Well, the radio rally wasn't as good as it has been but there were some interesting things. I picked up two things, an old Compaq Armada laptop for £5, which turned out to be a Pentium with 32mb RAM and 2gb hard drive. Needs a keyboard as half the keys don't work but is otherwise fine.
The other item was a box that converts old video signals into VGA, which is something I thought I could use. Since I put the monitor on the 360 instead of using a TV, I've had no way of using the old PS2 or any other consoles. This box lets the PS2 display through the monitor, and has a bypass so the 360 can display perfectly well too. I've hooked it all up and it works fine although the quality isn't great. But it never was anyway, just been spoilt by the HD signal from the 360. Played a bit of San Andreas which proved it is the pinnacle of GTA, and going back to the original GTA III.
Saturday, 30 October 2010
Friday, 29 October 2010
Week of meh
Well, it's not been too bad a week really. Work has been about average.
Badminton yesterday wasn't too bad, although The Hagg was up to her usual tricks. If I serve it too high, she smashes it at my face every time, and her aim is good enough to make it a real issue as the first instinct is to duck. I don't really care, I find it amusing she's so predictable more than anything else. It really pisses Em off though and for once The Hagg realised we weren't happy about it. Her justification was that it was my fault for serving like that. Hah. The numbers meant that we had one game where it was the three of us and someone else, while The Hagg sat out. I didn't do it intentionally but I found myself making it rather obvious how much more enjoyable the game was, and I find it fun to do silly or pointless things as it clearly winds her up such as discussing German or Welsh swearwords between serves, or blatantly insulting her in front of her face in sign language.
Played some retro games this evening. Fiddled about with Sim City 3000 although couldn't get it into it again, and then the original Theme Park. It runs well in DosBox although just a little too fast. Good fun though. Badminton was tempting but I got home and couldn't extricate myself again to get out to it. I feel bad for not going.
Not mentioned it on here but about a month ago I had some chequer tape spare so I put it on the right wing of the Focus for no real reason except I was bored. However, I had a dream last night where I took the tape off again and the car was all rotten underneath, like it had gangrene. It was really disgusting.
Sold my Neo Geo Pocket collection for £41, not too bad. The buyer is in Portugal, having ignored my statement that I'd only post it to the UK. Oh well.
Radio rally tomorrow, should be fun. Then off to Vicky's tomorrow evening for Mexican fest, and then Ed and Kat's on Sunday for Halloween shenanigans. I've taken Monday as flexi now too, hurrah.
Badminton yesterday wasn't too bad, although The Hagg was up to her usual tricks. If I serve it too high, she smashes it at my face every time, and her aim is good enough to make it a real issue as the first instinct is to duck. I don't really care, I find it amusing she's so predictable more than anything else. It really pisses Em off though and for once The Hagg realised we weren't happy about it. Her justification was that it was my fault for serving like that. Hah. The numbers meant that we had one game where it was the three of us and someone else, while The Hagg sat out. I didn't do it intentionally but I found myself making it rather obvious how much more enjoyable the game was, and I find it fun to do silly or pointless things as it clearly winds her up such as discussing German or Welsh swearwords between serves, or blatantly insulting her in front of her face in sign language.
Played some retro games this evening. Fiddled about with Sim City 3000 although couldn't get it into it again, and then the original Theme Park. It runs well in DosBox although just a little too fast. Good fun though. Badminton was tempting but I got home and couldn't extricate myself again to get out to it. I feel bad for not going.
Not mentioned it on here but about a month ago I had some chequer tape spare so I put it on the right wing of the Focus for no real reason except I was bored. However, I had a dream last night where I took the tape off again and the car was all rotten underneath, like it had gangrene. It was really disgusting.
Sold my Neo Geo Pocket collection for £41, not too bad. The buyer is in Portugal, having ignored my statement that I'd only post it to the UK. Oh well.
Radio rally tomorrow, should be fun. Then off to Vicky's tomorrow evening for Mexican fest, and then Ed and Kat's on Sunday for Halloween shenanigans. I've taken Monday as flexi now too, hurrah.
Monday, 25 October 2010
Bike on fire
Today was spent doing some of the Diversity Awareness online training course which everyone has to do. It's not the most riveting thing but does have some interesting bits.
Took the bike out for a ride after work to see how it was after the oil change. I don't know if it was psychological on my part but it seemed to go really well. Stopped off in Denbigh briefly to see Andy and Maz who are off to London tomorrow, and then headed back home. By that time it was getting dark and was probably the darkest I've actually ridden the bike in. It was pretty cold as well, definitely need to get some sort of clothing for my legs.
Took the bike out for a ride after work to see how it was after the oil change. I don't know if it was psychological on my part but it seemed to go really well. Stopped off in Denbigh briefly to see Andy and Maz who are off to London tomorrow, and then headed back home. By that time it was getting dark and was probably the darkest I've actually ridden the bike in. It was pretty cold as well, definitely need to get some sort of clothing for my legs.
Saturday, 23 October 2010
I am a fat slob
Went out this morning and got oil for the bike, but it was a stupid day of unpredictable weather, one minute sunshine, next heavy rain. Gave up on the oil change and slobbed out in front of the third series of Torchwood, which was good. Morrisons was a heaving mass of people so I went to Lidl instead which can be relied upon to be quite empty even at peak times. It's a weird atmosphere in there, it always seems hushed compared to other supermarkets. I like the German stuff you can get in there though as well as all the usual stuff, and you can always get a parking space.
Other than that, it's been a quiet day. Listed my Neo Geo Pocket collection on Ebay, three consoles and some games. Great little machines to be fair, just haven't used them for ages. Also checked the status of my other auctions for a Sinclair ZX81 and a vintage PacMan 2 game. The ZX81 has bids, but not the other one, yet.
It's the radio rally next weekend. I haven't been since it was cancelled in 2005 when they couldn't afford to hold it in the theatre any more. It's a great place for finding computer equipment and retro stuff, and I've got many nice and interesting things from there, including the above mentioned ZX81.
In the last two years it's been held in the new school in Llandudno, but I haven't been. The first year I just didn't know it was happening, and last year I was in Berlin. Despite my financial crackdown, I am going to allow myself a bit of cash to go and see what's there, but this time, with the intent of seeing if there is anything I could possibly resell on Ebay. The problem I've had before is that I would buy something just to really have a play with it, but then never get rid of it and it would just sit around. When the stuff was PDAs and stuff it's not too bad, when you're talking huge Unix workstations and the like, it can get a bit silly.
Supposedly the weather tomorrow is going to be better, and hopefully will get the bike oil change done.
The gearbox plot thickens, when I was driving hom from town today, I had a lot on my mind, and forgot to avoid third gear, and it worked perfectly all the way home without me realising. Perhaps it's not as damaged as previously thought.
My brother has once again encouraged me to sign up for the Berlin half marathon next year. It is something I think it would be great to do, but I'm so unfit at the moment I'd never be ready to do it in time, and I'm still quite dubious about my running ability.
Rereading Harry Potter, just started book 4.
When I went into town, found that I'd forgotten to charge the HTC and it was completely flat, so I had to go out without a mobile phone. It was a somewhat strange sensation, probably the first time I've been out without one for years. Still like the HTC, found a C64 emulator for it, and there's even an Amiga emulator for Android, which seems totally unreal.
Other than that, it's been a quiet day. Listed my Neo Geo Pocket collection on Ebay, three consoles and some games. Great little machines to be fair, just haven't used them for ages. Also checked the status of my other auctions for a Sinclair ZX81 and a vintage PacMan 2 game. The ZX81 has bids, but not the other one, yet.
It's the radio rally next weekend. I haven't been since it was cancelled in 2005 when they couldn't afford to hold it in the theatre any more. It's a great place for finding computer equipment and retro stuff, and I've got many nice and interesting things from there, including the above mentioned ZX81.
In the last two years it's been held in the new school in Llandudno, but I haven't been. The first year I just didn't know it was happening, and last year I was in Berlin. Despite my financial crackdown, I am going to allow myself a bit of cash to go and see what's there, but this time, with the intent of seeing if there is anything I could possibly resell on Ebay. The problem I've had before is that I would buy something just to really have a play with it, but then never get rid of it and it would just sit around. When the stuff was PDAs and stuff it's not too bad, when you're talking huge Unix workstations and the like, it can get a bit silly.
Supposedly the weather tomorrow is going to be better, and hopefully will get the bike oil change done.
The gearbox plot thickens, when I was driving hom from town today, I had a lot on my mind, and forgot to avoid third gear, and it worked perfectly all the way home without me realising. Perhaps it's not as damaged as previously thought.
My brother has once again encouraged me to sign up for the Berlin half marathon next year. It is something I think it would be great to do, but I'm so unfit at the moment I'd never be ready to do it in time, and I'm still quite dubious about my running ability.
Rereading Harry Potter, just started book 4.
When I went into town, found that I'd forgotten to charge the HTC and it was completely flat, so I had to go out without a mobile phone. It was a somewhat strange sensation, probably the first time I've been out without one for years. Still like the HTC, found a C64 emulator for it, and there's even an Amiga emulator for Android, which seems totally unreal.
Goodbye Mac
Apple has started the process of locking down the Mac, just like the iPhone and iPod. OS X 10.7 will allow third party stuff to be installed without the Mac App store, but what about 10.8 or 10.9? When will the Launchpad interface which makes it look like an even bigger iPad become mandatory?
Ubuntu has its centralised Software Centre and Android has it's Market which install apps and automatically update them for you, but you are still able to install applications yourself from whereever you want. Windows is the other extreme, all apps are installed manually and handle updates themselves, which leads to chaos in the taskbar as they all jostle for your attention when updates are there. I think Ubuntu has it about right.
I saw this coming when they invented the iPhone, and I lost interest in the Mac platform some time ago. But the worrying thing is that what Apple does, everyone else tries to copy, with varying degress of success.
Ubuntu has its centralised Software Centre and Android has it's Market which install apps and automatically update them for you, but you are still able to install applications yourself from whereever you want. Windows is the other extreme, all apps are installed manually and handle updates themselves, which leads to chaos in the taskbar as they all jostle for your attention when updates are there. I think Ubuntu has it about right.
I saw this coming when they invented the iPhone, and I lost interest in the Mac platform some time ago. But the worrying thing is that what Apple does, everyone else tries to copy, with varying degress of success.
Friday, 22 October 2010
Badminot
End of a stressful but quite productive week in work, even though several things didn't really quite go as planned. Had details today of the restructure of the department, shouldn't think it'll affect me. Also been told that we have to do a Diversity Awareness course which is online and will take several hours to complete. Great, like we have the time to spare.
Didn't go to badminton tonight. Again. I just can't myself motivated to go for some reason. I don't think I'm going to join this year, mainly because with my financial crackdown I don't want to drop £70 on it.
Downloaded an Atari Lynx emulator and some games. It works quite well but the sound isn't quite right. I've got a Lynx somewhere with my old games, if I can find a power supply that'll work with it I'll dig it out. Not putting batteries in it.
No real plans this weekend except to change the oil on the bike, although it depends on the weather really.
Finished Big Bang season 2. It was pretty good. The bloopers on the DVD are so weird, seeing the guy who plays Sheldon not being Sheldon is just wrong.
Haven't done anything about the gearbox yet, going to keep an eye on Ebay and scrappies though. Someone told me that this coming winter is likely to be like the last one and I pondered briefly on getting a 4x4 for the winter but that would probably be a really bad idea. Finding it OK without 3rd gear but it can be really annoying on hills where 2nd or 4th just aren't right.
Really tired now.
Didn't go to badminton tonight. Again. I just can't myself motivated to go for some reason. I don't think I'm going to join this year, mainly because with my financial crackdown I don't want to drop £70 on it.
Downloaded an Atari Lynx emulator and some games. It works quite well but the sound isn't quite right. I've got a Lynx somewhere with my old games, if I can find a power supply that'll work with it I'll dig it out. Not putting batteries in it.
No real plans this weekend except to change the oil on the bike, although it depends on the weather really.
Finished Big Bang season 2. It was pretty good. The bloopers on the DVD are so weird, seeing the guy who plays Sheldon not being Sheldon is just wrong.
Haven't done anything about the gearbox yet, going to keep an eye on Ebay and scrappies though. Someone told me that this coming winter is likely to be like the last one and I pondered briefly on getting a 4x4 for the winter but that would probably be a really bad idea. Finding it OK without 3rd gear but it can be really annoying on hills where 2nd or 4th just aren't right.
Really tired now.
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Funny fun fun
A reconditioned gearbox for the car would cost £500+VAT so that's not really an option. A couple of guys in work said if I got a box, they would help me install it, as one of them has an engine crane. An intriguing idea but so much could go wrong. The idea of a second hand box is still doable, just need to sort out someone to put it in. Someone in work suggested the Focus RS8 conversion kit you can get in the States. It converts a Focus to rear wheel drive with a 5.0 litre V8. Could be fun, but it's £15,000, so not really an option. It would be ace to have a sleeper one though, a ratty old 4-door Focus with 250bhp would be hilarious in the traffic light grand prix.
Badminton this evening. First it was a meal at Rob's with a laptop shuffle, swapping out the HP 2133 I sold him for the Precision M65. The meal was haggis, first time I've had it I think. It was interesting, but probably not something I'll actively seek out. It did however have an unfortunate effect on digestion causing several involuntary eruptions during badminton from both Rob and I. Also someone got struck in the eye by a shuttle, which made her eye go all red and painful so she left to get it checked.
Badminton this evening. First it was a meal at Rob's with a laptop shuffle, swapping out the HP 2133 I sold him for the Precision M65. The meal was haggis, first time I've had it I think. It was interesting, but probably not something I'll actively seek out. It did however have an unfortunate effect on digestion causing several involuntary eruptions during badminton from both Rob and I. Also someone got struck in the eye by a shuttle, which made her eye go all red and painful so she left to get it checked.
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Boo cars.
Car broken again. Fumbled a gearchange on the way from one site to another and trashed 3rd gear. Now it just screeches and jumps out again when you try to select it. Probably the high mileage more than what I did but it's fucked. A mechanic drove it and says it'll go on for many miles yet if you ignore 3rd. Possibilies:
1) Get box repaired, not too sure about this as 4th and 5th have crunched in the past.
2) Get second hand box for as cheap as £45 off Ebay or breakers and get someone to install it.
3) Get reconditioned box for more, possibly up to £600
4) Get new car.
5) Ignore it.
4 and 3 are not happening. Leaning towards 2 at the moment, going to make some calls tomorrow. Absolutely typical this would happen right after I have it services and swear a vow of frugality for the next six months. Bahburgers.
1) Get box repaired, not too sure about this as 4th and 5th have crunched in the past.
2) Get second hand box for as cheap as £45 off Ebay or breakers and get someone to install it.
3) Get reconditioned box for more, possibly up to £600
4) Get new car.
5) Ignore it.
4 and 3 are not happening. Leaning towards 2 at the moment, going to make some calls tomorrow. Absolutely typical this would happen right after I have it services and swear a vow of frugality for the next six months. Bahburgers.
Sunday, 17 October 2010
Sart
A good weekend all round. My cousin Pauline came down for the first time since January to stay with my Dad, now that her breast cancer treatment has finally ended and she's back in work. So we spent yesterday hanging out and catching up. She had her laptop with her which was unfortunately inflicted with Vista and was running like a complete dog, so we went out and got a copy of Windows 7 for it, but then realised her optical drive doesn't work. That evening we went to the Prosperity in Rhuddlan. It's a Chinese which has a whole page of vegetarian stuff, which was ideal for Pauline. It was a really good meal.
Today went back over with my external DVD drive and we spent a few hours rebuilding her laptop. It's relatively old Compaq but it made a huge difference to the machine, like it always does if Vista is involved.
Didn't do much else today when I got home. Took the bike out for a short run, watched some more Big Bang Theory. Sold another old laptop on Ebay, good news.
The tacky Ferrari laptop is running well with the SSD and the 250gb drive from it is now a backup drive which is nice.
Hadn't seen this Dave Allen clip in years, damn he was funny.
Today went back over with my external DVD drive and we spent a few hours rebuilding her laptop. It's relatively old Compaq but it made a huge difference to the machine, like it always does if Vista is involved.
Didn't do much else today when I got home. Took the bike out for a short run, watched some more Big Bang Theory. Sold another old laptop on Ebay, good news.
The tacky Ferrari laptop is running well with the SSD and the 250gb drive from it is now a backup drive which is nice.
Hadn't seen this Dave Allen clip in years, damn he was funny.
Friday, 15 October 2010
Friday yay
At last the end of the week. Workload still frustrating. One nice success which I've done in spare time is build up a test version of the backup system using a spare PC. I had a couple of spare SCSI controllers and a pair of SCSI hard drives from scrapped machines, and added an LTO1 tape drive from a scrap server. Then followed the original configuration documents for the real thing to build it up. It's now at the point where it is successfully backing up data from a test client machine, although I haven't yet tried migrating the data to tape. It's definitely been worth doing as a lot of things about the real system make much more sense.
One last thing I bought before the frugal crackdown next week is an SSD for the tasteless Ferrari laptop. It gets moved around a lot and I didn't want the drive to get damaged. It's a Crucial RealSSD with a capacity of 64gb, considerably less than the original 250gb hard drive, but lighter, quieter and more power efficient. It also has extremely fast read speeds, so it should perform well too for what the machine is used for. It also came with a useful SATA to USB adapter to allow the original hard drive to be cloned onto the SSD to save having to rebuild the whole machine and hopefully to allow the original hard drive to be used externally.
Chocolate Weetabix was a bit of a let down, but still nicer than standard Weetabix. I can only eat Weetabix with sugar on, which defeats the point really.
The car is running much better since the service but I think one of the rear tyres has a slow puncture, will get that checked on Sunday.
One nice thing about the Android phone is that it synchronises everything with your Google account, which is something I had never really looked at before although I've had one for a while to do this blog. Found a cool geeky Tricorder app that actually does things, using the accelerometer, compass, GPS and microphone to give various readings. Fun. Also got the Amazon Kindle app for it, which is quite interesting although only put free books on it so far. Reading the original Dracula at the moment on it.
One last thing I bought before the frugal crackdown next week is an SSD for the tasteless Ferrari laptop. It gets moved around a lot and I didn't want the drive to get damaged. It's a Crucial RealSSD with a capacity of 64gb, considerably less than the original 250gb hard drive, but lighter, quieter and more power efficient. It also has extremely fast read speeds, so it should perform well too for what the machine is used for. It also came with a useful SATA to USB adapter to allow the original hard drive to be cloned onto the SSD to save having to rebuild the whole machine and hopefully to allow the original hard drive to be used externally.
Chocolate Weetabix was a bit of a let down, but still nicer than standard Weetabix. I can only eat Weetabix with sugar on, which defeats the point really.
The car is running much better since the service but I think one of the rear tyres has a slow puncture, will get that checked on Sunday.
One nice thing about the Android phone is that it synchronises everything with your Google account, which is something I had never really looked at before although I've had one for a while to do this blog. Found a cool geeky Tricorder app that actually does things, using the accelerometer, compass, GPS and microphone to give various readings. Fun. Also got the Amazon Kindle app for it, which is quite interesting although only put free books on it so far. Reading the original Dracula at the moment on it.
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Girly my arse
The bike passed it's MOT with only a couple of bulbs needed. Quite amazed really, and it only cost £45 overall. People in work said that I could have got the MOT done cheaper elsewhere but this place was convenient for work. It was a VERY cold ride into town this morning though, but I was pleased that the bike wasn't any harder to start than normal. Work was meh, got some things done but not others. Constantly feeling tired this week, and had an on and off headache today. Bah.
Still really happy with the HTC phone. The only issues I have are the on screen keyboard, which is a bit fiddly, and the battery life. I've always preferred phones with good battery life, and previously the various Nokias I've used had at least a good couple of days. I think the HTC would manage a couple of days, depending on use, but it is capable of being charged from a normal mini-USB connector so it's quite easy to top it up. Also the camera is fairly dire. It's apparently a 3.2 megapixel one but it takes pretty poor photos in anything but bright daylight. Got an ace geocaching app for it. You can download the cache data onto the phone and then use the built in GPS to find it. If you have data access it can even tell you about nearby caches and log visits while out and about but I've disabled data access as it's prohibitively expensive on PAYG. Oh yes, apparently the HTC is 'girly' because it's white. I've decided I don't care, I like it.
Not much else going on really. Carried on with Big Bang Theory season 2, which is pretty good.
Still relatively Coke-free. Had some diet cherry while on overtime on Saturday and had some at Andy's meal, but otherwise still on the squash at work. I think my skin has improved quite a lot and it's probably due to that. Anyway, not consuming shitloads of sugar and caffeine every day has got to be a good thing. The squash I'm drinking now probably has various sweeteners and stuff but it's a lot better than full-fat Coke.
Once and for all going to work on my finances, so the next few months are going to be frugal (heard that before) although I will have to budget for a trip to Berlin as my cousin wants to go now that her treatments are all but finished with. Not sure when but we're going to discuss it on Saturday when she is down for a visit.
Still really happy with the HTC phone. The only issues I have are the on screen keyboard, which is a bit fiddly, and the battery life. I've always preferred phones with good battery life, and previously the various Nokias I've used had at least a good couple of days. I think the HTC would manage a couple of days, depending on use, but it is capable of being charged from a normal mini-USB connector so it's quite easy to top it up. Also the camera is fairly dire. It's apparently a 3.2 megapixel one but it takes pretty poor photos in anything but bright daylight. Got an ace geocaching app for it. You can download the cache data onto the phone and then use the built in GPS to find it. If you have data access it can even tell you about nearby caches and log visits while out and about but I've disabled data access as it's prohibitively expensive on PAYG. Oh yes, apparently the HTC is 'girly' because it's white. I've decided I don't care, I like it.
Not much else going on really. Carried on with Big Bang Theory season 2, which is pretty good.
Still relatively Coke-free. Had some diet cherry while on overtime on Saturday and had some at Andy's meal, but otherwise still on the squash at work. I think my skin has improved quite a lot and it's probably due to that. Anyway, not consuming shitloads of sugar and caffeine every day has got to be a good thing. The squash I'm drinking now probably has various sweeteners and stuff but it's a lot better than full-fat Coke.
Once and for all going to work on my finances, so the next few months are going to be frugal (heard that before) although I will have to budget for a trip to Berlin as my cousin wants to go now that her treatments are all but finished with. Not sure when but we're going to discuss it on Saturday when she is down for a visit.
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Bah
Better day today. Work wasn't too bad, although workload increased again, annoying.
The bike is going for an MOT tomorrow, hope it will be OK. They already know it has an issue with the headlight although that's hopefully a bulb.
The bike is going for an MOT tomorrow, hope it will be OK. They already know it has an issue with the headlight although that's hopefully a bulb.
Monday, 11 October 2010
Fuck everything
Yesterday was a good day, took the dog out geocaching, took the bike out geocaching and then went to the Semaphore for Andy's birthday meal, which was great. Also saw his mate Steve's menagerie which was fun. Turkeys, chickens and tortoises were all admired. Achieved my objective of getting my 100th geocache on 10/10/10, bit pathetic really.
Today was shit. Plenty of fallout from the office moves, took all day to get it sorted out completely combined with the usual shit caused by an unmanageable workload and general despair. Tired of it.
Today was shit. Plenty of fallout from the office moves, took all day to get it sorted out completely combined with the usual shit caused by an unmanageable workload and general despair. Tired of it.
Saturday, 9 October 2010
Aglets
Overtime went OK. We got there about 12:00pm and left shortly before 5pm, but the time seemed to fly past. Came home and didn't really feel like doing much so watched some more of the Big Bang Theory season 2, which Rob lent me on Thursday. It seems much funnier than season 1 for some reason.
Installed a new 160gb hard drive in the D800 and currently installing Windows 7 on it. I was going to put XP on it, but if it runs OK with 7 then I'll put the spare license I have on there.
The HTC is going OK. It's nice to use although still finding that the keyboard is a little awkward in portrait mode. The screen is the same resolution as the iPod touch but slightly smaller. It's fine in landscape mode though. The way it handles text messaging is quite different though, much prefer the BlackBerry for that.
Quite impressed with Android as a platform though, even though the Magic is on the older 1.6 version. It's not quite as slick as iOS but it is close, and it's more open - you can get apps from the Android Market, but you also have the option of installing them manually from websites or from the SD card. So there's more choice and less control than the iTunes app store, like when Apple rejected a Commodore 64 emulator because you could program it in BASIC.
Installed a new 160gb hard drive in the D800 and currently installing Windows 7 on it. I was going to put XP on it, but if it runs OK with 7 then I'll put the spare license I have on there.
The HTC is going OK. It's nice to use although still finding that the keyboard is a little awkward in portrait mode. The screen is the same resolution as the iPod touch but slightly smaller. It's fine in landscape mode though. The way it handles text messaging is quite different though, much prefer the BlackBerry for that.
Quite impressed with Android as a platform though, even though the Magic is on the older 1.6 version. It's not quite as slick as iOS but it is close, and it's more open - you can get apps from the Android Market, but you also have the option of installing them manually from websites or from the SD card. So there's more choice and less control than the iTunes app store, like when Apple rejected a Commodore 64 emulator because you could program it in BASIC.
Friday, 8 October 2010
It's the weekend!
But I'm working tomorrow...boo. Fecking office moves.
Car serviced yesterday, went OK. The handbrake was sorted quite easily - the cable hadn't snapped, it had just come off the handle, so it didn't cost much to sort. However, the front tyres were utterly screwed so had new ones fitted today by Etyres.
After the N97 incident, been looking for suitable replacement. Android has been intriguing for a while but took a while to find an affordable device. Found one eventually in the form of a HTC Magic, a slightly older device. So far it seems pretty decent although finding the onscreen keyboard a little difficult. Tried out a few apps and things, seems quite good. Can't believe there's actually an Amiga emulator for Android, that just seems wrong.
Car serviced yesterday, went OK. The handbrake was sorted quite easily - the cable hadn't snapped, it had just come off the handle, so it didn't cost much to sort. However, the front tyres were utterly screwed so had new ones fitted today by Etyres.
After the N97 incident, been looking for suitable replacement. Android has been intriguing for a while but took a while to find an affordable device. Found one eventually in the form of a HTC Magic, a slightly older device. So far it seems pretty decent although finding the onscreen keyboard a little difficult. Tried out a few apps and things, seems quite good. Can't believe there's actually an Amiga emulator for Android, that just seems wrong.
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
Fling
Didn't sleep well last night, but felt suprisingly good most of the day, and had a productive day in work, got a lot of jobs out of the way and it's all looking a little better than it was. Also made peace with the person who sent the e-mail that caused the bin kicking incident on Friday. Still wish I wasn't doing overtime on Saturday though. Set myself a little project to do when I have quiet moments, which is to set up a little copy of the backup system on a Linux machine by following the original documentation for the live one. It works to a degree but there is a time limit as without a valid license file, it only runs for 30 days.
The Focus goes in for it's service tomorrow, but I had to phone them up and add the handbrake as the cable snapped while I was parking it today. Also it looks a complete shed because I was tired of the paint flaking off the non original front bumper so I put Nitromors on it to strip off the old paint. It worked to a degree but it currently looks dreadful. Oh well.
Not a good week for cars, both Rob and Steve had bumps, and a guy in work has issues with his car cutting out and he's going to Devon with his family next week.
Think it's catching up with me now, urgently need sleep.
The Focus goes in for it's service tomorrow, but I had to phone them up and add the handbrake as the cable snapped while I was parking it today. Also it looks a complete shed because I was tired of the paint flaking off the non original front bumper so I put Nitromors on it to strip off the old paint. It worked to a degree but it currently looks dreadful. Oh well.
Not a good week for cars, both Rob and Steve had bumps, and a guy in work has issues with his car cutting out and he's going to Devon with his family next week.
Think it's catching up with me now, urgently need sleep.
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Computer hot-rod
It's fun to hack around with older computers and make them run better.
Just worked out at last how to replace the BIOS on the Latitude D800 with the one from the Precision M60. The two machines are pretty much the same but the D800 for some gimpy reason only runs the RAM at 266mhz, while the M60 runs it at 333mhz. The RAM I've installed in the D800 is capable of that speed so I have been meaning to swap the BIOS for ages, but 0nly just now worked out how it's actually done.
The D800 now thinks it's a Precision M60 and is noticeably quicker. I don't know why Dell did that, the Inspiron 8600, Latitude D800 and Precision M60 all use the same basic chassis and motherboard, but only the D800 has the slower RAM.
Just worked out at last how to replace the BIOS on the Latitude D800 with the one from the Precision M60. The two machines are pretty much the same but the D800 for some gimpy reason only runs the RAM at 266mhz, while the M60 runs it at 333mhz. The RAM I've installed in the D800 is capable of that speed so I have been meaning to swap the BIOS for ages, but 0nly just now worked out how it's actually done.
The D800 now thinks it's a Precision M60 and is noticeably quicker. I don't know why Dell did that, the Inspiron 8600, Latitude D800 and Precision M60 all use the same basic chassis and motherboard, but only the D800 has the slower RAM.
There was a HOLE here. It's gone now.
Not much went on the rest of the week on Friday when I had a disctinctly upsetting e-mail in work, that caused me to scream obscenities at the top of my voice and savagely kick a bin across the office. Not sure if it was because I used my left foot or what but it really damaged my foot to the point where it still hurts now. Oh well.
Picked up BioShock 2 from Morrisons for £14 so have been playing it off and on. It is pretty much more of the same except that this time you play as a Big Daddy. The plot is interesting and the environment as great as ever.
Didn't play badminton on Thursday due to Rob being ill and then Friday I didn't go because I wasn't in the mood and my foot was still hurting.
Yesterday was a fairly idle day with mostly BioShock and a couple of movies. I dug out some old movies that I hadn't seen for ages on VHS, The Living Daylights and The Craft. Then went to Llandudno with Andy and Maz to go to Pizza Hut and watch Back to the Future in the cinema. Both were OK although there were a group of tattooed bodybuilding gorillas who thought they were really funny and loud in Pizza Hut and then to our dismay went into the same screen as us. Fortunately we were far away from them and the sound was turned up so their constant talking was a faint murmer in the background. BTTF was a blast on the big screen, looked great on digital projection and it's just such a fun film to watch.
Today it was supposed to be rugby in Wrexham but it was cancelled due to heavy rain, but by the time it was announced, I had just arrived at Andy's. So we went to the Denbigh Chocolate Shop, which is really cool. It has a little cafe area, but then if you go upstairs there's a sweet shop, a gallery and a meeting room. Very nice.
Trying to rationalise the computers I use, so after the failed Acer behemoth experiment, I ended up buying a brand new Acer 17" 7741g with a Core i3, 4gb RAM, 500gb hard drive and ATI 5470 graphics. To fund it I'm selling off the older machines. Sold the MacBook on Ebay and made a small profit on it, even with the replacement keyboard. I also listed the Latitude D800 but that didn't sell, which came as a bit of a relief as I have a soft spot for it. Decided to keep it and treat it to some more RAM and a new hard drive to speed it up, but there's still a few others to list.
The car really needs attention now, it's definitely down on power and using more fuel than it should. The exhaust is getting steadily worse. Tired of exhausts now, wish I could just get one that stuck up out of the bonnet like a tractor.
Title of this entry is one of the stranger messages encountered written on a wall in Silent Hill 2.
Picked up BioShock 2 from Morrisons for £14 so have been playing it off and on. It is pretty much more of the same except that this time you play as a Big Daddy. The plot is interesting and the environment as great as ever.
Didn't play badminton on Thursday due to Rob being ill and then Friday I didn't go because I wasn't in the mood and my foot was still hurting.
Yesterday was a fairly idle day with mostly BioShock and a couple of movies. I dug out some old movies that I hadn't seen for ages on VHS, The Living Daylights and The Craft. Then went to Llandudno with Andy and Maz to go to Pizza Hut and watch Back to the Future in the cinema. Both were OK although there were a group of tattooed bodybuilding gorillas who thought they were really funny and loud in Pizza Hut and then to our dismay went into the same screen as us. Fortunately we were far away from them and the sound was turned up so their constant talking was a faint murmer in the background. BTTF was a blast on the big screen, looked great on digital projection and it's just such a fun film to watch.
Today it was supposed to be rugby in Wrexham but it was cancelled due to heavy rain, but by the time it was announced, I had just arrived at Andy's. So we went to the Denbigh Chocolate Shop, which is really cool. It has a little cafe area, but then if you go upstairs there's a sweet shop, a gallery and a meeting room. Very nice.
Trying to rationalise the computers I use, so after the failed Acer behemoth experiment, I ended up buying a brand new Acer 17" 7741g with a Core i3, 4gb RAM, 500gb hard drive and ATI 5470 graphics. To fund it I'm selling off the older machines. Sold the MacBook on Ebay and made a small profit on it, even with the replacement keyboard. I also listed the Latitude D800 but that didn't sell, which came as a bit of a relief as I have a soft spot for it. Decided to keep it and treat it to some more RAM and a new hard drive to speed it up, but there's still a few others to list.
The car really needs attention now, it's definitely down on power and using more fuel than it should. The exhaust is getting steadily worse. Tired of exhausts now, wish I could just get one that stuck up out of the bonnet like a tractor.
Title of this entry is one of the stranger messages encountered written on a wall in Silent Hill 2.
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