First Post Using Blogjet

This is my first post using the BlogJet software. All looks ok so far. Nice easy interface, easy to use too. I just hope that i can run it direct from my USB drive so i can take it and use it at work.

We shall see.

EDIT: It just gave me some odd HTTP error code and i post again only to find that the post had been duplicated. However – i just went to the Blog Menu > Get Recent Posts and deleted the duplicate. Quick as a flash! This – i like.

EDIT2: Just checked it from work using it direct from my USB drive. I had to enter the registry keys to get it to work properly, but i cannot get it to traverse the company firewall. I have put in my proxy username and password but it cannot get through... :( Never mind... Blogger seems to be working ok at the moment!

BlogJet

With the Blogger web front end giving us nothing but grief, i am going to try using BlogJet. It allows you to make posts to many different blog providers and also edit your existing online posts too! I will let you all know the outcome.

Blogger Status

I knew there was a Blogger Status page out there somewhere. A tiny crack in my brain revealed a memory of such a thing. So. It appears that they were having issues yesterday. I am still interested in moving my blog to another location though. Places like Typepad actually make you pay though!!! I might actually invest in some webspace instead. Although the ability to blog when ever i like has got me hooked to Blogger at the moment. Maybe i should set up a Drupal server and let my other blogging chums go on there too. Hmmm.... Can't afford it though. Unless we all chip in together..? Or i charge you per posting?

Down the plughole 

Babies Fingers 

Fractal1 

Blogger? Blog-off!

Thanks to Mr Blogger i have just spent the last 20 mins deleting the extra 13 posts that it created when i made the last post. Thanks. Maybe time to jump ship like the NewLinks guys did. Their new site, powered by Drupal certainly looks the part. Maybe Blogger should cull all the non-updated blogs to make room for us more serious bloggers. Tsk.

More fractals

I have just been surfing google for some tutorials and more information on using this Ultra Fractal 3 program i blogged about earlier. Most of the images i have found are just amazing. I know that fractals have been around for lots (millions in nature) of years on PCs but they still look as good now as they did then! Ultra Fractal 3 seems to have so much hidden depth that i can't wait to get home and start playing! I found this site with some good tutorials and a challenges section. I would love to get some pics as good as some of the images in there. Fractals are so diverse that anything seems possible! Expect to see a new fractal banner appear somewhere on my Blog sometime soon. I will have to change my template back to a "proper" one

Fractals are back!

Fractals are back! Not since we used Fractint back in the end of the 80s have fractals been so cool. If you can call "16 color 100x100 pixel fractals that took half an hour to create" cool. I can remember my good mate and skateboard mentor Tim Walters and his brother making fractal and fractal landscape pictures on PCs that calculated for days at a time to output an image large enough to get printed onto posters. Not sure if they did make any money from it though. In fact this program Ultra Fractal 3, has all of the original Fractint settings you can use but it zooms into and rides the fractal trees and spiral arms like the best magic mushroom trip you ever had. The image above is actually 2 of the same fractals (fractai?) on different layers with opacity settings applied and different gradient settings. All done in the same program. Photoshop not needed! Still dont know what a fractal is? Check here. To download a demo of the program, click here. Just found a cool site with loads of fractals from different programs too. Click here. Nice. See you there.......

Stainless Steel Shelf

Detail from my kitchen. We had this wicked brushed stainless steel shelf in our old house and designed the new kitchen so we could incorporate it in directly. It was made by my Sister in laws boyfriend when he had his own studio making stuff like this. Its a shame, but he now works as a manager at a local car repair/showroom place. Hope he gets back doing what he loves.

!!! Kitchen update !!!

Well. After over 4 months my new kitchen is 99% complete. Just a few little things left to tidy up and then it will be complete. We took delivery of our second new granite round table which you can see in the picture. The first had a nice big crack down the middle. We never even took it out of the packaging.

Why can't i pay attention anymore?

They found me out at last. It appears that all this time i spend on my Blog, work, torrents and the internet IS making me stoopider... This bloke has coined a new phrase to describe how i get "over stimulated by technology... ADT. Attention Deficit Tendancy. If you can be bothered to read it, follow the link here. I did'nt read it. I just scanned it and then went to look at something else.

Great Scott!

Choices......... Always choices... Yes. Definitely time for a wash!

A "real" work environment

I saw this link over at Slashdot the other day but the net was too choked for me to get the page up. Some lucky begger got the chance to tour the HQ of Pixar. It looks like a totaly cool place to work. Check the details and photos here. I'm off to pimp up my desk now. Spec. Peace.. Outta here.

Revenge Of The Sith - the first 10 minutes review

"Fox logo and Lucasfilm logo and 'A long time ago' as normal... then the title and the opening scroll that we've all read. Then the camera pans down and we see a top view of a Star Destroyer. All seems quiet. Then two jedi starfighters fly onto the screen. I was amazed at how long the camera stays with the starfighters. It was unlike anything we've seen in any STAR WARS movie to date. Poetically, we're descending into this movie, foreshadowing Anakin's eventual descent. As the starfighters fly across the hull of the Star Destroyer, the camera then reveals to us that we're above Coruscant and that there's a hell of a battle going on. Much destruction. Many lasers and then we finally close in and see that Anakin and R2 are flying the yellow starfighter. Obi-Wan and R4 are flying the red starfighter. They engage in the battle, getting vulture droids shooting missiles at them. Obi-Wan getting hit with buzz droids that are tearing his ship apart. I realize that I'm also hearing the new John William's music as my ears detected a quote from a bit of music in A NEW HOPE. Anakin says a classic line from the original trilogy... He says, 'Here's where the fun begins' and he tries to help knock off the buzz droids from Obi-Wan's fighter. As they close in on General Grevious's ship, with Obi-Wan's fighter not capable of landing properly, Obi-Wan says, 'I have a bad feeling about this.' They fly into the hanger and the shot of Obi-Wan landing and leaping out of his fighter is going to blow audiences away. Oddly enough, I will say that the audience reaction was the strongest to how R2 gets out of Anakin's starfighter. You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it. It's cool the way he springs himself free. After they take their lightsabers and knock out all the battle droids on the landing deck, Anakin says, 'I sense Count Dooku'... Obi-Wan says, "I sense a trap"... Anakin says, "What should we do about it?"... Obi-Wan grins and says, "Let's spring the trap..."

Hope I, Shit, it is not....

Wednesday Again

Phew. For once the day has gone really quickly for a change. I have had my head stuck up my technical magic arse all day pulling shitty rabbits out of the hat that is "my job". I am actually doing some "project work" for a change. It is pretty much the same as my normal day to day "duties" but at least it's something different. Still no word from "The Inner Circle" on the Music-o-blog-o post below. It seems apathy rules at the moment on this subject. I am really looking forward to listening to some new tracks. I hope that they will not be the usual dross chart crap that i hear on the radio all day. However i do quite like listening to the radio as the playlist is fairly random and the odd bit of chat. The choice of music of mostly rubbish though. Its a shame that shows like Zane Lowe are on in the evening when i would most like to listen. Ah well. I have just noticed a big column of black smoke filling the sky from my office window. Quite a large fire by the looks of it. Not sure how far away it is though so it is difficult to pinpoint what it could be. I have taken a pic with my cameraphone so i might post it later. Jeesssuus! I have just tuned in the local radio to see if there is any news and the playlist on there is even worse than Radio1. Arg. I can't win.

Bloglines - definitely my current favorite

Bloglines is still my current favorite website to visit quite a few times each day. Basically its a web based interface to any RSS feed. This means that with site you can add a subscription to say the BBC News site and when you leave Bloglines for 5 mins and come back it will show you the new items from that site that have been added in the last 5 mins. Same if you have been away for a week! Its nice to come back to work after the weekend and "catch up" with things. I currently have a long list of websites and blogs that are updated regularly - and i can read all the updates in one place! Very handy. They all seem to be "Techy" sites i have subscribed to at the moment, but there are a few personal blogs in there too. You know who you are! To see my list of current subscriptions, click here. To join Bloglines, click here. Once you have signed up, go to the Directory and browse through the list of sites available. There is also the top feeds and top links too which show the most popular. Still only one subscriber to my Blog though..... me.

Music-o-blog-o

Since a drunkenly penned email was sent from the hand of our esteemed friend (and once my subordinate) Mr O'Beef a few weeks ago there has been the possibility of starting a "music club". It now appears that this may well come to fruition and the first CDs are being compiled and readied for dispatch from our Leighton Buzzard depot. A few technical hitches have already started to impact on the delivery of foresaid CDs - but our expectations are high. Lets hope they are not unfounded. I also bandied around the idea of a "Blog" to host information about each CD as it is published. The idea of the creator posting a review/narrative/reason for the tracks on the CD is also important. We don't just want any old crap! Time and thought must be put into every release and in turn, we will praise/slate/laugh at the reviewer via the Blog. I can create the Blog (name yet to be decided.... suggestions via email please) and the inner circle of 7 can be "members" to allow posting and commenting. All that is needed is for you all to sign up at Blogger and let me know your user names. Hell!... while you are at it you can also create your own Blogs too! Jump on the bandwagon and vent your anger/anguish/love of My Little Pony.

I am iPoddy

Thanks to my good mate "DJ Spanish Rob the GPS king" I now know that i am feeling a bit "iPoddy". iPoddy adj. "iy-pod-ee" 1. To obsess about new technology that really has no use in your life. 2. To lust for new gadgets that exist as similar, better and cheaper devices. 3. To buy something that seems like a good idea at the time - but often ends up in your drawer after a few weeks. Usage: "The sleek casing of the latest mobile phone made him feel all iPoddy. The fact that the only technological advance was that it had a 2.5 inch screen rather than a 2.4 inch on the model he already had made no difference. He had to have it and rushed off to trawl Google for the latest review and make a post in his Blog".

A lunchtime beating

Phew. I just took a real beating this lunchtime. On Tekken 5 on the PS2 that is! It was only in black and white as it was an NTSC version played on a PAL TV - but it looked good! I have still got "the knack" too. Then again i have been playing the Tekken series since it first came out back in "the day". In fact my current game of choice for my Gameboy Advance is Tekken Advance. It gets a real hammering when i am on the toilet! There are also details released that Tekken 5 will be coming to XBOX and Gamecube too. Which makes me even happier! Hooray.

State of The Blogosphere

Technorati is now tracking 7.8 million blogs - thats 937 million links! Around 30,000 to 40,000 blogs are created every day. Technorati is also tracking 500,000 posts per day (aprox 5.8 posts per second).

Can't seem to find any references to blogs created by bigfootcookie, MrNoxious or DazzyG though... So, if you are one of those of the 80 Million blog readers worldwide, and you just happened to pass through, leave me a comment to say hi! Via Sifry's Alerts: State of The Blogosphere, March 2005, Part 1: Growth of Blogs

iNO

Perfect for me. Check out the iNO. Musta seen me coming! Via those geordie nuttaz at Newlinks

Wednesday WIbbles

I woke up very fuzzy this morning after taking my wife out for a chinese for her birthday. We managed to consume 2 bottles of red wine between us and were both a little "squiffy" when we staggered home. I don't usually eat chinese but i made a special effort and quite enjoyed it! As i stumbled around at the local school playground after dropping the kids off i noticed a green iPod Mini being brandished by one of the local mums. Not that she looked like the sporty type either mind you! It appears that everyone has one! Apart from me. Bah. I even spotted a little kid who could have only been 10 with an iPod Shuffle! He was being dragged around the local shops by his parents who looked the like they could easily afford to buy as many as they wanted. Double Bah. I have been making an effort to listen to the FM radio on my Nokia 3200 just to see if i could justify an MP3 player. I hate Radio1 one though and Radio 4 often just becomes too random after you have to stop listening every few mins to answer the phone. It reminds me of my days as a temp working as a "picker packer" in a local factory - about 15 years ago. They had Radio1 on all the time blasting out of hidden speakers in the roof. You could guarantee hearing the same songs over 6 times in one shift! Arrggh. The only thing that kept me going was writing "Rave On" on the packages that were going to Manchester. I hope that someone there appreciated all my hard work! After my post yesterday about getting a new mobile i did a little research and found that i could play AMR format files as ringtones on my phone. I got hold of the Nokia Multimedia Converter and have uploaded the "Windows XP Startup" tune to my phone and set it as the ringtone. The quality is really crappy and the little speaker distorts it badly - but it does work! So with a little help my wife will be able to have the real "staying alive" as her ringtone. There - i have just given away her age! Did i mention it was her birthday? Gnngg. The new Stereophonics track has just started playing on the radio. I heard it at lunchtime and also on the way home last night and the way in this morning! I wonder what i would choose to listen to if i had my iPod with me? Hmmmm......

Tuesday Thoughts

The thought of having an iPod is still in the forefront of my mind at the moment. As is getting an Apple Mac computer. I have the money to get both from our savings but there are more important things to spend it on. New bathroom suite and a new garden patio and stuff like that. I was (attempting) to get a new ringtone for the wifes phone the other night whilst we watched Most Haunted Live on LivingTV. I have got plenty of MIDI ringtone files downloaded via torrents but for some reason the beggers never play on the phone! You can load them into the Nokia Sound Converter program and mess with the polyphonic vaules and MIDI channels etc - transfer it to the phone and it then does not play. After several hours of going "this one?" or "how about this one?" and then finding that the shortlist of 3 from over 6000 did not work got me a little pissed off to say the least. I did a bit of googling and found a message from someone saying that the MIDI files need to be about 10-20k for it to play on the model of Nokia we both have. Therefore off i went to find a MIDI file editor to trim it down. That was at around midnight. I did get one but could'nt figure it out. I wished our phones played proper MIDI files, MP3 or WAV files as ringtones. So that got me thinking about getting a new phone....... And it starts again. A new fad to think about. I picked up a brochure from CarPhoneWhoreHouse whilst shopping the other day and scanned it for a new phone! I don't need an iPod if i can get a phone that plays MP3s - like my SPV used to. I won't need a multimedia jukebox thing that plays videos if i get a phone that does videos too - like my SPV used to. Hmmm.. see a pattern emerging? I can get a new SPV (the C500) here at the MoDaCo Shop for about £148 and then buy a 512mb memory card to go in. I remember that it was nice having my SPV as an all-in-one unit. Phone, MP3 player, video player, organiser, games machine, camera. Maybe i should get one of them instead of an iPod? I have £90 saved up at the moment. Maybe next month then.. Someone slap me! - or get me a better paid job!

Bumblebee Auctions

Since the demise of India Foxtrot on eBay there has not been many bargains to be had from our friends in blue. I am still using by Black and Decker hedge trimmers delivered with the crime number still attached. My first purchase on eBay perhaps... However, it might be worth keeping an eye on Bumblebee Auctions. Looks like most items might be "collect only" though and seeing as this is a UK wide website - may not pay to shop here when you have worked out the petrol money!

New preachings - and lessons to be learnt

Need i say any more?

Decisions.... decisions....

How to never miss an episode with BitTorrent and RSS

Whilst walking the dusty lates of the Internet this lunchtime i stumbled across this little gem on an idea! You will need to switch to using Azureus as your Bittorrent client to get it to work - but its worth a go. How to never miss an episode with BitTorrent and RSS via pealco.net

Agent Cook strikes again. 

New Preachings - old lessons

Nuff said..

XBOX2 Details revealed

At the Game Developers Conference over in the US-of-A details of the new XBOX have been emerging including some potential screens of the new Dashboard and revamped XBOX Live! See here and here and here for the screenies. Some websites report that the console could include three 3.0 Ghz processors! How much processing do you need? I bet it comes with a 10 inch fan on the back to cool the thing down. I guess that as my 2 boys are growing up fast - i had better get one when they come out. However - i am not quite sure where to stand on the "modded" consoles any more. Maybe i should be taking the higher moral ground and start buying these games and stuff. But they are so damn expensive! I might have to get a *proper* XBOX2 when they come out - just so i can get to pay on Live properly. My kids will create the demand and i will have to respond no doubt. My modded XBOX is still the best "gadget" that i have bought for years. In fact it rarely gets used to play *real* XBOX games and is more used as a networked Media Player for all those videos i download and retro console emulators. Gotta love Sonic and Mario! I gave away my DVD player as i just use the XBOX now! Its totally excellent. Just a brilliant piece of kit.

Sony PlayStation Portable/PSP hands-on review

A nice review of the new Sony PSP handheld console here at Engadget. The machine looks totally amazing and i'm sure will beat up the Nintendo DS big style in the ratings. Hmmmm.. £200.... damn... here we go again!

The Official BitTorrent Home Page

A new version of the ever popular "Official" Bittorrent client is available from Bram "Stoker" Cohen's website here. Don't forget he is the creator of Bittorrent and therefore is deserved of our respect. I will give the new client a run against Bittornado tonight and maybe post a review tomorrow. I am also trialling another client called Bitcomet which seems ok but is a bit OTT for me i think. The only reason i decided to start with other clients was to see if the "80% sweet spot" could really be achieved. I had read somewhere that if you can limit you upload rate to about 80% of its total capacity then the whole torrent transfer process would be at its best. Bittornado just seemed to ignore my requests to impose a limit but Bitcomet does it nicely. Does it work? Does it f*ck! Well. I limited my upload on a torrent to 10kbs yesterday and my download rate went from 3kb to 41kb immediately! So, i tinkered some more and lost the high speed totally! Damn! Why did i fiddle! Arrghh.. Got it all down in the end though.

iPod Spotting

Its amazing to see that when i come to Brum for my weekly pilgrimage that there are loads of people listening to iPods! Its easy to spot the white and grey earbuds as people shop in the new BullRing. We spotted three people with the tell tale white earphones in one clothes shop alone! Back in Milton Keynes i never see them at all. Maybe i am just not looking in the right place. I once went and purchased some white as possible cheapo earphones from Dixons to pretend i was part of the iPod clan. It never worked and now they are relegated to my drawer at work for when i fancy listening to some Jazz (nice). However, the headphone outputs are on the back of my PC and the lead on them is too short. So whilst i am trying to relax - it actually looks like i am praying to the Microsoft Windows god, rocking backwards and forwards and headbutting my monitor in time with the rhythm. Anyway, they are more of a see through white/gel colour. Not very iPod at all. Never mind - i could always buy an original pair!

DS or BS?

I was out at the local bowling emporium at the weekend and for some reason they had a Nintendo DS display stand with 8 or so consoles to play on. First impressions. Yuk! The buttons and controller felt well flat and cheap compared to my Gameboy Advance and the size of the thing puts me off completely! Its huge! It has 2 LCD screens - the lower of which is touch sensitive. Click here for a Nintendo DS Overview. When you switch it on you tap the lower screen to start and it brings up a screen with a clock and calendar at the top and a list of available apps at the bottom including any games you have inserted. There were 2 other apps listed - a network chat client called Pictochat (the DS has built in wifi) with text and freehand writing modes. See here and here for screens. The other app is the ability to download a game from another wirelessly connected DS to play multiplayer. The old Nintendo Gameboys used to allow you to play some games in a limited mode if the other Gameboy connected (via a cable) supported it. I tried it a few times - but it never worked. I played a demo of Metroid Prime Hunters - a 3D shooter which makes you control the game by moving your man with your left hand on the console, but then use the included stylus to "look" around the screen. To shoot, you tap the screen with the stylus. Very odd indeed. Not impressed with that either. Another DS had Tiger Woods Golf on - but some bloke was trying to play it whilst holding a screwdriver in his other hand so i did'nt manage to have a go. Also odd. This wifi game sharing appears to be the best thing i can find about the new handheld console. But with rumors of another Gameboy out before xmas and a possible release for the DS that will turn it more into a PDA that plays games than a Gameboy - the future is unknown! The DS is still on my Amazon Wishlist for my birthday. So we will see what happens between now and then (July). Maybe the console will be superseeded with another version of the Gameboy Advance or maybe the DS will mutate into something totally different and also be attractive too. Divx and MP3 playback have been rumored!

The dullest blog in the world

Simple, stoopid and minimal. The dullest blog in the world. But check out the number of comments! Respec

Star Wars Designer Edition

A late night jaunt on the internet reveals several things. a) your eyes are either old and tired or scarred by laser scalpel. b) 20 Junk Emails received in 5 mins! c) JustinSpace's Star Wars Designer Edition Enjoy - i'm off to bed to prepare for Ikea hell tomorrow.

Gui Avoider

Just picked up this link via Slashdot about someone who thinks that she is more productive on a Mac than a Windows PC: Gui Avoider. Makes interesting reading - and an insight into the workings of OSX too. I would love to be able to make my folder labels different colors in XP. Maybe someone can point me to an app that does it?