Yesterday went to my Dad's to see him and had Christmas lunch with him and Jean. It was really nice, and good to finally have a Christmas lunch at last. Also finally picked up a tripod for the D50 which came in useful as Will and I went out taking photographs in the afternoon. We went to the beach and took a few shots of a curious robotic lighthouse keeper, before trying to do some steel wool shots. Sadly while I now have the right wool, the battery had gone flat so it wouldn't light most of the time.
In the evening we played a bit of Fable III on Xbox Live. It seems much like the previous one but with quite a few changes and an interesting plot. Not sure all the changes are for the better though, as the interaction with people doesn't seem as flexible, and I think the hand-holding thing is a bit stupid. As I did in the last game I've started building up a property empire.
Feeling a bit rough today, like I'm coming down with something.
Went to town first thing today to go to the bank. Shortly after I got home my phone reminded me that I was supposed to go to the gym to sort out the new programmes and things. By that time though I was sat in the armchair playing Resident Evil 5 over Xbox Live with Rob, surrounded by Monster Munch, Mini Rolls and Coke. We played it for a considerable amount of time, and got a few chapters out of the way. Not sure if I'd have enjoyed it much at all by myself, but as a co-op experience, it's pretty good fun, although frustrating in places.
Didn't really do much else today. I finally got a Mini ITX case for the Atom based VMware server, which is great because it takes up much less room, and it was silly to have a tiny motherboard in a full size case. One thing I hadn't considered was the network card that the machine needed as ESXi doesn't support the onboard network card. My solution was to get a flexible PCI extender lead that extends the PCI slot and relocate the network card. It's a bit kludgy but it works. That combined with a nice little 8-port gigabit switch means my desk has far more room on it which is useful.
House in a state, the dog puked on his bed last night and it smells and due to ongoing problems with the water, it can't be washed, and also I'm running out of clothes. The water seems to be a problem with the pipe, which might take some considerable time to resolve. Oh well.
Thursday 30 December 2010
Tuesday 28 December 2010
Another lazy day
Another lazy day but I'm on holiday.
Spent much of the day playing on the DS, which I had left in a corner since about April. I had a play on Super Scribblenauts,which is pretty good fun. Then had a go on WarioWare DIY. Pretty much the same as the previous Wario games with the twist that it has a whole load of tools that allow you to make your own minigames. The tools are fairly basic, but you can do quite a lot with them, and other than the limited sound effects, you're pretty much free to make whatever graphics and behaviour you want. Cue loads of rude/violent games. Hah. Good fun though.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHc9Q8G1EyM&
If I used my DS more I'd love to get DSi XL as I'm sure I'd find the bigger screens easier to use but they're still quite pricey. The 3DS is due out in March - definitely reserving judgement on that until I've seen one running in person.
I've been trying to find a particular German film on DVD for ages but had no success. It never occurred to me that I could use my Amazon UK credentials on the German site and just order it directly from there. Tried it today and it worked.
Snow now basically gone but the water still didn't pump up today, although it did push some ice through the pipe.
If you ever played Animal Crossing, read this:
http://lparchive.org/Animal-Crossing/Update%201/
Spent much of the day playing on the DS, which I had left in a corner since about April. I had a play on Super Scribblenauts,which is pretty good fun. Then had a go on WarioWare DIY. Pretty much the same as the previous Wario games with the twist that it has a whole load of tools that allow you to make your own minigames. The tools are fairly basic, but you can do quite a lot with them, and other than the limited sound effects, you're pretty much free to make whatever graphics and behaviour you want. Cue loads of rude/violent games. Hah. Good fun though.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHc9Q8G1EyM&
If I used my DS more I'd love to get DSi XL as I'm sure I'd find the bigger screens easier to use but they're still quite pricey. The 3DS is due out in March - definitely reserving judgement on that until I've seen one running in person.
I've been trying to find a particular German film on DVD for ages but had no success. It never occurred to me that I could use my Amazon UK credentials on the German site and just order it directly from there. Tried it today and it worked.
Snow now basically gone but the water still didn't pump up today, although it did push some ice through the pipe.
If you ever played Animal Crossing, read this:
http://lparchive.org/Animal-Crossing/Update%201/
Monday 27 December 2010
A good day
There was a bit of a thaw today so I was able to go out and get some shopping and get the car up the track. It was still a little bad at the bottom but did eventually get up. The water didn't pump up though, annoyingly. I really need a shower.
Something really unexpected this morning. My HTC Magic told me there was a system update, which actually turned out to be Android 2.2.1. When I got the phone it had Android 1.6 on it, and when I looked into it, the general consensus was that it would never be updated to anything higher. But kudos to Vodafone for finally getting it sorted. A lot of people said that the Magic wouldn't run 2.2 very well because it has a relatively slow processor and a low amount of RAM. But it seems fine to me once it had sorted itself out after the first boot. There's quite a lot of stuff updated, but the main thing that is noticable is a new and very swish Gallery app, and the fact that it now supports multi-touch. It's pretty much made it feel like a new phone.
This evening it was Caroline's 40th birthday bash, which was fancy dress and you had to be something that started with C A or Z. I did have a look around the house but couldn't find anything to go as, so I just went in a festive red top. It was a great evening, lots of good food and gossip and so-on. Perhaps the most worrying was Rob P and Rob T swapping clothes and appearance, which was really uncanny in Rob P's case.
Something really unexpected this morning. My HTC Magic told me there was a system update, which actually turned out to be Android 2.2.1. When I got the phone it had Android 1.6 on it, and when I looked into it, the general consensus was that it would never be updated to anything higher. But kudos to Vodafone for finally getting it sorted. A lot of people said that the Magic wouldn't run 2.2 very well because it has a relatively slow processor and a low amount of RAM. But it seems fine to me once it had sorted itself out after the first boot. There's quite a lot of stuff updated, but the main thing that is noticable is a new and very swish Gallery app, and the fact that it now supports multi-touch. It's pretty much made it feel like a new phone.
This evening it was Caroline's 40th birthday bash, which was fancy dress and you had to be something that started with C A or Z. I did have a look around the house but couldn't find anything to go as, so I just went in a festive red top. It was a great evening, lots of good food and gossip and so-on. Perhaps the most worrying was Rob P and Rob T swapping clothes and appearance, which was really uncanny in Rob P's case.
Weird
Just had a dream about discovering a railway from Ruthin to somewhere and then getting it restored and then someone driving one of those little shunting steam engines with a Porsche 911 body on the track. How strange.
Sunday 26 December 2010
Fun fun
So Christmas was a bit of a bust really, due to the weather barely any presents had arrived in time, and we didn't have any special food. Spent the day doing sod all really, although I did have a clearout and a bonfire, which was fun.
Today pretty much the same. Didn't feel like going out anywhere, so spazzed out. Had a look at some of the trailers for Portal 2, which looks like it should be pretty good. The teaser trailer surprised me with the idea of it, but it looks like it'll be a lot of fun. Can't wait for it to be released, but that's April now.
Caroline's birthday party coming up, supposed to dress up as something starting with c, a or z. No idea what though. Will have to have a think tomorrow.
Today pretty much the same. Didn't feel like going out anywhere, so spazzed out. Had a look at some of the trailers for Portal 2, which looks like it should be pretty good. The teaser trailer surprised me with the idea of it, but it looks like it'll be a lot of fun. Can't wait for it to be released, but that's April now.
Caroline's birthday party coming up, supposed to dress up as something starting with c, a or z. No idea what though. Will have to have a think tomorrow.
Friday 24 December 2010
Singular Notable Ovular Whales
Sunny today, no real melting though. Went to town this morning to post an Ebay sale and pick up some bits and pieces. Roads are a bit better but things like car parks were a nightmare. Also shop floors all covered in water and shit. I thought it would be busier than it was though, which was a bit of a relief.
Not really done much else today. Tried to start the bike up and it ran briefly but then stopped and the battery was too flat to get it going again. I'm sure it'll get going with a bump start when the weather is better. Took the dog out for a play in the snow which was fun.
Finally got the latest Iron Maiden album as it was just £3 on Amazon.
Looking forward to going to Andy and Maz's tonight, should be fun.
Not really done much else today. Tried to start the bike up and it ran briefly but then stopped and the battery was too flat to get it going again. I'm sure it'll get going with a bump start when the weather is better. Took the dog out for a play in the snow which was fun.
Finally got the latest Iron Maiden album as it was just £3 on Amazon.
Looking forward to going to Andy and Maz's tonight, should be fun.
Wednesday 22 December 2010
Stupid Necrophiliac Orwellian Wenches
More snow overnight although it didn't freeze. The roads were bloody awful though. When going to work I found myself going downhill through 8" snow that hadn't been touched. Fortunately, the Focus coped pretty well, and I made it to work fine. Not everyone did but it was another fairly productive day and I was able to have a shower, which was great.
Just finished reading Selling Hitler by Robert Harris, about the Hitler diaries. What an utterly crazy story, so many flukes and errors. It's the first time I'd actually really read about them, previously it was only when they were mentioned in Adrian Mole's diary where of course he passionately believes they are real and then loses a bet to Pandora over it.
Watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the latest Kevin Smith film I've got. It's a great film if you've seen and like his other stuff. The ending always gets me with all the old characters coming back, and the last shot of Kevin Smith and Jason Miewes is great when they're pretty much just being themselves, and Smith is gobsmacked about it all.
Other than that just played around the basses for bit and fooled around on the C810 writing some stuff.
The Clansman by Iron Maiden is one of the few good songs from the Blaze Bayley era, and it sounds much better when Bruce Dickinson sings it.
Just finished reading Selling Hitler by Robert Harris, about the Hitler diaries. What an utterly crazy story, so many flukes and errors. It's the first time I'd actually really read about them, previously it was only when they were mentioned in Adrian Mole's diary where of course he passionately believes they are real and then loses a bet to Pandora over it.
Watched Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the latest Kevin Smith film I've got. It's a great film if you've seen and like his other stuff. The ending always gets me with all the old characters coming back, and the last shot of Kevin Smith and Jason Miewes is great when they're pretty much just being themselves, and Smith is gobsmacked about it all.
Other than that just played around the basses for bit and fooled around on the C810 writing some stuff.
The Clansman by Iron Maiden is one of the few good songs from the Blaze Bayley era, and it sounds much better when Bruce Dickinson sings it.
Tuesday 21 December 2010
Flimbles
Still snow. More came today. Track and water unchanged. Fairly productive day in work.
Fairly pointless evening, finished rebuilding the C810 and got it back to the state it was in before the last drive failed. Also put Artic Silver 5 on the heatsink, dropping the CPU temperature by over 20 degrees. The heatsink isn't big but has two fans, which reach over 11,000rpm when forced to run at full speed, which is bonkers compared to the most which seem to run at about 4-5000rpm maximum.
Might seem weird to put all this effort into an 8 year old laptop but like I've said before, it has a fantastic keyboard. I discovered that while it has the same mechanism as most laptop keyboards, the actual scissor bits under each key are substantial metal rather than plastic, which is presumably why the keys have such a great feel. It feels fairly similar to the Alphasmart keyboards, and even beats the old IBM Thinkpads for feel in my opinion.
This is worth watching just for the surreal sight of a full-size train going down the middle of a street: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-E67fiYLXQ&feature=related
Desperate for a shower, going to take towel and shampoo into work tomorrow so I can take one there. Also had pizza for supper three days in a row, getting slightly tired of it now.
On a Kevin Smith marathon although my copy of Clerks wouldn't play, seemed to have been one of those cases where the DVD had deteriorated. Watching Dogma at the moment after finishing Chasing Amy.
Fairly pointless evening, finished rebuilding the C810 and got it back to the state it was in before the last drive failed. Also put Artic Silver 5 on the heatsink, dropping the CPU temperature by over 20 degrees. The heatsink isn't big but has two fans, which reach over 11,000rpm when forced to run at full speed, which is bonkers compared to the most which seem to run at about 4-5000rpm maximum.
Might seem weird to put all this effort into an 8 year old laptop but like I've said before, it has a fantastic keyboard. I discovered that while it has the same mechanism as most laptop keyboards, the actual scissor bits under each key are substantial metal rather than plastic, which is presumably why the keys have such a great feel. It feels fairly similar to the Alphasmart keyboards, and even beats the old IBM Thinkpads for feel in my opinion.
This is worth watching just for the surreal sight of a full-size train going down the middle of a street: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-E67fiYLXQ&feature=related
Desperate for a shower, going to take towel and shampoo into work tomorrow so I can take one there. Also had pizza for supper three days in a row, getting slightly tired of it now.
On a Kevin Smith marathon although my copy of Clerks wouldn't play, seemed to have been one of those cases where the DVD had deteriorated. Watching Dogma at the moment after finishing Chasing Amy.
Monday 20 December 2010
Rargh
Still snow. No water. Work was OK, except for discovering there'd been office moves in one of my sites that nobody had bothered telling me about so people are without phones and expect me to drop everything to sort it out. Never mind that this is my last week before holidays and I had tried to plan it out properly. Nearly had a rage moment but didn't feel up to it.
Fairly average day at work. Got some more steel wool but this stuff isn't as good, doesn't burn as well. Did get some OK shots though, but nothing spectacular.
Rebuilding the C810 with another hard drive, but sometimes I get the feeling a machine is fighting. It kept doing strange things like fail to format the drive during the setup process, or failing to detect any drives at all. After pulling the damn thing completely to bits I took out the optical drive and replaced that with a generic spare, and it was fine ever since.
Fairly average day at work. Got some more steel wool but this stuff isn't as good, doesn't burn as well. Did get some OK shots though, but nothing spectacular.
Rebuilding the C810 with another hard drive, but sometimes I get the feeling a machine is fighting. It kept doing strange things like fail to format the drive during the setup process, or failing to detect any drives at all. After pulling the damn thing completely to bits I took out the optical drive and replaced that with a generic spare, and it was fine ever since.
Sunday 19 December 2010
Still snow
Snow not melted at all today. Still no water.
Didn't really do very much today. Played with the dog outdoors and did some reading on the Internet and some writing.
Dug out an ancient Dell Latitude C810. It's a hefty beast from around 2002 with an 866mhz PIII and 512mb RAM. Not the most poweful machine, but it has a lovely 1400x1050 screen and the best keyboard I have ever used on a laptop. I installed XP on it and set it up as a writing machine with a program called Q10. All was well and I used it for a few hours and then it started to BSOD. Cause uncertain, either the original 10gb hard drive is failing (most likely) or it could be a memory or motherboard issue. Currently running Memtest86+ to rule out the RAM or board. Not really an issue if it's those as I have a spares machine. If it turns out the hard drive I've got plenty of spares that can go in it but a pain. Might be an idea to strip out the heatsink too and regunk it as it seems to be running a little hot.
Back to work if I can get the car moving tomorrow. Bleh.
This site is somehow even more of a time-sink than Youtube:
http://www.tvtropes.org
Didn't really do very much today. Played with the dog outdoors and did some reading on the Internet and some writing.
Dug out an ancient Dell Latitude C810. It's a hefty beast from around 2002 with an 866mhz PIII and 512mb RAM. Not the most poweful machine, but it has a lovely 1400x1050 screen and the best keyboard I have ever used on a laptop. I installed XP on it and set it up as a writing machine with a program called Q10. All was well and I used it for a few hours and then it started to BSOD. Cause uncertain, either the original 10gb hard drive is failing (most likely) or it could be a memory or motherboard issue. Currently running Memtest86+ to rule out the RAM or board. Not really an issue if it's those as I have a spares machine. If it turns out the hard drive I've got plenty of spares that can go in it but a pain. Might be an idea to strip out the heatsink too and regunk it as it seems to be running a little hot.
Back to work if I can get the car moving tomorrow. Bleh.
This site is somehow even more of a time-sink than Youtube:
http://www.tvtropes.org
Saturday 18 December 2010
Thwarted by snow
Not a bad week on the whole. Work wasn't too bad. Thursday wasn't all great as Em's car was bumped while it was parked, so we had to take the car to the bodyshop and then I ran her home. Then we didn't go to badminton, instead having a Chinese.
It snowed on Friday, and so back the normal situation of not being able to get up to the house. It hasn't frozen hard yet, but the water isn't coming up. The worst thing bout the snow was that I couldn't go to the work Christmas party on Friday night.
Due to the snow I've basically stayed in today and watched a couple of DVDs. Also tried out a light painting technique I discovered on Flickr. Put the camera on a looong exposure, run a 9v battery over some steel wool and whirl it around so it burns and throws sparks everywhere. Looks great although it's a little scary.
It snowed on Friday, and so back the normal situation of not being able to get up to the house. It hasn't frozen hard yet, but the water isn't coming up. The worst thing bout the snow was that I couldn't go to the work Christmas party on Friday night.
Due to the snow I've basically stayed in today and watched a couple of DVDs. Also tried out a light painting technique I discovered on Flickr. Put the camera on a looong exposure, run a 9v battery over some steel wool and whirl it around so it burns and throws sparks everywhere. Looks great although it's a little scary.
Monday 13 December 2010
Beep...click.......click...shit!
Yesterday Will wanted to go out and take photographs so we headed up to the Brenig in the afternoon and spent some time taking pictures. It was pretty nice up there and the lake was almost completely smooth so we got some good shots. Had a few issues where the wrong camera got triggered by the wrong remote as it's the same on both. When it got dark though, it got cold very quickly and when we went to get our cases and things where we'd left them, they already had a thick layer of frost. I got some nice pictures and because I was able to borrow a tripod off Will, was able to use the bracketing thing to make some HDRs, which came out quite nicely. I need to get a registered copy of Photomatix though.
Not much else to report. Work today was OK. Picked up Forza Motorsport 3 for the 360 as I quite enjoyed the original one on the old Xbox. It's fairly fun, my main chariot at the moment in it is a bright orange Citroen C4 with a stupidly powerful engine and green mismatched wheels, 20" on the front and 15" on the back, for no real reason except it looks silly and makes the handling more fun.
Not much else to report. Work today was OK. Picked up Forza Motorsport 3 for the 360 as I quite enjoyed the original one on the old Xbox. It's fairly fun, my main chariot at the moment in it is a bright orange Citroen C4 with a stupidly powerful engine and green mismatched wheels, 20" on the front and 15" on the back, for no real reason except it looks silly and makes the handling more fun.
Saturday 11 December 2010
Long time no update
Hmm, not sure why I didn't update. Last week was better as the track remained clear enough for me to get the car up. Work was OK, a few things going on but nothing as drastic as last week. Also as everyone is hotdesking we've had to standardise on new laptops so I got mine built this week. Nice as my old one had a duff battery which was a real pain. On thesse new machines, we're using Windows 7 as XP isn't going to be an option for much longer. I stuck with the default 32-bit install which was a good idea as a couple of other guys tried the 64-bit version and ran into trouble getting some of the normal corporate stuff to work. Weird as I've used the 64-bit version at home on a few machines with no problems at all.
Thursday night was a casino night with Rob and Caroline and Rob and Em and a few others. It was a pretty good evening although I hadn't made quite the effort that everyone else had, just going in my work clothes. It was fun though. That night there was also an epic thaw so the track and everything was totally clear.
I took the bike out today for a spin as it hadn't moved in over a month, but it started fine (with the usual choke faffing) and went really well. It felt really strange at first and I kept trying to go for another gear above 5th. Also went out to Rhyl and got the headlight bulbs for the Focus. Got some nice ultra white ones which are better. They've redone the Comet store there and it's loads better now so I had a look. I once again looked at an iPad and once again found myself admiring how slick it feels and how it has by far the best implementation of Google Maps, but again trying to work out what it's actually for. Oh well.
Not done much else today, watched Shaun of the Dead because it's always a laugh, and played through Portal on the 360. I can't describe how much I love that game. It's fairly short, but it's just so well made, and GlaDOS is fucking brilliant, especially her more deranged ramblings at the end. I can't wait for Portal 2, due in April.
Sorting out my finances is going fairly OK but is also causing some annoyance. Can't wait for it to be done but that's a few months off yet.
A guy in work told me that I'd put on weight, which is worrying as he's a fairly sizable chap himself. I know I have though.
Thursday night was a casino night with Rob and Caroline and Rob and Em and a few others. It was a pretty good evening although I hadn't made quite the effort that everyone else had, just going in my work clothes. It was fun though. That night there was also an epic thaw so the track and everything was totally clear.
I took the bike out today for a spin as it hadn't moved in over a month, but it started fine (with the usual choke faffing) and went really well. It felt really strange at first and I kept trying to go for another gear above 5th. Also went out to Rhyl and got the headlight bulbs for the Focus. Got some nice ultra white ones which are better. They've redone the Comet store there and it's loads better now so I had a look. I once again looked at an iPad and once again found myself admiring how slick it feels and how it has by far the best implementation of Google Maps, but again trying to work out what it's actually for. Oh well.
Not done much else today, watched Shaun of the Dead because it's always a laugh, and played through Portal on the 360. I can't describe how much I love that game. It's fairly short, but it's just so well made, and GlaDOS is fucking brilliant, especially her more deranged ramblings at the end. I can't wait for Portal 2, due in April.
Sorting out my finances is going fairly OK but is also causing some annoyance. Can't wait for it to be done but that's a few months off yet.
A guy in work told me that I'd put on weight, which is worrying as he's a fairly sizable chap himself. I know I have though.
Sunday 5 December 2010
Bleh week
It wasn't a particularly good week. It snowed most nights and it was bloody cold meaning I wasn't able to get the car up the track until yesterday. The water froze up and I had to keep carrying supplies up the track again, but hey. Live in a place like this and you have to put up with this sort of thing. We did get a tank of water pumped up so was able to shower, which was a relief.
Work was pretty shit too, politics flying about everywhere causing tension. I spend Wednesday in a rage like I have never experienced in work yet.
Last night was good fun, went to Rob and Em's as they hadn't been able to make it up down to Kent for the weekend sadly due to the weather. We tried to make it up with DVDs and a takeaway which was pretty decent. By the end of the evening though it had got really cold again, and the roads were absolutely lethal all the way home.
Rob and I were talking about N64s recently and I thought it would be nice to have a play on my old one, but then realised it would mean digging out the machine, the power supply, controllers, etc. So I looked into emulators and found the best one was apparently Project64. It works really well. You can hook up an Xbox 360 controller and remap the buttons, and it displays the graphics in a higher resolution, so the games look pretty good.
Today took my Mum out to go shopping. Perhaps unwisely we took her car out. The bottom corner of the track is still covered in snow and while my car was able to get past it with a bit of speed, her car failed dismally until we got some grit down. Might be the tyres that mine has on it.
The dog has a broken dew claw which is taking a while to come off and is causing him a bit of pain as he keeps catching it on things.
Work was pretty shit too, politics flying about everywhere causing tension. I spend Wednesday in a rage like I have never experienced in work yet.
Last night was good fun, went to Rob and Em's as they hadn't been able to make it up down to Kent for the weekend sadly due to the weather. We tried to make it up with DVDs and a takeaway which was pretty decent. By the end of the evening though it had got really cold again, and the roads were absolutely lethal all the way home.
Rob and I were talking about N64s recently and I thought it would be nice to have a play on my old one, but then realised it would mean digging out the machine, the power supply, controllers, etc. So I looked into emulators and found the best one was apparently Project64. It works really well. You can hook up an Xbox 360 controller and remap the buttons, and it displays the graphics in a higher resolution, so the games look pretty good.
Today took my Mum out to go shopping. Perhaps unwisely we took her car out. The bottom corner of the track is still covered in snow and while my car was able to get past it with a bit of speed, her car failed dismally until we got some grit down. Might be the tyres that mine has on it.
The dog has a broken dew claw which is taking a while to come off and is causing him a bit of pain as he keeps catching it on things.
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