Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Back online

There's not been any updates for a while as I've been busy what with family visiting from Spain, a training course in Brussels and most recently a holiday to Egypt.

Had a really good time in Egypt and would definately like to go back again.

I wanted to put some pictures up online and my first thought was to use Flickr. Unfortunately you are limited to 20 MB of bandwidth per calendar month but each of my photos are about 2.5 MB. I checked Snapfish but they only keep the hi-res pictures for 90 days. As their aim is for you to order prints, etc... I would have liked to upload my photos and have them remain as they are without having to upload them again next time I want prints.

I'll keep looking for options.

  Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Stingrays being attacked

It appears that Stingrays are being attacked in revenge for the death of Steve Irwin.

Stingrays are being found dead with their tails cut off.

This is plain wrong. Steve Irwin's life was about protecting wildlife.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5338118.stm

Monday, September 11, 2006

XBox 360 laptop

Whilst the XBox 360 is smaller than the original XBox it's still not small enough for some people.

This guy has taken a 360 apart and converted it be a portable device including a screen much like a laptop.

Have a look http://benheck.com/Games/Xbox360/x360_page_1.htm
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Wednesday, September 06, 2006

No PS3 for Europe until 2007

It's happened again.

Europe have been relegated to third place with the Playstation 3 launch focusing on Japan and the US in November and Europe not seeing a launch until March 2007.

Maybe the price will have come down to a reasonable level by that time.

BBC News - PlayStation 3 Euro launch delayed
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Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Texas Hold 'Em

The poker gane Texas Hold 'Em is now available to download on the XBox Live Arcade. Free for 48 hours from 08:00 GMT Wednesday 23rd August until 08:01 Friday 25th August.

PS.
First post since upgrading to the beta.
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Thursday, August 10, 2006

Do you blog to make money?

Following on from a previous post - Most UK blogs are diaries which reported that most UK bloggers use their blogs as online diaries, a survey in the USA by Pew Internet found that 15% of bloggers are in it for the money.

Making money was given as a major reason for blogging by 7% with another 8% saying it was a minor reason. With Technorati tracking 50 million blogs that works out at 7.5 million blogs all trying to make money.

I was surprised to read though that the most popular method is selling rather than advertising schemes. I guess there must be more ofthe loyal followers who will buy mugs or t-shirts to support their favourite blogs than I imagined.

You can download the report in full at http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/186/report_display.asp

Another way to make money from your blog would be to sell your blog posts to the media. Scoopt, already known for selling pictures taken by the public has now setup another scheme where they will sell your blog posts for you.

Find out more about Scoopt now.
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Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Work friendly surfing

Q: How do I stop people noticing that I'm surfing at work?

A: Let Work Friendly disguise the page for you. From their page you enter the url of the website you want to visit and they will display the page for you stripped of styles, looking like a Word document. It even has a Boss button to replace the page content with a document about time management.
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Tuesday, August 08, 2006

There's one born every minute

Actually, there's two born every second. Blogs that is.

David Sifry, founder of Technorati, has published his latest State of the Blogosphere report.

Here's a coupld of tidbits:

On July 31st 2006 Technorati tracked it's 50 millionth blog.

About 175,000 new weblogs were created each day, which means that on average, there are more than 2 blogs created each second of each day.

Today, the blogosphere is doubling in size every 200 days, or about once every 6 and a half months.

You can read the full report at http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000436.html
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Monday, August 07, 2006

Oohh Betty!

Last weekend I went up to York for the day. It should have been on a steam train but due to the hot, dry weather we were told that the steam train could not be used due to the risk of fire so it was a diesel instead. Everyone was a bit disappointed by this but we were still having a day out.

As a result of not having to stop to take on water we were running ahead of schedule. This meant a stop of more than half an hour waiting for the line to clear ahead of us. Unfortunately this meant that there was no air and it was a very hot day (we seem to have had more than our usual share this summer).

I'd not been to York before and found it to be bigger than I had imagined. Will need to make another visit to have a better look around.

One place that had been recommended by a few people before our trip was Betty's tea rooms.
There are actually two in York (one is called Betty's little team room) which is just aswell as there was quite a queue outside the larger of these. Inside it is very much the old fashioned tea room. We went for the traditional afternoon tea and were brought a tiered stand of finger sandwiches (no crust of course), scones and cakes (the chocolate fudge was especially good).

Here's the description from the menu:

Bettys Traditional Afternoon Tea for Two
A pot of Tea Room Blend Tea for two;
Smoked Salmon, Roast Ham, Egg Mayonnaise
and Cucumber & Cream Cheese sandwiches;
two Sultana Scones, strawberry preserve and Yorkshire clotted cream;
a selection of miniature cakes


After a stroll around the shops we went on a boat ride along the river and had a glass of wine. Very civilized.

The trip back was much better without having to stop and wait for the line to clear.

Next trip will probably be on the Straford Express.
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Loremo 157 MPG car at Geneva motor show

Loremo are working on a car that will return 157 MPG. It is to be powered by a 2 cylinder turbo diesel and have a top speed of approx 100mph.
They've worked to removed as weight and focused on the aerodynamics.
The car will be present at the Geneva motor show.
http://www.loremo.com/index_en.php
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Saturday, August 05, 2006

New video from OK Go

OK Go have a great new video involving treadmills. Their timing is spot on.

"Here It Goes Again" by OK Go


This follows on from a video they made in their backyard on which they spent just $25.

"A Million Ways" by OK Go


[Edit]
Don't you just love the way all the dfferent browsers work to the same standard...not!
The code to put these OK Go videos up worked fine with Internet Explorer 6 but not Firefox. Firefox wanted to put it to the right of the text.
Anyway, it's working now. I had to modify the code to include object tags around the video.
Hope you enjoy the videos.
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Taser demo

Gunnery Sgt. Hans Marrero, former Chief Instructor Hand to Hand Combat U.S. Marine Corps demonstrates how tough he is taking blows, resisting a sleeper hold, etc... from a Police officer. He then takes a charge from a taser as demonstration of their power.

I know there's a lot of debate over these at the moment but I think I'd rather be hit with a taser than a bullet.


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Friday, August 04, 2006

Gears of War

Gears of War is being release on the XBox 360 just in time for the release of the PS3.
November 12th has been named as Emergence Day in the US with Europe following on November 17th.

Gears of War was named E3 2006 Best Console Game but will it have the same impact as Halo on the original XBox?
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Thursday, August 03, 2006

Wikicars

Everyone is familiar with Wikipedia but I just found Wikicars.

On the front page they are highlighting hybrid cars with articles giving reasons for and against buying one. This is something I keep thinking about with the rising cost of petrol.

http://wikicars.org/en/Main_Page

Who would wear a suit like this?

The Commute Suit.
It may ease the tube journey but you'll get some funny looks in the office!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/5242998.stm?ls

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Street Fighter II now available on Xbox Live Marketplace

Street Fighter II is now available to download from the XBox Live Marketplace / Arcade thingy (what's it called again?).

They've been talking about this for a long time but it has finally arrived.

http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2006/08/02/Arcade-Street-Fighter-II.aspx

http://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/s/streetfighter2livearcadexbox360/default.htm

Melting ice caps - not all bad news

We're all used to hearing about the ice caps melting, causing the oceans to rise and the resultant flooding.
However, in Greenland they've started using water from melted ice caps to make beer. There are already pale and dark ales on the way to the Danish market and they are aiming to launch on the German market in six months.

The BBC News item can be found at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5234194.stm

The brewery website is not in English but if you fancy a look the address is http://www.brewhouse.gl

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

New Music Video From David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff - "Jump In My Car"

Look out for the "Don't Hassel The Hoff" t-shirt. Here's the description that accompanied the video:

That's right, it's Hofficial... your favourite cult icon wants to take you home! The one and only David Hasselhoff of "Bay Watch" and "Knight Rider" fame returns with a cover of the
1975 classic 'Jump In My Car' and its a doozy. Recorded in Sydney last year with the legendary Harry Vanda (AC/DC, The Angels), the Ted Mulry Gang tune has been re-vamped with full Hoff gusto and this music video promises to rock the socks off all his Hofficial fans. Watch it, enjoy it, share it on Google Video, courtesy of Sony BMG Australia.

Monday, July 31, 2006

One red paper clip traded for house


You may have heard about Kyle who started in July 2005 with the intention to trade up from one red paper clip to a house.

Well after many trades it happened just a few weeks ago (ok so I'm a bit late). You can read about the last trade at http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/2006/07/503-main-street.html

But there's more.

It seems he has also managed to get a book and movie deal out of it!!! Details at http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=4e3cf973-9ade-48cd-bffc-124fa67e60b4&k=35012

Just goes to show there's still opportunities out there for those with a bit of imagination.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Lost news - New star and meaning behind the numbers

So I read on Yahoo News that it has been announced that there will be a new character in season 3 of Lost played by Rodrigo Santoro (apparently known as the Brazilian Tom Cruise). Link to article.

However, that isn't what caught my interest.  Rather, at the end of the article it mentions a game called The Lost Experience.  Now I had completely missed this but apparently it's one of these new "alternate reality games" that has a parallel story line to the TV show.  Using emails, fake websites, etc... the game will offer clues to understanding what is happening in the TV show.

An example of this could be the book Bad Twin by Gary Troup who, in the show, was a passenger on the flight and whose manuscript was being read by Saywer.



This is all very interesting, at least I thought so.

A good source of information about The Lost Experience can be found at http://www.lostpedia.com/wiki/The_Lost_Experience

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Which console are developers excited about developing for?

So not only is the PS3 overpriced (personally I'm not planning to preorder one) but developers aren't that excited about it either.

Seems they are more excited about the XBox 360 and the Nintendo Wii.

There is a survey over at http://www.cubed3.com/news/5556

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Most UK blogs are diaries

A study by MSN Spaces has found that nearly 60% of people in the UK use blogs as a diary.

Another study dound that 65% of bloggers in the US do not consider their work to be journalism.

Seems to go against all these reports of blogging being the new medium for news, etc..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5197808.stm

p.s. This is my first post using the Performancing extension for Firefox

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Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Design update

Today I have updated the design of this page to include tags from del.icio.us as a way of creating categories.

Whenever I add a new post I will tag it on del.icio.us and the tag links to the right will take you to the page on del.icio.us showing the posts in that category.

Just noticed that the page doesn't display quite right in IE (I use Firefox most of the time) so I will have to look at that later.

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Been away...

I've been away for a few days in Devon recharging the old batteries but now I'm back there should be some more posts.

I went down to Lynmouth for a few days, staying at a guest house I first started visiting more than 20 years ago (http://www.eastlynhouse.co.uk/).

I'll try and put up some pics soon.

Monday, July 03, 2006

England exit World Cup

I said before the tournament began that England would go out in the quarter finals but hoped they'd do better. And to go out on penalties again! At least this time no one missed a la Stuart Pearce, David Batty, Gareth Southgate, etc...

Will be interesting to see the reaction to Ronaldo if he does return to Man Utd for the new season. I see there is already a website called http://www.dont-come-back.com/ where you can leave your comments.

Friday, June 30, 2006

A comment already

On the second day I had my first comment. I've worked on websites before and didn't expect to be getting ANY hits yet.

Still listening to the Def Leppard album. If anyone is interested here is a link to the Amazon site where you can listen to track previews (Amazon)

I don't see any difference with the import version so I doubt it is worth the extra cash Amazon is asking for.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Counters and rock

I've had a bit more of a play and there is now a counter in the sidebar so I can see the thousands... err... hundreds... err... is that right?... ok so no one is visiting right now. I guess you have to give these things time.

So what can I talk about here. You'll see from my profile that I like rock music. I was bought the new Def Leppard album Yeah! as a gift. The band have covered their favourite tracks from the 60's and 70's and they start of with 20th Century Boy the T Rex classic. Not heard all of the album yet but that gets it of to a great start. I'll post again when I've listened to some more.

The experiment continues

I don't think I've had any views yet but then I've not told anyone about this blog.

Signed up to AdSense last night and got my approval email this morning.

Sent a ping to Technorati. Will have to check later to see if my blog has been picked up.

How exciting!

Monday, June 26, 2006

Here we go...

Well blogs have been around for a while now and I figured it was time to see what they were all about.

This is a bit of an experiment really to see how they work, what sort of visits they generate, etc... As such I don't know how much time I'll spend on this and it could all get a bit random as I don't really have much of an idea how I'll use this.

I've never kept a diary but who knows...

P.S.
Is it just me or does that star in the corner make it look like this is sponsored by Texaco? No? Just me then.