The 14 foot trampoline that I erected in the back garden today!!
The gods of outdoors have been kind to me, it has rained all weekend, and is due to rain again all the rest of this week, but today it's been dry and sunny, but not too warm... Just perfect weather to cut the grass and build a trampoline.
Amy and Alex don't know about it yet... only yesterday, I was responding with a firm NO to requests for a trampoline in the garden, so it should be quite a shock.
30th May, 20:00 Update: Alex is well chuffed, and has spent as much time on there as the weather will allow, Amy still knows nothing about it!!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Golfing with Neil
Monday afternoon, Neil got off from work early, and we went to Warley Woods for a quick nine holes.
He has played quite a lot in the past, but not regularly for a year or two. It was nice to have someone to walk around the course with, and a little bit of competition made it more interesting. Although to be honest neither of us were really bothered too much about winning.
In the end Neil's superior putting took the day, but with a margin of only 2 shots, I was quite pleased.
He has played quite a lot in the past, but not regularly for a year or two. It was nice to have someone to walk around the course with, and a little bit of competition made it more interesting. Although to be honest neither of us were really bothered too much about winning.
In the end Neil's superior putting took the day, but with a margin of only 2 shots, I was quite pleased.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | HOLE |
| 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | Par |
| 7 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 55 |
Thursday, May 17, 2007
HTMLvalidator/ has just been updated to 8.04(beta) If you are responsible for a web site, and have any interest in ensuring the code is as clean and standards compliant as it can be - then this is a program you should not be without.
Changes since 8.03:
Editor
Dragging and dropping a Batch Wizard target list file (that has an lst file extension) onto the editor in the professional edition will now ask if you want to open it in the Batch Wizard.
Batch Wizard
Following links should now work when links contain ";jsessionid=".
Improved Syntax Checking
Now assume that <%...%>, and will evaluate to a text string when CSE HTML Validator tries to determine if there is text in elements such as "b". This should eliminate messages like this for source like this <% =MS.SomeRoutine %>: The "b" element contains no text and may be useless. Consider removing this element or placing text in it so that it contains text.
Recognizes more font family names as valid.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug that calculated an incorrect absolute URI in certain rare situations.
New TreeView component to fix access violations when tool tips were on.
The tidyprofiles.xml file is now properly stored and referenced to in the user's application data folder.
Recognizes the CSS "counter-reset" property.
Other
Many Microsoft Vista improvements to better support the look and feel of Microsoft Vista.
Improvements when adding file associations.
Paths in the old 8.3 format that are passed as a filename argument to the command line processor are now, in most cases, converted to long filenames before processing.
Miscellaneous user interface improvements and fixes, including new tip messages.
Now creates the registry key that HTML-Kit looks for when it looks for CSE HTML Validator. This should cause the menu option Tools->Check Code Using CSE HTML Validator to appear in HTML-Kit when CSE HTML Validator is installed.
Minor updates to the documentation.
Changes since 8.03:
Editor
Dragging and dropping a Batch Wizard target list file (that has an lst file extension) onto the editor in the professional edition will now ask if you want to open it in the Batch Wizard.
Batch Wizard
Following links should now work when links contain ";jsessionid=".
Improved Syntax Checking
Now assume that <%...%>, and will evaluate to a text string when CSE HTML Validator tries to determine if there is text in elements such as "b". This should eliminate messages like this for source like this <% =MS.SomeRoutine %>: The "b" element contains no text and may be useless. Consider removing this element or placing text in it so that it contains text.
Recognizes more font family names as valid.
Bug Fixes
Fixed a bug that calculated an incorrect absolute URI in certain rare situations.
New TreeView component to fix access violations when tool tips were on.
The tidyprofiles.xml file is now properly stored and referenced to in the user's application data folder.
Recognizes the CSS "counter-reset" property.
Other
Many Microsoft Vista improvements to better support the look and feel of Microsoft Vista.
Improvements when adding file associations.
Paths in the old 8.3 format that are passed as a filename argument to the command line processor are now, in most cases, converted to long filenames before processing.
Miscellaneous user interface improvements and fixes, including new tip messages.
Now creates the registry key that HTML-Kit looks for when it looks for CSE HTML Validator. This should cause the menu option Tools->Check Code Using CSE HTML Validator to appear in HTML-Kit when CSE HTML Validator is installed.
Minor updates to the documentation.
Champions, but...
... all is not well at Old Trafford.
ARTICLE #1
David Conn's excellent article
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/05/16/the_borrowers_make_united_fans.html
The Guardian
David Conn
May 16, 2007
The borrowers make United fans pay for success
Man Utd fans will be counting the cost of the Glazer takeover next season, with ticket prices increasing by 14% to service the club's debts.
ARTICLE #2
Stuart Brennan's highlight piece in the Manchester Evening News
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester_united/s/1006/1006992_the_price_isnt_right_for_reds.html
Manchester Evening News
Stuart Brennan
15/ 5/2007
The price isn't right for Reds
MANCHESTER United's ticket price increases are more than FOUR TIMES bigger than the club originally intended, according to documents leaked to the Manchester Evening News.
And the fact that the Glazer family has ripped up its initial plan to peg back prices this summer has been slammed as a cynical attempt to cash in on the club's success this season.
The documents also indicate that this year's whopping increases will not be the last, as the club has stated that it intends to `maximise revenue generated through ticket prices and enhanced stadium facility.'
That indicates that prices will continue to rise until empty seats begin to appear at Old Trafford.
ARTICLE #3
Tim Heming's piece in The Sun
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2005300000-2007220330,00.html
Stick Your Season Tickets
By TIM HEMING
Sun Money
May 15, 2007
PREMIERSHIP attendances for next season are set to plummet as fans launch a backlash on greedy clubs.
Almost a quarter of season ticket holders won't be renewing for the 2007-08 campaign as the spiralling costs price thousands out of the game.
The number unable to afford match days has risen by five per cent from this time last year, with the Premier League money machines face criticism for abandoning their loyal grassroots fans.
Fans revolt:
The top five sets who say 'stick your season ticket'
Not renewing due to Cost and/or Quality of Football…
1 West Ham United
Cost = 28%
Football quality = 7%
Total = 35%
2 Manchester United
Cost = 24%
Football Quality = 0%
Total = 24%
3 Liverpool
Cost = 22%
Football Quality = 0%
Total = 22%
4 Middlesbrough
Cost = 21%
Football Quality = 3%
Total = 24%
5 Newcastle United
Cost = 19%
Football Quality = 10%
Total = 29%
ARTICLE #1
David Conn's excellent article
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/05/16/the_borrowers_make_united_fans.html
The Guardian
David Conn
May 16, 2007
The borrowers make United fans pay for success
Man Utd fans will be counting the cost of the Glazer takeover next season, with ticket prices increasing by 14% to service the club's debts.
ARTICLE #2
Stuart Brennan's highlight piece in the Manchester Evening News
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester_united/s/1006/1006992_the_price_isnt_right_for_reds.html
Manchester Evening News
Stuart Brennan
15/ 5/2007
The price isn't right for Reds
MANCHESTER United's ticket price increases are more than FOUR TIMES bigger than the club originally intended, according to documents leaked to the Manchester Evening News.
And the fact that the Glazer family has ripped up its initial plan to peg back prices this summer has been slammed as a cynical attempt to cash in on the club's success this season.
The documents also indicate that this year's whopping increases will not be the last, as the club has stated that it intends to `maximise revenue generated through ticket prices and enhanced stadium facility.'
That indicates that prices will continue to rise until empty seats begin to appear at Old Trafford.
ARTICLE #3
Tim Heming's piece in The Sun
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2005300000-2007220330,00.html
Stick Your Season Tickets
By TIM HEMING
Sun Money
May 15, 2007
PREMIERSHIP attendances for next season are set to plummet as fans launch a backlash on greedy clubs.
Almost a quarter of season ticket holders won't be renewing for the 2007-08 campaign as the spiralling costs price thousands out of the game.
The number unable to afford match days has risen by five per cent from this time last year, with the Premier League money machines face criticism for abandoning their loyal grassroots fans.
Fans revolt:
The top five sets who say 'stick your season ticket'
Not renewing due to Cost and/or Quality of Football…
1 West Ham United
Cost = 28%
Football quality = 7%
Total = 35%
2 Manchester United
Cost = 24%
Football Quality = 0%
Total = 24%
3 Liverpool
Cost = 22%
Football Quality = 0%
Total = 22%
4 Middlesbrough
Cost = 21%
Football Quality = 3%
Total = 24%
5 Newcastle United
Cost = 19%
Football Quality = 10%
Total = 29%
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Ouch!
Took the Bandit in for a service this morning, hoping to collect it mid afternoon in exchange for about £150...
Got a phone call at about 11:00, I had mentioned that the rear brakes didn't seem to be working too well, and that if new pads were required, then fit them: Hmmm, not only were the pads down to the metal, the disc is scored and below the miminum thickness!! Seems I need a new disc too! Ahh weel, that's another £100 on top of the bill then, not to mention it will now probably be Saturday morning before I can get to the shop to recover the bike!
Got a phone call at about 11:00, I had mentioned that the rear brakes didn't seem to be working too well, and that if new pads were required, then fit them: Hmmm, not only were the pads down to the metal, the disc is scored and below the miminum thickness!! Seems I need a new disc too! Ahh weel, that's another £100 on top of the bill then, not to mention it will now probably be Saturday morning before I can get to the shop to recover the bike!
Monday, May 07, 2007
Champions!!
Congratulations to Manchester United on collecting their 9th Premiership title, the fact that a win over Man City, and Arsenal holding Chelsea to a draw gave the title to United is particularly satisfying. Even better is the fact that United go to Chelsea in midweek and do not have to get a result. Personally I would play a 'reserve team' to prevent a physiological effect when playing them again in the FA cup final on the 19th May.
Amanda chose to use it as an excuse to open a bottle of Champagne that has been sitting in the wine rack since her 40th Birthday, so we celebrated the title in style - toasting Sir Alex with a glass of 'bubbly'
Amanda chose to use it as an excuse to open a bottle of Champagne that has been sitting in the wine rack since her 40th Birthday, so we celebrated the title in style - toasting Sir Alex with a glass of 'bubbly'
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Yet Another Record Month
Beating the record set last month by about 9,000 visitors, I have had 94,544 hits on the Rockbox-Themes web site in April. Now topping 3000 visitor per day on average.
Spiderman 3
No kids for the weekend, so today we went to the pictures by ourselves. There are several films that we want to see at the moment, but the 1st one on after we got there was Spiderman 3.
Verdict: Excellent
The special effects were *Very* good, the CGI blending seemlesly with the real life action, and enough of a romantic backstory to keep the wife happy. Oh yeh, Kirsten Dunst is HOT!
Verdict: Excellent
The special effects were *Very* good, the CGI blending seemlesly with the real life action, and enough of a romantic backstory to keep the wife happy. Oh yeh, Kirsten Dunst is HOT!
Friday, May 04, 2007
Where does the time go?
Has it really been that long since I posted here? Well I guess it must be!!
OK, two concerts booked for this year, both of which feature the most delectable Katherine Jenkins... The first is in June and is at Dudley Castle, the second is in December, at Symphony Hall, and also features the gorgeous Darcey Bussell. We have got good seats for both gigs's, so I am really chuffed.
OK, two concerts booked for this year, both of which feature the most delectable Katherine Jenkins... The first is in June and is at Dudley Castle, the second is in December, at Symphony Hall, and also features the gorgeous Darcey Bussell. We have got good seats for both gigs's, so I am really chuffed.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
What a load of tripe!!!
From the BBC news site:
Creationist museum challenges evolution
man, I knew this 'Creationist' thing was big in the states, but I never realised that it was so huge, took itself so seriously, or was such complete and utter CRAP!!
Creationist museum challenges evolution
man, I knew this 'Creationist' thing was big in the states, but I never realised that it was so huge, took itself so seriously, or was such complete and utter CRAP!!
Golf Lesson
I had a 'Woods' lesson yesterday afternoon. Since starting back after the winter break, my fade/slice has returned with a vengance, especially with the 3 wood and fairway wood, and distance (or lack of) was a bit of an issue.
The 'cure' was two simple changes:
1) Aim the right direction!! Yep, that old one back again. Seems I was overcorrecting for my previous aligment errors.
2) Make my grip 'Stronger' ie left thumb on the rhs of the shaft, right thumb on the LHS of the shaft. Seems I had slipped into using Alex's "Thumbs Down The Centerline" grip without realising it!!
By the end of the lesson I was hitting 170 yards - straight - with a 3 wood, and about 150 with the fairway wood
The 'cure' was two simple changes:
1) Aim the right direction!! Yep, that old one back again. Seems I was overcorrecting for my previous aligment errors.
2) Make my grip 'Stronger' ie left thumb on the rhs of the shaft, right thumb on the LHS of the shaft. Seems I had slipped into using Alex's "Thumbs Down The Centerline" grip without realising it!!
By the end of the lesson I was hitting 170 yards - straight - with a 3 wood, and about 150 with the fairway wood
Video Podcast worth watching...
If you have an interest in getting the best out of Photoshop check out the Video Podcast by Bert Monroy called Pixel Perfect, you can subscribe in iTunes, but I would suggest the Large Format version, and watch it on the PC, not the small version on the iPod.
Check out his *MASSIVE* original artwork called Damen:
This is my latest and most ambitious digital painting of a Chicago scene unveiled at Photoshop World in Miami on March 22, 2006.
It is a panorama of the Damen Station on the Blue Line of the Chicago Transit Authority.
Adobe Illustrator was used for generating the majority of the basic shapes as well as all the buildings in the Chicago skyline.
The rest was created in Photoshop.
• The image size is 40 inches by 120 inches.
• The flattened file weighs in at 1.7 Gigabytes.
• It took eleven months (close to 2,000 hours) to create.
• The painting is comprised of close to fifty individual Photoshop files.
• Taking a cumulative total of all the files, the overall image contains over 15,000 layers.
• Over 500 alpha channels were used for various effects.
• Over 250,000 paths make up the multitude of shapes throughout the scene.
Check out his *MASSIVE* original artwork called Damen:
This is my latest and most ambitious digital painting of a Chicago scene unveiled at Photoshop World in Miami on March 22, 2006.
It is a panorama of the Damen Station on the Blue Line of the Chicago Transit Authority.
Adobe Illustrator was used for generating the majority of the basic shapes as well as all the buildings in the Chicago skyline.
The rest was created in Photoshop.
• The image size is 40 inches by 120 inches.
• The flattened file weighs in at 1.7 Gigabytes.
• It took eleven months (close to 2,000 hours) to create.
• The painting is comprised of close to fifty individual Photoshop files.
• Taking a cumulative total of all the files, the overall image contains over 15,000 layers.
• Over 500 alpha channels were used for various effects.
• Over 250,000 paths make up the multitude of shapes throughout the scene.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Week Off
Well, I don't usually do it, but this weeks annual leave coincides with school holidays, so I have had to 'Do Things' with my days off, rather than my usual dossing around and chillin'...
So far, we have been for a game of Pitch 'n' Putt at Himley, booked Alex in for some golf lessons for the next few months, plus one for me on Friday - I really need to sort out my tee shots...
There was a family 'Gardening' session on Tuesday. A rather old tatty bed has been completely cleared, and 4 Peonys planted, complete with bark chippings etc. In addition several hanging baskets potted up.
Wednesday was a day out, firstly Cheshire Oaks outlet mall, where I treated myself to a HDD-DVD Recorder from the Toshiba outlet: A RD-XS25 for £149 (160 GB HDD!!) In addition a Tog24 jacket to replace my previous well worn warm/waterproof coat (with iPod connector and fabric controls on the arm!!)
From there we headed into North Wales and spent a few hours in Rhyl... Which to be honest was more than enough!! The one end of the town by the Sun Centre is very nice, but the other end of the promenade by the 'FunFair' was an absolute dump!!
Today, I have the house to myself, Amanda has taken the kids to Worcester for the day, and I am playing with setting up the DVD recorder. But as the sun is now starting to warm up nicely, I may have some food and then go out on the bandit for a ride later ;-)
So far, we have been for a game of Pitch 'n' Putt at Himley, booked Alex in for some golf lessons for the next few months, plus one for me on Friday - I really need to sort out my tee shots...
There was a family 'Gardening' session on Tuesday. A rather old tatty bed has been completely cleared, and 4 Peonys planted, complete with bark chippings etc. In addition several hanging baskets potted up.
Wednesday was a day out, firstly Cheshire Oaks outlet mall, where I treated myself to a HDD-DVD Recorder from the Toshiba outlet: A RD-XS25 for £149 (160 GB HDD!!) In addition a Tog24 jacket to replace my previous well worn warm/waterproof coat (with iPod connector and fabric controls on the arm!!)
From there we headed into North Wales and spent a few hours in Rhyl... Which to be honest was more than enough!! The one end of the town by the Sun Centre is very nice, but the other end of the promenade by the 'FunFair' was an absolute dump!!
Today, I have the house to myself, Amanda has taken the kids to Worcester for the day, and I am playing with setting up the DVD recorder. But as the sun is now starting to warm up nicely, I may have some food and then go out on the bandit for a ride later ;-)
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Another Record Month
Beating the record set last month by about 19,000 visitors, I have had 85,737 hits on the Rockbox-Themes web site in March. Almost 3000 visitor per day on average.
Monday, March 26, 2007
1st Golf Round of the Year
To signal the start of British Summer Time, today the weather was lovely... So this morning I managed to find an hour or two to trot off to Warley Woods and get my first round of the year in...
To be honest, I could have done with 1/2 hour in the nets first, my tee shots were appalling until about hole 6, when I finally managed to keep my head down until AFTER the ball had gone. In addition, the greens were still very wet in places making putting tricky.
The overall score for 9 holes was 60, but given the 13, yes 13 for the first hole, I think that was quite a good recovery... Also I should have kept to the fairway wood for the 8th, but instead I was tempted to get out the driver... hmmm not good!
Overall, I feel that my target of under 50 is achievable, just may take a few more weeks ;-)
13(4), 4(3), 7(4), 5(3), 5(3), 7(4), 5(4), 7(4), 7(4)
Total 60
To be honest, I could have done with 1/2 hour in the nets first, my tee shots were appalling until about hole 6, when I finally managed to keep my head down until AFTER the ball had gone. In addition, the greens were still very wet in places making putting tricky.
The overall score for 9 holes was 60, but given the 13, yes 13 for the first hole, I think that was quite a good recovery... Also I should have kept to the fairway wood for the 8th, but instead I was tempted to get out the driver... hmmm not good!
Overall, I feel that my target of under 50 is achievable, just may take a few more weeks ;-)
13(4), 4(3), 7(4), 5(3), 5(3), 7(4), 5(4), 7(4), 7(4)
Total 60
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Been a while...
Not sure where all the time has gone to lately... I have been a little busy, training course in Maidenhead (Microsoft LCS linked to Nortels CS1K phonesystem) which was interesting... I really don't know how the heck you are supposed to debug it if/when i fails, Domain accounts, Customer maintained servers, and switch config!!
On returning from that event, I then covered a 12 hour night shift - I was then totally jet-lagged for a couple of days afterwards!
Then on Tuesday this week, I left work at 17:00 and headed off to Birmingham airport, and was on a customer site in Dublin till 01:30 Wednesday AM, didn't get home from Dublin till 23:00 on Thursday night... Again I am slightly knackered.
Finally managed to get to the Gym again yesterday - I have topped 13st again and *really* need to startgetting some regular exersize again soon.
PC is running rather nicely, just a couple of issues:
It keeps forgetting the time/date
Dreamweaver is not totally Vista compatible, and keeps reporting "Out of Memory" errors, but a new version is due soon.
On returning from that event, I then covered a 12 hour night shift - I was then totally jet-lagged for a couple of days afterwards!
Then on Tuesday this week, I left work at 17:00 and headed off to Birmingham airport, and was on a customer site in Dublin till 01:30 Wednesday AM, didn't get home from Dublin till 23:00 on Thursday night... Again I am slightly knackered.
Finally managed to get to the Gym again yesterday - I have topped 13st again and *really* need to startgetting some regular exersize again soon.
PC is running rather nicely, just a couple of issues:
It keeps forgetting the time/date
Dreamweaver is not totally Vista compatible, and keeps reporting "Out of Memory" errors, but a new version is due soon.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Vista - "Up and Running" on new PC
OK, so the OS is loaded, along with most of the basic apps that I can't live without. A 'Full Drive' backup has been taken, and e-mail, iTunes, Dreamweaver etc are all configured to work with the 2nd SATA drive (Moved over from the old PC).
The general feel of the machine is superb, in situations where my old PC would freeze for a second or two, or iTunes would stutter playback etc, it has just kept on ...
The 'Windows Experience Index' before and after is as follows
The RAM score is a little disapointing considering both machines have 2G, but the old one is 233 and the new one is 533..!
The general feel of the machine is superb, in situations where my old PC would freeze for a second or two, or iTunes would stutter playback etc, it has just kept on ...
The 'Windows Experience Index' before and after is as follows
| OLD | NEW | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 3.9 | 5.3 |
| RAM | 4.2 | 4.2 |
| 2D | 5.0 | 4.5 |
| 3D | 3.4 | 4.4 |
| HDD | 5.3 | 5.9 |
The RAM score is a little disapointing considering both machines have 2G, but the old one is 233 and the new one is 533..!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
New Record
The months stats for www.rockbox-themes.org are now in, and show a grand total of 58,252 hits :-0
Wow! This is amazing, the average hits per day is now between 2000 and 2500, next month has more days so lets see if we can;t beat that figure again next month ;-)
Wow! This is amazing, the average hits per day is now between 2000 and 2500, next month has more days so lets see if we can;t beat that figure again next month ;-)
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
1st time this year
Early this morning (before the PC delivery) I actually took a couple of clubs and went to the Golf Range, and hit a bucket of balls.
As expected, I wasn't too great, but on the plus side - not much worse than the last time I went!! I am itching to get back on the Golf Course at Warley - as soon as the weather warms up just a little bit more, and dries out a bit.
As expected, I wasn't too great, but on the plus side - not much worse than the last time I went!! I am itching to get back on the Golf Course at Warley - as soon as the weather warms up just a little bit more, and dries out a bit.
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