Increased Broadband speed

some weeks ago, BT announced that all BB users would be eligable for a free upgrade to 8Meg.

At that time, I attempted to register for the upgrade and out intranet failed me dismally... I have been trying since - without much success - to get the upgrade, but seem to keep going around in circles.

Finally, yesterday I called the BT.COM website support number and explained the situation... I now have an order number, and am due to be upgraded on the 12th May. Initial estimates suggest that 6MB will be the maximum speed download that I can actually get, but that's still 3 times quicker than my current 2Meg connection - and should give me faster upload speed :-)

No Pain Killers...

Today seems to be a significant step forward in my recovery from surgery. I got out of bed at 07:00 and did not go straight for the pain killers... In fact I have been sat up at the computer - leaning forwards! - for almost two hours with no noticible pain at all.

I will, of course, continue to take it easy today, and at the first sign of discomfort I am heading back to bed!

Eventfull Week

Not had too much spare time on the PC recently...
I have been working on a website for 'Rockbox Themes' : http://rockbox-themes.redbreva.com/, which has taken up a fair amount of time to date, and is still a *looong* way from being finished.
For the Bank Holiday weekend we had house guests - Arthur & Margaret Finikin, so no PC time to speak of there.
On Wednesday, I took a trip to Russells Hall Hospital and had surgery on my abdominal hernia, and since then sitting up for more than a few minutes at a time has been a little uncomfortable. Much better this afternoon, so hopefully I will be able to get about a little more easily by the start of next week.
Finally on Thursday, my iPod Nano 4GB arrived..!! It was taken out of the box, plugged into the PC and wiped, within 30 minutes it was wrapped in a pale blue 'iPod Nano Tube' and running Rockbox :-) I have managed to take a little time out and reworked my iRiver theme :

to work with some colour on the slightly larger iPod Nano screen

and again larger still for the H300 / iPod Color

So far I am really pleased with the Nano, I have 34 albums on there and a folder of 170 'Misc Singles' altogether some 42 hours worth of music. Battery life is quite poor at present: about 8 hours (The Apple firmware is good for about 14 hours) - Rockbox is still in the very early stages for iPod - but is adequate for it's intended use - in the Gym. Charging is via the USB connection, so I have ordered a 'Travel Kit'... It's a Mains Plug and a Car Cigarette Lighter adaptor that take a usb connection.

Concerts

I have been to two events recently...

Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds at the NEC last week - Verdict: UTERLEY FANTASTIC
Micheal Flattley's Celtic Tiger at the NIA last night - Verdict: Very Good, not as good as Lord of the Dance, but the wife actually prefered it.. It's got more 'Dancing' and less 'Foot Stamping' than the older show - but I like the group tap numbers the best, so you pay your money and take your choice.

And I now have tickets for the Rock Horror show on the 13th May... Man I am so looking forward to that one, the only concern is that it's only 10 days after hernia surgery... hope I will be fit enough to go
Finally we have booked to see Katherine Jenkins again at Symphony Hall in November, 3rd row centre - W00T!

More experimentation with linux

I have now successfully installed SuSE 10 on my laptop, having first taken a Ghost image of the working XP installation. It installed really easily, and did not need a lot of work to make it a happy place to live. Getting the Rockbox development environment up and running took a little longer, but once I had learnt enough for the instructions to make sense, it was pretty straitforward. I still think I have a minor issue with missing folders in the $PATH statment, but it's getting there.

On the other hand, I installed Debian 3.1 (Sarge) into a spare partition on my desktop PC. Simply working out how to get KDE to start rather than the Gnome default took some time (It's actually a menu option on the logon screen!), and configuring the video display to better that 800x600 was a major job for "Google Man". It is just about sorted now, although I do need to get the Wacom drivers sorted so that my graphics tablet works correctly. Once that's done, I will start doing the Rockbox development install.

I have about 30 to 40 GB disk space for both installions, so space should not be a problem...

Weight Check

At 19:30 on 30-07-2005 : 14st 1lb, 26.7% BF
At 16:30 on 14-08-2005 : 13st 5lb, 26.3% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 12-09-2005 : 13st 0lb, 25.7% BF
At 17:30 on 26-09-2005 : 12st 12lb, 25.0% BF
At 19:30 on 10-10-2005 : 12st 10lb, 24.5% BF
At 17:30 on 24-10-2005 : 12st 8 lb, 24.9% BF
At 18:30 on 07-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 21-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 05-12-2005 : 12st 6 lb, 23.1% BF
At 22:00 on 19-12-2005 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 16:00 on 02-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.5% BF
At 21:00 on 16-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 17:30 on 30-01-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.3% BF
At 17:30 on 13-02-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.2% BF
At 19:30 on 27-02-2006 : 12st 1 lb, 22.3% BF
At 19:30 on 13-03-2006 : 12st 0 lb, 22.5% BF
At 17:30 on 27-03-2006 : 11st 13lb, 21.9% BF
At 17:30 on 11-04-2006 : 11st 11lb, 21.5% BF
At 17:30 on 24-04-2006 : 11st 10lb, 21.4% BF

Pretty well holding station, which is good... I am happy with my weight, so have no great desire to loose any more, on top of which I can't afford to keep buying new trousers! On top of that, I have changed my diet. No longer is there a great emphasis on keeping the carbs down, although I am not going mad!!, but there is a considerable emphasis on reducing the fat content, whilst increasing my fibre volume... so more fruit & cereals and less red meat and dairy.

Basically 6 months of a strict lo-carb diet has left me underperforming in the toilet department, I now need to rectify this for the good of my health in general, and because in just over a weeks time I will have abdominal stitches to worry about!! Have a look at Audrey Eyton's F2 diet... There is a telling quote in there, you have to walk at a brisk pace for 50 miles to lose 1lb in weight if you do not reduce your intake...

Windows Vista - a fantastic new feature

From Paul Thurrott's SuperSite

There are other non-application-related improvements in build 5342. Now, the system respects resolution changes between users. So you might set up the display for 1024 x 768 for one user, but 1600 x 1200 for the next. As you move back and forth between user accounts, either via Fast User Switching or logging off and logging on, the system will switch resolutions as needed as you move into each account. Eureka.

Want to play with Linux?

Recently VMWARE has released it's 'player' application onto the general public as a freebie...

Run any virtual machine

VMware Player lets you evaluate new or pre-release software contained in virtual machines, without any installation or configuration hassles. You can also share existing virtual machines with colleagues or friends—just use VMware Player to run any virtual machine.
What is a virtual machine?

A virtual machine is a computer defined in software. It's like running a PC on your PC. VMware Player runs any virtual machine created by VMware Workstation, GSX Server or ESX Server. VMware Player also supports Microsoft virtual machines and Symantec LiveState Recovery disk formats.

There are several 'Official' images available from the VMware site, that you can download and try : Ubuntu Linux, Red Hat, SUSE Linux... Totally no destructive - give it a go!

Been busy with Open Source Project...

As some of you may know, I have been a long-time fan of Rockbox, and with Rls 3.0 just around the corner I finally have the chance to put something back into the project.

I first used this fantastic software on my Archos Recorder, than again on the Archos FM Recorder and only changed platform again once it came available for the iRiver H140 player, and ofter wished my coding was good enough to get involved. Well, for the new release, a new manual is required, and this time a new format has been used - LaTeX. What this does is allow the manual to be broken up into very small sections and stored in CVS, where they can be downloaded and modified by a number of users, and when compiled, the output is a PDF.

The best thing however, is that the language allow platform specific manuals to be created - the manual for your player only contains the features supported by your hardware, and there are only one set of key presses. This makes the end user manual MUCH easier to read and use, but a real nighmare to create.

Well, I have found that I am half decent with this new language, and have submitted quite a few patches, which have all been accepted, and I am now on the CREDITS list for the project.

I am really impressed by the way new platforms are being assimilated into the collective, and I am even considering getting an iPod again!! Only a 2 or 4 GB Nano - mainly for Gym use, but completely freed from the constraints of iTunes and apple firmware

Weight Check

At 19:30 on 30-07-2005 : 14st 1lb, 26.7% BF
At 16:30 on 14-08-2005 : 13st 5lb, 26.3% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 12-09-2005 : 13st 0lb, 25.7% BF
At 17:30 on 26-09-2005 : 12st 12lb, 25.0% BF
At 19:30 on 10-10-2005 : 12st 10lb, 24.5% BF
At 17:30 on 24-10-2005 : 12st 8 lb, 24.9% BF
At 18:30 on 07-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 21-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 05-12-2005 : 12st 6 lb, 23.1% BF
At 22:00 on 19-12-2005 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 16:00 on 02-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.5% BF
At 21:00 on 16-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 17:30 on 30-01-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.3% BF
At 17:30 on 13-02-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.2% BF
At 19:30 on 27-02-2006 : 12st 1 lb, 22.3% BF
At 19:30 on 13-03-2006 : 12st 0 lb, 22.5% BF
At 17:30 on 27-03-2006 : 11st 13lb, 21.9% BF
At 17:30 on 11-04-2006 : 11st 11lb, 21.5% BF

Still going in the right direction.

One Very Happy Bunny!

Today, I have purchased two new pairs of trousers.... Size 32!!

At the start of August last year, I was wearing 36's and they were tight.

Yep, 1 very happy bunny

Weight Check

At 19:30 on 30-07-2005 : 14st 1lb, 26.7% BF
At 16:30 on 14-08-2005 : 13st 5lb, 26.3% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 12-09-2005 : 13st 0lb, 25.7% BF
At 17:30 on 26-09-2005 : 12st 12lb, 25.0% BF
At 19:30 on 10-10-2005 : 12st 10lb, 24.5% BF
At 17:30 on 24-10-2005 : 12st 8 lb, 24.9% BF
At 18:30 on 07-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 21-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 05-12-2005 : 12st 6 lb, 23.1% BF
At 22:00 on 19-12-2005 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 16:00 on 02-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.5% BF
At 21:00 on 16-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 17:30 on 30-01-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.3% BF
At 17:30 on 13-02-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.2% BF
At 19:30 on 27-02-2006 : 12st 1 lb, 22.3% BF
At 19:30 on 13-03-2006 : 12st 0 lb, 22.5% BF
At 17:30 on 27-03-2006 : 11st 13 lb, 21.9% BF

Again, after a week of 11'11, popped back up a couple of pounds over the weekend!! Mind you, there was some alchol involved on Saturday night, along with a curry etc. And on Sunday we were out all day - so 'Picnic' food all day (ie All Carbs!!)

Really must make a bit of an effort to drop another couple of pounds to ensure that the occasional treat does not takle me back into the 12 somethings!!

F1 Rule changes for 2008

From http://www.formula1.com
A freeze on engine technology, a single tyre supplier and four-race gearboxes are among the major changes to Formula One’s Sporting Regulations for 2008, as revealed by the FIA on Wednesday.

For the 2008, 2009 and 2010 seasons, teams will only be allowed to use one engine design, which must be submitted to the FIA for homologation no later than June 1 this year. Subsequent changes will only be permitted with agreement of the FIA and all other engine suppliers.

A single tyre supplier will be chosen for the same three-year period. At each race, every team will receive the same tyres - two dry-weather compounds, one wet-weather tyre and one extreme-weather tyre. Tyre warmers will be banned.

The two-event engine requirement will remain, but gearboxes will have to last four Grands Prix. Unscheduled changes of either item will lead to a 15kg weight penalty for the car concerned. This will replace the existing system of ten-place grid penalties. Spare cars will be banned.

Testing outside races will be limited to 30,000 km per year. At races, parc ferme conditions will be extended to run from 18.30 on Friday evening until the start of the race. Currently, cars do not enter parc ferme conditions until after qualifying.

New teams will no longer be required to lodge the US$48 million deposit currently needed to join the series. Instead they must pay a €300,000 entry fee. There will be more scope for the use of customer components between teams, but major car manufacturers will not be able to supply engines to more than two teams without the permission of the FIA.

The maximum permitted length of the Formula One calendar will grow to 20 races. The longest season to date has been 19.

Windows Messenger and Windows live Messenger

If you have installed a version of MSN or Windows Live Messenger recently, you may find that both this , and the older pre-installed Windows Messenger both run on boot up.

Check out the Microsoft article on how to stop Windows messenger from running:
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=302089

Weight Check

At 19:30 on 30-07-2005 : 14st 1lb, 26.7% BF
At 16:30 on 14-08-2005 : 13st 5lb, 26.3% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 12-09-2005 : 13st 0lb, 25.7% BF
At 17:30 on 26-09-2005 : 12st 12lb, 25.0% BF
At 19:30 on 10-10-2005 : 12st 10lb, 24.5% BF
At 17:30 on 24-10-2005 : 12st 8 lb, 24.9% BF
At 18:30 on 07-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 21-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 05-12-2005 : 12st 6 lb, 23.1% BF
At 22:00 on 19-12-2005 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 16:00 on 02-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.5% BF
At 21:00 on 16-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 17:30 on 30-01-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.3% BF
At 17:30 on 13-02-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.2% BF
At 19:30 on 27-02-2006 : 12st 1 lb, 22.3% BF
At 19:30 on 13-03-2006 : 12st 0 lb, 22.5% BF

Grrrr!! After being at 11'12 for most of this last week, Monday's weigh-in was a bit of a dissapointment. But it was rather a strange weekend, and I did rather indulge at a couple of meal times without cutting back on the treats... So I suppose I got my just rewards. :(

On the plus side, I am now able to complete 40 mins+ of cardio workout without too much distress and my V02 figure is "above average" - whatever that means! On the downside, I am limping this morning - I seem to have hurt my foot on the jogger last night! Give it a day or two and see how that one progresses...

New Toys For Old II

Finished my own "Garage Sale" on ebay, and managed to raise almost £260. So yesterday morning I ordered a Tomtom 300 from Amazon for £285.
It arrived today!! Fitted the mount and cable in the car, and took it a quick run around the block. After about 3 minutes, the GPS had locked on , and it knew where I was...
[edit]
The volume of the internal speaker is much louder than that of the PDA, and the landscape format does seem to work better. What I need now, is a good chance to test it out - and to get the thing fully charged... I can then connect it up to the PC and get some voices / POI files on there.

What am I reading?

The Magicians' Guild (Book 1 of the Black Magician Trilogy)
By Trudi Canavan

Synopsis:
Each year the magicians of Imardin gather together to purge the city streets of vagrants, urchins and miscreants. Masters of the disciplines of magic, they know that no one can oppose them. But their protective shield is not as impenetrable as they believe. Sonea, angry, frustrated and outraged by the treatment of her family and friends, hurls a stone at the shield, putting all her rage behind it. To the amazement of all who bear witness, the stone passes unhindered through the barrier and renders a magician unconscious. The guild's worst fear has been realised ...There is an untrained magician loose on the streets. She must be found before her uncontrolled powers unleash forces that will destroy both her, and the city that is her home. THE MAGICIANS' GUILD is a blistering new fantasy adventure from a debut author skilled in both world-building and storytelling. The trilogy continues with THE NOVICE (Aug '04) and THE HIGH LORD (Feb '05).

I am really enjoying this book so far, and the best thing is that the review seem to indicate that it is the weakest of the trilogy... So, it will only get better!!

Nice Warm House Again

The nice man from British Gas came at 10:15 this morning... and by 11:00 I was in a warm house :-)

Seems that the pressure peaked a little too high for comform on Friday (I had recently turned the temperature up a little, it was VERY cold) and the safety pressure valve did what it was supposed to, and released some pressure to the outside world.

Unfortunatly, some calcified deposits were also ejected, and they got stuck in the middle of the valve - locking it open.

New Toys For Old

This week I have been quite a good boy...

New X-Box game "TOCA 3" - most excellent, cost £0.99 - How? I took half a dozen older games in, and traded them. I now have only 4 games for the X-Box, but they all get used regularly

I want a new GPS for in the car, the lead to the PDA broke recently, but I really want an all-in-one-box solution like a TomTom 300. Problem with that is - £300!! So, eBay to the rescue... The PDA sold for over £100, and I have put a number of audio books and DVD's on there to try and raise the funds. I may choose a TomTom ONE depending on the funds, that model is £50 cheaper, and is actually a better spec, but not quite so neat when in the car - the power lead plugs unto the unit rather than the mount...

Not a great week...

Last weekend I downloaded the latest VISTA, the Feb CTP - build 5308. As usual, I 'Ghosted' my laptop, and installed VISTA... Again as usual, I hated it!
Reasons:

• The install was SOOOOOOO SLOW, taking almost 1 hour.


• Almost everything you try to do, causes a pop up telling you, "Insufficient privileges" give yourself rights to do this..., and then another pop up asking are you sure... GRRRRRRRR When using the track pad on a laptop it is an absolute pain!!


• Again, total failure to get the Centrino Chipset WLAN recognised by VISTA, even after installing the latest BETA intel drivers.

So a couple of hours later, back to XP...

On Wednesday, after reading a number of glowing reviews of this new build, I decided to do something radical... I ghosted my main PC, and installed it on there!
The Install was a nightmare, it kept failing, but eventually I got it going.
The first problem I came up against was that although the WACOM graphics tablet worked, it was barely usable - so slow to move the mouse etc. So I borrowed the USB mouse from Amy's PC, and downloaded the latest WACOM drivers... They managed to completely lock up the system!! Got them back off, and stayed with the USB mouse for the time being.
With a working mouse, I found that the constant pop ups, whilst very annoying, were not such a pain as they were on the laptop. Searching the newsgroups etc, I managed to find ways of switching off some of this default behaviour, and the entire system became a little more usable.

However there are still major problems, and yes I know it's beta, but if you move a folder from the desktop to my documents store, it was taking almost 40 minutes to move 200MBytes!!, it would then tell me that it could not delete the now empty folder, did I want permission, and then that the now empty folder was not there - did I want to recreate it...
Most of these problems were reduced when I changed the permissions on the existing My Documents folder, to allow the administrator group full control!

After a while I was getting more comfortable with the system, but still found the SEARCH window completely unfathomable! But even so, time to go back to XP.

Booted back up into Ghost - No saved image found! AGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

After a lot of messing about, I resigned myself to getting VISTA working as a proper PC, that's when I realised just how few of the utilities I rely on for my day to day usage I have copies of, and just how scattered the install keys, licence files etc are. I also noticed that in spite of the fact that I regularly back up all my data to external USB hard drive, I did not have a copy of the Outlook pst file - 3 years plus of e-mails lost... including a lot of keys / licences etc!!

Eventually , I gave up, and decided to give Ghost another go.

Long Story Short - the bootable CD cound not - for reasons I am yet to work out - see the partition which held the image. On Friday morning I copied it across to another partition that I knew could be seen - reboot to CD, system restored and working. :-)

Phewww!

I have now moved the .pst file onto the D drive - where it will be backed up. I have downloaded/collected loads of app/utilities togethere - complete with keys etc and burnt them all to a DVD. So, with the horse back in the stable, I have bolted it shut

However, That's not the only reason for the title of this entry...
On Friday AM - a VERY cold morning (-5C) a number of radiator in the house started to make 'strange noises'.... A quick trip around with a cup and a screwdriver revealed a lot of air in the system, and when I then checked the boiler I found ZERO pressure!! Refilled it back to 1 bar, and within 30 seconds - back to zero... BUM!

Spoke to British Gas, with whom we have a support agreement for pipes etc, and this is not covered, but they extended the cover (at a cost) and agreed to send someone out to fix it. Great!! No not really, they can't come till MONDAY MORNING...
All weekend we have been cold, and the electric bill will be awful - two fan heaters have been dragged into service to warm bathroom and bedrooms etc.

I have never been so glad to spend 4 hours around the shopping mall....

Latest New from Engadget...

[Listening to: Love On The Rocks With No Ice - The Darkness - Permission To Land (06:08)]

http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/28/ipod-hi-fi-brings-music-to-the-masses/
hmmmmmm, dont think so!

http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/28/apple-intros-99-leather-ipod-case/ Bloody hell, how do you say "Complete fricking ripoff" in Apple Speak?

http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/27/new-zenview-offers-six-24-inch-displays-as-one/ Time to upgrade that 32" Widescreen TV??

Weight Check

[Listening to: Jesus Of Suburbia - Green Day - Bullet In A Bible (09:23)]

At 19:30 on 30-07-2005 : 14st 1lb, 26.7% BF
At 16:30 on 14-08-2005 : 13st 5lb, 26.3% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 12-09-2005 : 13st 0lb, 25.7% BF
At 17:30 on 26-09-2005 : 12st 12lb, 25.0% BF
At 19:30 on 10-10-2005 : 12st 10lb, 24.5% BF
At 17:30 on 24-10-2005 : 12st 8 lb, 24.9% BF
At 18:30 on 07-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 21-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 05-12-2005 : 12st 6 lb, 23.1% BF
At 22:00 on 19-12-2005 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 16:00 on 02-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.5% BF
At 21:00 on 16-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 17:30 on 30-01-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.3% BF
At 17:30 on 13-02-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.2% BF
At 19:30 on 27-02-2006 : 12st 1 lb, 22.3% BF

Rather pleased with that - OK, I back into the 12stone something bracket, after three consecutive days in the 11Stone something bracket, but considering there has been no exercise of any real note for two weeks, and still managed to drop 2lb's...

I have now started back at the Gym, and don't I know it - Ouch - So hope to get back into the 11stones again real soon.

Yes!!!

Carling Cup final against Wigan : 4-0 to United!!

It's a trophy, and the only one available, (I told you Liverpool in the FA Cup was not good) so don't knock it The scoreline may give the wrong impression about the game, it was not that one sided, it was actually a really good game, very open, and 2-0 would have been a fairer score.

And the other plus... At least there will be some Europen football at Old Trafford next season, although you would hope it would be Champions League for finishing 2nd in the league.

Grrrrrrr!!!

OK, it installed a little quicker than the last release, but it STILL didn't recognise the WiFi network hardware... I downloaded the Intel BETA drivers, still no luck in fact I just got really confused when it kept trying to re-install the drivers, failing with an error message that the drivers had changed since being signed, and then announcing that they had in fact been installed correctly - just before it tried to load them again!!

The other Really irritating feature of VISTA is the way it asks if it's OK to do just about anything!! Want to run a setup, change a config etc - Are you sure, this may be an attack!! - Worst of all, you cannot do this, you need to be an administrator - I AM THE ADMIN!!!

Bugger it, Let's boot to Ghost and put it all back

Dear Windows Beta Tester,

We are pleased to announce the release of build 5308 of Windows Vista, the Enterprise Community Technology Preview. This build is not beta quality but is being provided as a preview of our progress towards Beta 2.
It should allow you to confirm the many bugs fixed since the last build and best of all, you can begin to explore the full Windows Vista feature set as we are now feature complete!

I am downloading this now... I will install it on the laptop (again) later today, after I have backed it up!! This time, lets see if it will actually recognise the wireless LAN chipset!!

Whoooo Hooooo

Just got off the scales, and I am 11 stone something for the first time in about 12 years... OK, the something is 13.75 lbs but it's under 12 stone....

Hurarrrr - A slice of cake to celebrate!

A Woman Drawn from Inside - out

"Woman Drawn from the Inside Out" is the illustration behind the buzz. Starting with just a few lines, suggesting nothing more than a reclining skeleton, the unnamed artist who's showcased at this Brazilian Web site rapidly builds up more and more layers until the work is done.

This is just soooooo cool....

http://www.pelourinho.com/movies/c003702/

Windows Defender - Beta 2

Help shut the door on spyware

Formerly known as Windows AntiSpyware, Windows Defender (Beta 2) helps you stay productive by protecting your computer against pop-up ads, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. If you own a copy of the Windows operating system, Windows Defender (Beta 2) is available at no charge, so download your copy today.

From the Microsoft Security Newsletter for Home Users -- a monthly newsletter bringing security news, guidance, updates, and community resources directly to your Inbox.

Subscribe to the newsletter here.

Nikon 7900

After a wait that seemed forever, Jessops informed me last week that they could no longer source the Coolpix 7900 in Black. I re-ordered the silver model and it was delivered today.

As I am off for a couple of day, I will have to take a few pics with it, just to test it out.

Weight Check

At 19:30 on 30-07-2005 : 14st 1lb, 26.7% BF
At 16:30 on 14-08-2005 : 13st 5lb, 26.3% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 12-09-2005 : 13st 0lb, 25.7% BF
At 17:30 on 26-09-2005 : 12st 12lb, 25.0% BF
At 19:30 on 10-10-2005 : 12st 10lb, 24.5% BF
At 17:30 on 24-10-2005 : 12st 8 lb, 24.9% BF
At 18:30 on 07-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 21-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 05-12-2005 : 12st 6 lb, 23.1% BF
At 22:00 on 19-12-2005 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 16:00 on 02-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.5% BF
At 21:00 on 16-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 17:30 on 30-01-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.3% BF
At 17:30 on 13-02-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.2% BF

Still holding steady, currently suffering with a cold, so no exercise for about a week... Quite pleased.

Oh Bugger!

Man United have drawn Liverpool - at Liverpool - in the 5th round of the FA cup!!

Not impossible, but it sure reduces the chances of getting to Cardiff twice this season!!

Congratulations

to Steve and Beccy Kilmister on the birth of their new son Nathen...

Born at approx 9:00 am this morning, weighing in at a healthy 8lbs, mother and baby doing well, dad exhausted!!

Hernia Surgery

I now have confirmation of my hernia repair surgery - 3rd May 12:00 noon

Should be back home same day, and have instructions to spend the first 24 hours in bed, then 24 hours in comfy chair watching TV etc... I should have a note for 2 weeks off work, and can drive again once I can climb stairs without pain.

Weight Check

At 19:30 on 30-07-2005 : 14st 1lb, 26.7% BF
At 16:30 on 14-08-2005 : 13st 5lb, 26.3% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 12-09-2005 : 13st 0lb, 25.7% BF
At 17:30 on 26-09-2005 : 12st 12lb, 25.0% BF
At 19:30 on 10-10-2005 : 12st 10lb, 24.5% BF
At 17:30 on 24-10-2005 : 12st 8 lb, 24.9% BF
At 18:30 on 07-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 21-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 05-12-2005 : 12st 6 lb, 23.1% BF
At 22:00 on 19-12-2005 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 16:00 on 02-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.5% BF
At 21:00 on 16-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 17:30 on 30-01-2006 : 12st 3 lb, 22.3% BF

Holding pretty steady, especially when you consider that I since Xmas, I have effectivly not been on a diet, and there are still quite a few cakes, biscuits and chocolates arriving at work as every one clears out there xmas excesses!!

I will probably have another push to get down to 12st just before I go into hospital for my Hernia surgery - I will be limited in the amount and type of exercise that I am able to do for some 2 months...

Eye Test Yesterday

I was not due for another sight test till September, but have recently been finding that I need to wear my readers more and more, also the screen on the PC is starting to be a problem. I either have to sit well back in my chair, or put on my specs and lean well forward, neither approch makes using the keyboard any easier!!

Well off I went, and as expected my near sight has deteriated, and it was reccomended that I have a pair of varifocal lenses. I have 60 days to see if I can get on with them (not everyone can apparently). I have had to select new frames too, as my existing lenses are too small for varifocal usage.

I have chosen a pair of 'Police' gold rimless glasses this time, which with lenses, coatings and a pair of pescription sunglasses (for reading in the summer/ on holiday comes to a grand total of £350 - OUCH!

For those of you that understand these things:
R +0.25 -0.25 x75
L +0.25 -0.50 X10
ADD +100 NEAR +175

They should be ready next weekend, the same time that Alex get his readers!!

New version of Quicktime available..

Apple have released version 7.0.4 of their Quicktime player, the only problem is when you go to the apple site to download it, you can only get it bundled with iTunes...

Fine if you want both, but I have no need for iTunes, I can't play the DRM protected files it supplies online, I refuse to pay almost the same price as a CD, for an electronic copy only, My file structure on the 'M' drive exactly matches that on my iRiver MP3 player, so no clever software required to manage it...

After screaming at the PC in frustration tonight, I managed to find the following link: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html

Seems Apple do supply Quicktime on it's own if you know where to look....

UNIVERSITY CHALLENGED

True question/Answers from THE WEAKEST LINK

Anne Robinson: In traffic, what "J" is where two roads meet?
Contestant: Jool carriageway.

Anne Robinson: Which Italian city is overlooked by Vesuvius?
Contestant: Bombay.

Anne Robinson: What insect is commonly found hovering above lakes?
Contestant: Crocodiles.
Anne Robinson: Wh...?
Contestant (interrupting): Pass!

Anne Robinson: In olden times,! what were minstrels, travelling entertainers or chocolate salesmen?
Contestant: Chocolate salesmen.

Anne Robinson: The Bible, the New Testament. The Four Gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and...?
Contestant: (long pause) Joe?

Anne Robinson: Who was a famous Indian leader, whose name begins with G, revered by millions, who was assassinated and received a state funeral?
Contestant: Geronimo!

End of an Era...

My one time fave Camera company - Minolta - has announced that pulling out of the camera biz altogether...
Engadget

The best 'Proper' SLR I owned was the Minolta Dynax 7000i, it was the last in a line that started with a Zenit 'E', moved though a couple of 'Chinon' models from Dixons, and the Minolta 5000. The Dynax was amazing, increadably fast predictive autofocus and an exposure system that was hardly ever fooled. I still have this camera, but the battery is flat having not used it for a number of years... I really must get a replacement battery, and give it another go: I think there is still a film in it!!

Just about the best thing..

I have stumbled across on the web this year...

Matrix PingPong (http://www.ebaumsworld.com/matrixpong.html)

EDIT: 19:00 20/01/2006
or HERE if your corporate firewall blocks access to the above page...

It really did make me laugh out loud!

More Thoughts on the new Computer Spec

There are two...

1) If I stay with the Athlon 64, I only need to fit DDR not DDR2 RAM, as the AMD processor is not capable of driving memory at DDR2 speeds...

2) I may have changed my mind completely, and instead go for the Intel Core Duo T2400. Running at only 1.83 GHz it performs 5 to 10% better than a 3.2 GHz Dual Core Pentium...!

3) I will definately hang on till the laptops from BT include Core processors....

Been a bit quiet recently

Not been up to much for the last week or so and haven't really been in Blogging mood, so here is a quick update on what's been happening around here ...

Amanda has been off work for just over a week, helping her mom with the funeral arrangments. Mike is to be Cremated, at Gornalwood Crematorium, today at 15:00... Amanda is hoping to get back to work tommorow, and start trying to 'get back to normal' We are picking the kids up from school at lunchtime, hope they will be OK... Alex seems to be showing a lot more emotion about it than Amy, but he always has 'Worn his heart on his sleeve'... It was their choice, and they both said they wanted to go - so they could say goodbye.

Many thanks to all our friend who have sent cards and messages of support, they are appreciated.

Onto bighter news...

We finally got around to seeing "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" at the cinema on Sunday - Excellent!!

Alex and I finally got back to the golf range this weekend, ready for another lesson next week. We were both better than we had any right to be after a month long lay-off... Well only with the 8 Iron, any other club and I was terrible!

Changed the Wireless router on my network here, from a BT Voyager 2000 to a BT Voyager 2110 (up from 802.11b to 802.11g) problem is it seems to keep dropping the ADSL line... It seems to be stable again at present, so I will hold fire from returning it under warrantee... It may yet be a, co-incidental, line fault.

Still no sign of the second Nikon (Coolpix 7900) - well they did quote 2 to 4 weeks, and it's only been 2...

Managed to completely trash my Axim PDA, so have had to reset it and reload the apps. Fortunately I don't have too much on there - TomTom 5, BatteryPack Pro, and Microsoft Reader. All the user data is on the SD card, and the entire machine is sync'd to my desktop so appointments, notes etc were recovered that way.

At long last, I got around to 'sharing' my printer on the network, and setting the laptop up with a connection to it... I can now print from the Lappy... Nice!

Got two 'New' games for the XBOX, "Need for Speed - Most Wanted" and "Burnout - Revenge"... Both driving games, both excellent. I Also got "Need for Speed" for the PSP - it's most excellent, but I do need to wear my specs to cope with that much detail on such a small screen.

Weight Check

At 19:30 on 30-07-2005 : 14st 1lb, 26.7% BF
At 16:30 on 14-08-2005 : 13st 5lb, 26.3% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 12-09-2005 : 13st 0lb, 25.7% BF
At 17:30 on 26-09-2005 : 12st 12lb, 25.0% BF
At 19:30 on 10-10-2005 : 12st 10lb, 24.5% BF
At 17:30 on 24-10-2005 : 12st 8 lb, 24.9% BF
At 18:30 on 07-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 21-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 05-12-2005 : 12st 6 lb, 23.1% BF
At 22:00 on 19-12-2005 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 16:00 on 02-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.5% BF
At 21:00 on 16-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF

OK, so a little dissapointed that the percentage body fat has increased slightly, but it really has been another week of finishing the Xmas goodies off. The weight has stayed constant, so that's not too bad.

The only problem at the moment, is that I have got used to having treats, and I am finding it quite difficult to stop again... Now where are those Gingerbread Cookies???

Michael John Sainsbury

Died this morning after a 7 year long battle against bowel cancer.

The way I choose to remember him most fondly is after taking him on the 'Pepsi Max Big One' at Blackpool - he could not contain his excitment and drove every one of us almost potty with his enthusiasm. That and the episode with the Top Hat when getting measured for the wedding suits...

Who will I be able to take to concerts in the future, we went to see Jean Michel Jarre at Manchester, Eric Clapton at the NEC, The Corrs at the NEC and he was always so excited... He was the Father I never had myself. He will be badly missed by all those he leaves behind.

Suit Fitting Tommorow

My Sister is getting married in September this year, and it is my duty to 'give here away' - something I wanted to do ever since she was about 5 years old!!

I have been putting it off for several months, but have finally agreed to go and get measured up for the hire-suit tommorow. Mark (Deb's intended) is going to pick me up at lunchtime, and after a quick trip to the "Jewellery Quarter" to introduce him to the stores we have used a number of times, it's off to Brierly Hill for a fitting.

OK, not quite so well...

It was going very well, the radiator cabinet had been primed, glued, assembled and the wall mounting plates had been fitted late on yesterday. This morning I decided to finish the painting in place as it was a bit heavy a fragile to be moving around. So to protect the new wallpaper, I put a line of masking tape at the back. Glossed the whole unit, twice. I then removed the tape, and yes you guessed it - ripped the paper in several places.

I then ended up having to strip and rehang 4 drops of paper... Then caused an unsightly edge with the border, so that too had to be replaced. It looks good now it is finished, but it was touch and go for a while!

Decorating going very well...

I had a couple of hours out this morning, Merry Hill for Breakfast and a Latte, and dropped in at B&Q on the way back. There I saw something that should just finish the room of nicely - a radiator cabinet and at £47 not as expensive I thought...

Anyway, back home and paper hanging started at about 12:00, and was completed by 18:00 - and it is looking pretty good... The room has been re-furnished and the new Mark Spain picture is looking very at home. Get the cabinet tommorow morning, do a test fit, and then I suppose it will have to be moved for painting....

Weight Check

At 19:30 on 30-07-2005 : 14st 1lb, 26.7% BF
At 16:30 on 14-08-2005 : 13st 5lb, 26.3% BF
At 19:30 on 29-08-2005 : 13st 3lb, 25.8% BF
At 17:30 on 12-09-2005 : 13st 0lb, 25.7% BF
At 17:30 on 26-09-2005 : 12st 12lb, 25.0% BF
At 19:30 on 10-10-2005 : 12st 10lb, 24.5% BF
At 17:30 on 24-10-2005 : 12st 8 lb, 24.9% BF
At 18:30 on 07-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 21-11-2005 : 12st 7 lb, 23.9% BF
At 22:00 on 05-12-2005 : 12st 6 lb, 23.1% BF
At 22:00 on 19-12-2005 : 12st 4 lb, 22.9% BF
At 16:00 on 02-01-2006 : 12st 4 lb, 22.5% BF

So, after working very hard the week before Xmas, and indulging in anything that took my fancy over Xmas - I have ended up at no change... RESULT!

I have not eaten as much food as previously, mainly because I feel full sooner now. I have however eaten what I want, including, Jacket Spuds, Pizza, Chocolate, Crisps and finally Alcohol...

Not expecting great things from the next weigh-in , as there as still rather a lot of goodies araound the house, and I am on leave this week, so no gym visits planned!!

Decorating started off well....

started this morning, the paper came off really easily, and have managed to emulsion the ceiling already. I may have 1/2 a day out with Amy in the morning, and start the paper hanging at about lunch time.

The "Polycell Wallpaper Stripper Liquid" does exactly what it says on the bottle...

New Year - New Computer?

It is now almost 3 years since I changed my Desktop PC, OK it has had a couple of minor upgrades since - Faster DVD Writer, Second Hard Drive, Faster CD Writer and an extra 512 MB RAM, but nothing major. It is now starting to creak a little bit when Photoshop'ing and Video Editing.

I bought this PC under a benefits scheme from work - you pay no VAT, and the month payments are taken from your salary before tax, this makes it seem -almost- like getting a computer for free. In June the 3 years are up, and I have started to consider what I will do then. None of the current PC's on the available list meet my -simple, but powerfull - requirments, lots of 9.1 Dolby, 32 GB RAM on the video card, etc. but still relatively slow processors, and minimal RAM.

So, I have decided that I will take a two pronged approach this year:
1) In June I will get a replacement LAPTOP computer from BT, currently looking at a 1.7Centrino, 1GB RAM, 100 GB HDD, Wide screen format etc.
2) I will build my own replacement Desktop PC, spending the money where I want the maximum performance. The current spec I am looking at is as follows;
AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core 4400 processor
NForce4 MoBo with SATA RAID etc.
2 GB DDR2 RAM
2 x 74 GB WD Raptor HDD - RAID 0 - giving a VERY fast 140 GB OS & Apps drive (10,000 RPM!!)
1 * 300 GB WD Caviar SE HDD - for data (D Drive(150 GB), M Drive(80 GB) & P Drive (50 GB))
Re-use my 250 GB 2nd HDD as a Backup device
An Nvidia 6800 Video card (To be ready for Vista)
2 x Lightscribe, Dual layer, 16x DVD Writers
A Silverstone "TEMJIN" case and finally
A 480w Fanless Power supply

At current prices, that lot looks to be comming in at about £1300 - hopefully I can get it down to about £1000 by the time I actually start on this project

Once this machine is built, I will reconfigure the current HP machine for AMY's use, Amy's old PC will go into Alex's room (need a new LCD Monitor for that one), and the old laptop will be passed on to Amanda's mom...