Updating My Router

I am currently using the BT Homehub that came with the BT Broadband service, and whilst it has it’s flaws, it is easy to setup and works just fine… except that Amy’s wireless connection couldn’t be further away from the router, and still be in the house.  She has a pretty poor connection speed, and it does drop connections occasionally.

I had been looking out for a suitable alternative, especially as the 802.11n draft boxes are pretty stable now, and was quite pleased to see that BT now offer a ‘new’ Homehub 2.0 which is in fact a 11n device.

It should be delivered early next week, so I need to get a 11n USB dongle for Amy’s PC over the weekend…  Looks like I have to start researching all over again :-(

Pictures from Holiday

Can be found on my website

The first lot are from Alex’s SCUBA diving lesson, the few remaining ones are all I managed to take before the camera died!

Back after a small break

In more ways than one!

1) Yes it’s been almost three weeks –again- since my last entry.

2) Just back from a weeks break at CenterParcs in Penrith.

3) Managed to break my digital camera (The compact not the SLR!)

4) Managed to break my toe!

 

For #1, I have no excuse except that I am lazy, totally pre-occupied with watching seasons 1 to 6 of Highlander on the PC, and am generally a boring person with not much to say, but #2 meant I had no PC/Internet access for 7 days, so a valid reason there for at least a portion of that time.

WRT #3 Whilst away, my Nikon compact digital camera ‘just stopped working’…  It’s a little over two years old, and after taking three pictures, the forth attempt sounded the shutter release noise and then just suffered an apparent total failure!  The lens stayed out, but no amount of poking, forcing, disconnecting and replacing the battery had any effect on it!  Looks like it’s time to replace it, and the current favourite is a Canon IXUS 85 – (Anything between £160 and £200) it’s a 10 MegaPixel camera with Optical Image Stabilisation and Face Recognition. (See Steve’s Digicam Review – lt is known as the SD770 in the US). Originally I was looking at a IXUS 82, Similar but 8Meg and £30 cheaper, but this seems to be some sort of ‘Jessops exclusive’ so I may well go up a model and be able to shop around.

Finally #4, working my last shift before breaking up for a two week break from work, I managed to kick (very Hard!)the corner of a metal filing cabinet with the little toe on my Right foot.  A trip to the hospital was inconclusive, it was definitely not dislocated, may be just badly bruised, and was possibly broken.
If bruised, would be better in approximately seven days, if broken about three weeks.  No treatment, just pain killers.
That was on the 9th, it’s now the 19th, and I still have a slight limp, and cannot wear trainers for more than an hour or two!

So, a week at home, and I can’t even swing a golf club – Oh Bugger!

Best 18 hole score yet…

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	HOLE
4	4	5	3	4	3	4	4	4	Par 35
4	5	9	3	9	5	9	5	7	56
10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	HOLE
4	4	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	Par 34
6	5	6	5	7	6	4	5	5	49

That’s a total of 105, and most of the damage was done on just three holes (3,5 and 7)

Beedle the Bard

Well, Amy has managed to spend £50 of her birthday money already, and it’s not till December!

Once it was announced that J.K.Rowling would be releasing “The Tales of Beedle the Bard” in December she was excited, when she realised that it would be released on Dec 4th, the day before her birthday – she was hyper.  Then when she saw the ‘Collector Edition’ package from Amazon – well….

From Amazon.co.uk:

Offered Exclusively by Amazon (Available in Limited Quantities)
In December 2007, J.K. Rowling unveiled The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a very special book of five fairy tales illustrated by the bard herself, embellished with silver ornaments and mounted moonstones. Amazon was fortunate to come into possession of one of the original copies, and it was our privilege to share images and reviews of this incredible artifact. Now J.K. Rowling is giving millions of Harry Potter fans worldwide cause for celebration with a new edition of The Tales of Beedle the Bard (available December 4, 2008) and Amazon is thrilled to exclusively offer a luxuriously packaged Collector’s Edition designed to evoke the spirit of the handcrafted original.

Tucked in its own case disguised as a wizarding textbook found in the Hogwarts library, the Collector's Edition includes a handwritten version of J.K. Rowling's new introduction, as well as 10 additional illustrations not found in the Standard Edition or the original. Opening the case reveals a velvet bag embroidered with J.K. Rowling’s signature, in which sits the piece de resistance: your very own copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, complete with metal skull, corners, and clasp; replica gemstones; and emerald ribbon.

Wow, has it been that long ?

Just realised it’s been over three weeks since I last posted here, where the hell does time go??

What’s been going on? I hear you ask as one (probably because there is only one of you, but hey – it’s my blog and I’ll use poetic licence when I want to!)

Well,  Amy stared in the school production of ‘Grease’ as ‘Miss Lynch’, and was excellent (as was the entire production by the way).

I have played golf a few times, and seem to be getting worse at the moment, I have obviously changed my swing in some way, and the slice is back… but buggered if I know what I am doing differently!  My short game and putting has improved immensely, but the overall scores are still rubbish, as I almost always end up in trouble off the tee!

I have tickets, not just for Katherine Jenkins at the NIA, but also for Hayley Westenra at Birmingham Town Hall (Nov 13th).

I have been on a site visit from work to one on the NHS Direct call centres – at exotic Merry Hill, and attended a three day course for AudioCodes in even more exotic Coventry!

So, overall nothing too exciting there… Sound about right!

Euro 2008 is almost over

 

Said by some to be one of the greatest tournaments of recent times:
we've got the small matter of Germany-Spain, with the promise of a classic final to put the cherry on top of a tremendous three weeks. If Carlsberg did tournaments they'd struggle to come up with anything better.
Chris Charles on the BBC Sport website

But, I am sure that not even Carlsberg could have produced a penalty kick to match this one for sheer class!
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hP9DJYq54YI

But, NO ONE takes a pen quite like Beckham …

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

“Tickets for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's testimonial match against Espanyol on Saturday 2 August are now on sale to the general public.

The Old Trafford friendly will bring Ole's epic career to a close, with the man himself set to play one last game in the famous red shirt.
The occasion gives fans a chance to give the popular striker the send off he deserves after 326 appearances, 126 goals and countless happy memories.”

From ManUtd.com

I have tickets for Myself and Alex, also Neil, Ryan & Nial Sankey. Our seats are on the 2nd row, block 2404, North stand - This is the view from there -

It took 45 minutes of getting busy tone before I was even queued, and then another 50 minutes to get answered! I am not sure I want to ever listen to ‘Take me Home (United Road)’ again!!!  When I did finally get answered, I spoke to ‘Gary’, and he could not have been more helpful.

More Training!!

Seems that I have been chosen, along with two of the other support guys to be the prime for a new product that BT will be bringing to market in the coming months, and that the servers will all be Linux based…

As such we are all to be ‘Linux Trained’ to and ‘Advanced Standard’. Not sure I know what any of that means, but it could be fun!

Minor New Toy

As Amy needs a larger memory stick that her current 512KB one, I decided the best thing to do is give her my 4GB one (I have suffered from lack of space recently too), and I can get a new one… ;-)

So today I have ordered a replacement 16GB – yes 16!! Dane Elec zMate thumb drive from 7dayshop for the grand sum of £36 inc VAT and Postage.

Latest Scores from HGC

I have now managed to get two 18 hole rounds in, and am still yet to beat Neil, but I am getting closer only a few shots in it now.

Scores below:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	HOLE
4	4	5	3	4	3	4	4	4	Par35
6	6	9	6	8	4	7	5	6	57
10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	HOLE
4	4	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	Par34
7	5	6	8	7	5	3	5	7	55
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	HOLE
4	4	5	3	4	3	4	4	4	Par35
5	8	6	6	9	5	6	4	6	55
10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	HOLE
4	4	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	Par34
7	5	6	8	5	5	6	5	5	52

I really need to practice holes 3, 4, 10, 13 & 14…

18 Holes - Finally

This afternoon, I went to Halesowen Golf Course with Neil, and we managed to play all 18 holes! It's the first time I have managed to get round 18 holes on any course, never mind one as steep as Halesowen!!

It took us a little over Four and a Quarter hours , but we wern't in any rush, and did let two othe groups play thro'.

The scores were not too hot (Neil 106, Me 110) but we both managed to play some nice golf at times - it's just a lack of consistency that lets us down.

Grand day out

Well yesterday morning we set off for Blackpool at 08:45, picking Amy's friend, Beth, up on the way.

We parked the car up by the "Sandcastle" at just after 11:00, paying £7 for up to 24 hours... After walking over the road to the "Pleasure Beach" we were duly fitted with Wristbands, and waved Amanda off in the direction of "Fleetwood Freeport". We split into two parties (the boys and the girls!) and headed for the rides. The weather was fantastic, dry warm and sunny - to the point where I had to spend £6 just to by a baseball cap to protect my rapidy reddening head!

By the end of the day, Alex had been on 'Infusion', 'The Big One' (twice), 'The Ice Blast' (twice), 'Valhalla', 'The Grand National', 'The Wild Mouse', 'Avalanche' and 'Bling'. The last one was with Amy & Beth - It's the one ride in the park that I just don't like!

We met up with Amanda at about 4 O'Clock and after a couple of large pizza's taken Al-Fresco on the front, we mad our way back into the park for the 'Hot Ice' show, which to be honest, was enjoyed by the girls more than me and Alex, but it was still pretty impressive.

We left the car park at about 9:30, and got back home (after a couple of quick coffee/toilet breaks) at 11:30.

Off to Blackpool

Hope the weather improves for Saturday, we are all off to the Pleasure Beach at Blackpool...
Alex is now tall enough to ride the 'Big One' and is REALLY excited.

Dreamweaver CS4

Well BETA anyway...

It's not actually due for release for another 9 to 12 months, but you can download the beta now, and as long as you have a valid CS3 product key, you can run it in parallel till CS4 is officially launched.

You can find out more on the adobe labs website, but its mainly a radical overhaul of the user interface, along with some very nice new features.  I installed it Thursday, and even in this short time, I really don't want to go back to the old version...

!!Wow Training!!

After a rather length period, I have finally been given not 1 but two training courses over the next few weeks...

On Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday I will be at ITEL's office in Chester to find out all about the new STRATUS 4400 server platform.

Then in July I will be in Central London for 4 days finding out all about the AUDIOCODES Media Gateway. Initial checks of suitable hotels suggest we may be staying just off Trafalgar Square ...!  Sound Ok for a night out (or two) in the city.

Double Figures

Happy Birthday to ALEXANDER STEVEN BRIGHT - 10 years old today...

Delayed Wedding Anniversary

We had to cancel our meal on the 9th May, due to me feeling more that a little rough, but last night we did have a great day out to belatedly celebrate out 16th Wedding Anniversary.

Amanda's mom has the kids for the weekend, so we set off on our own yesterday lunchtime, into Birmingham.  First stop was the Cinema for the latest Indiana Jones film - "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" Verdict: Taken on it's own a damn fine adventure romp, but when viewed in relation to previous IJ's - Not so good...  The characters are looking a little too old for all that 'swashbuckling action' type of thing.  My opinion is that the same screenplay as a third instalment of the "National Treasure" franchise would have worked much better.

After the film, a pleasant stroll into town, a cup of coffee and a slice of cake in Costa, a walk around the Bullring, before settling down in a bar near St Pauls Square for a nice quiet (but rather expensive) drink.

At 7:15 we took the short walk to 'The Bucklemaker' where we had more drinks and ordered our food.  I couldn't help but smile - top quality restaurant and I have Tomato Soup, and "Steak and Chips"...  Admittedly the soup was Red pepper and Tomato with chili infused something or other and  Caramelised Yellow Cherry Tomatoes, and the steak was an 8oz Aberdeen Angus steak with a coarse grain mustard jus, and the Bucklemaker chips are legendary!  I almost cried when I tasted the steak, I could never of imagined that food could taste that good!  Amanda was equally pleased with her 'Braised Pork Cheeks".

The staff were excellent, helpful and attentive without ever 'being in your face'.

OK, it cast £80 (with tip) for the two of us, but I will definitely go again...

GCSEs - Are they actually any good?

As a parent of a child who is about to start her GSCE studies in the next few months I found this series of articles on the PCPro site rather enlightening, and not a little worrying...

Top of the Class

Back to School With A Bump

Ridiculous Exam Questions

A Little Learning...

MOT Passed

The Bandit has just been for it's first MOT and passed with flying colours...  ;-)