If they say that watching telly gives you square eyes, what kind of shape eyes do you get from reading lots ?
That's pretty much what I've been doing lately. Listening to lots of great music (check out The XX) and reading lots of book :-) Oh and wondering what drugs the Mercury Prize people are taking to have not given the prize to Bat For Lashes.
I'm currently occupied with not one but actually 3 series of book :
Harry Turtledove's WorldWar series,
Larry Niven's Ringworld series,
Jack Campbell's The Lost Fleet series.
I've mentioned the WorldWar series before, it's set in the middle of World War Two but with a twist. Space Aliens invade and try to take over the world. I'm not quite sure what to make of this series, I'm three books in but it's a bit of a struggle. I want to know what happens and how it ends (I'm a little OCD like that) but it's rather long and drawn out. 3 down, 5 to go.
The Ringworld series is one I've had an eye on for quite some time now. It's penned by Larry Niven and is set within the amazing Known Space future. You have weird and wonderful alien races, who actually feel alien. These go from the cowardly Pierson's Puppeteers with heads for hands and extreme high technology to the fierce Kzin. For a Kzin, think 8 foot tall, feline, furry, claws and would probably eat anyone who attempted to call them "cute". But they do like being scratched behind their ears.
Ringworld is mostly set on an immense artifact, a circular ribbon 100 thousand miles across with a radius just under 100 million miles. And that's orbiting a sun. It makes the Orbitals of the Culture look small. The first book has our central protagonist Louis Wu discovering the Ringworld as part of an expedition including a puppeteer, a Kzin and another human. On their travels they encounter many species of Near-Human, the artifact has been around for hundreds of thousands of years so the inhabitants have gradually evolved from Human into many different Near-Human species.
The question of "why were there human-like beings on here ?" is a question that's answered throughout the four books : Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers, Ringworld Throne and Ringworld's Children. They're all well worth a read, although Larry Niven writes better when he collaborates on books. Almost like he struggles to get his ideas on paper, with the collaborations clarifying his vision.
Lastly, I've just finished enjoying the first book in a series of 6 penned by Jack Campbell. It's called Dauntless : The Lost Fleet and begins the telling of the tale of a fleet of Alliance warships that is deep behind enemy lines having just failed in an attack launched on the homeworld of their bitter enemy, the Syndicated Worlds.
Whereas the Honor Harrington books by David Weber can get themselves badly bogged down in politics, the politics is firmly in the backseat in Dauntless. It's still there but not nearly so prominent. Instead, you have battleships and battlecruisers pounding at each other with grapeshot (from railguns), missiles, Big Frickin' Lasers (I've been reading too much Register) and disintegrators.
I've only read one of them so far and ended up enjoying it enough that after about 100 pages, I ordered the second in the series from Abebooks ... I'd quite happily recommend the people I bought it from, just under £5, sent over from the States in pristine condition and quite quickly too. Abebooks can put you in touch with a lot of independent bookstores, the one I've been ordering from is the Paperbackshop Ltd in Fairford (in Abebooks as Books 2 Anywhere).
I've not just been reading the books though - England surprised everyone by winning the Ashes back. There's a strange contrast here to 2005, the last time we got the Ashes. 4 years ago, there was total hysteria over it. The 2005 series was a slugging match between 2 very well matched sides at the top of their games, utterly captivating because both teams were putting everything into it. This series was something different. The Aussies had lost several of their Great players and hadn't really adequately replaced them. England are currently in one of their inconsistent phases.
So we won the Ashes but no-one's really all that excited about it, maybe because it doesn't feel as if we earned them ... Which is a feeling reinforced by the rubbish we're seeing from England in the one day series. The players seem extremely scared right now. Scared of playing, scared of wearing the shirt, scared of playing to their potential and it shows in how they approach the game.
Grand Prix has finished now - time to get to the next book (Ringworld Throne), game and music :-)
PS Lol at the GP coverage, Ross Brawn just got hauled bodily over to the BBC interviewers by Eddie Irvine. Makes you laugh at the audacity of them to do that but what makes it more funny is the size difference between the big Ross Brawn and the little Eddie Irvine.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
I made dat !
I get a buzz once a month (ok, I get The Buzz more than that but work with me here :-)
It's when we're coming up to putting out a new version of the Volition Cult newsletter. VC is the group that I've been involved with in Eve over the years I've been on and off in that particular online game. They're a good bunch. Even though I bounce in and out of the game fairly regularly due to getting bored with it, I still try and keep up with what the boys are getting up to.
And what better way than to do a sub-editor job on their newsletter :-) We get contributions mainly from Agent Stone and Schelik Hill (in game names). They'll put the original stories in and then I'll come along afterwards and tidy up their language. I'll usually try and tailor it for effect too. It's a newsletter For Gamers By Gamers, so the objective for me is to do the proof reading without diluting out the Fun aspect.
It's a job I like doing, I have a craving for information and the sub-ed job gives me a sneak peek. All the positive feedback we get also helps :-)
Ok - that's enough saying how much of a buzz we get from sending out the newsletter. How about I give all you readers a chance for a peek too ? It's here, at Agent Stone's blog. Bit long though this time around :-)
I even get a writing credit in there this month, I usually just proof read but I added one or two bits in there as well this time around. I'm a Power Gamer who tends to dig into the mechanics of what I'm getting involved in. I'll try and take things apart (metaphorically) to see how they work, so I can play better or work better. So even though I don't have as much in game experience as others, I pick things up along the way on how to play better.
Lol - that's enough Eve for now, an apt statement as my sub just ran out today. The reason for the break this time is that at £11ish per month, that's way too much now for something I'm not getting any value out of.
Found a new group to listen to :-) The XX had their track Crystallised put up as iTunes tune of the week a couple of weeks ago. Grabbed it, listened to it, thought these people have a really promising sound. Ended up buying the album a couple of days later :-) Here's a link to Crystallised - check it out, they're worth a listen.
Talking of music, had a trip to London and back today with work. Which means iPodFM in the car all the way there and back :-)
Not as clean a drive as usual. It's 125 miles there, which should be about 2 hours at motorway speeds. Took just over 3 hours each way this time, due to traffic although I did do leg stretches there and back. It got me thinking a bit more, the various segments of the trip where I was at standstill or crawling forwards would be where a hybrid car like Toyota's Prius would come into its own. The new Prius has a 1.8 litre engine plus an electric motor. The motor can roll the car along at up to 30mph. Just think about that for motorway queues or urban when you're at the mercy of traffic lights. The engine would be off and you'd be rolling along on stored charge. Free energy !
Hybrids are the future :-) They really appeal to my Inner Geek, which appreciates efficiency in all its forms. Whether that be in the way certain people move, in seeing a gadget that just works with no fuss or seeing technology applied in clever ways that makes things Easier.
Any more ? Watched the latest Tarantino film (would name it but kiddies may read :-) and while it was good, couldn't help feeling that it could have been better. I dunno, maybe the excellence of Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction have spoiled us :-) Good day for another reason, I got two hugs off RCA.
After my last post cleared my head somewhat and got me back to Positive Mental Attitude, I've had a rough few days due to my tongue swelling up on me (eeooo - saying no more !). It's almost better, which means I will now be terrorizing neighbours and nearby cats by singing along to iTunes. I'm currently chilling out to The XX from above after thinking that it really helps to have the iPod picking out the soft tracks for in car music :-)
This post has kinda jumped around a bit :
Eve Alliance Newsletter
New Music
Traffic
Hybrid cars
Films
More music
Check out the newsletter :-) It's hopefully a good example of something written By Gamers For Gamers showing how they enjoy the game they've taken to their hearts.
Oh last thing - another thing I sneaked into the newsletter was an oldie :
Something close to that has been my Eve signature over the years :-) Bit of an Eve in joke :-)
It's when we're coming up to putting out a new version of the Volition Cult newsletter. VC is the group that I've been involved with in Eve over the years I've been on and off in that particular online game. They're a good bunch. Even though I bounce in and out of the game fairly regularly due to getting bored with it, I still try and keep up with what the boys are getting up to.
And what better way than to do a sub-editor job on their newsletter :-) We get contributions mainly from Agent Stone and Schelik Hill (in game names). They'll put the original stories in and then I'll come along afterwards and tidy up their language. I'll usually try and tailor it for effect too. It's a newsletter For Gamers By Gamers, so the objective for me is to do the proof reading without diluting out the Fun aspect.
It's a job I like doing, I have a craving for information and the sub-ed job gives me a sneak peek. All the positive feedback we get also helps :-)
Ok - that's enough saying how much of a buzz we get from sending out the newsletter. How about I give all you readers a chance for a peek too ? It's here, at Agent Stone's blog. Bit long though this time around :-)
I even get a writing credit in there this month, I usually just proof read but I added one or two bits in there as well this time around. I'm a Power Gamer who tends to dig into the mechanics of what I'm getting involved in. I'll try and take things apart (metaphorically) to see how they work, so I can play better or work better. So even though I don't have as much in game experience as others, I pick things up along the way on how to play better.
Lol - that's enough Eve for now, an apt statement as my sub just ran out today. The reason for the break this time is that at £11ish per month, that's way too much now for something I'm not getting any value out of.
Found a new group to listen to :-) The XX had their track Crystallised put up as iTunes tune of the week a couple of weeks ago. Grabbed it, listened to it, thought these people have a really promising sound. Ended up buying the album a couple of days later :-) Here's a link to Crystallised - check it out, they're worth a listen.
Talking of music, had a trip to London and back today with work. Which means iPodFM in the car all the way there and back :-)
Not as clean a drive as usual. It's 125 miles there, which should be about 2 hours at motorway speeds. Took just over 3 hours each way this time, due to traffic although I did do leg stretches there and back. It got me thinking a bit more, the various segments of the trip where I was at standstill or crawling forwards would be where a hybrid car like Toyota's Prius would come into its own. The new Prius has a 1.8 litre engine plus an electric motor. The motor can roll the car along at up to 30mph. Just think about that for motorway queues or urban when you're at the mercy of traffic lights. The engine would be off and you'd be rolling along on stored charge. Free energy !
Hybrids are the future :-) They really appeal to my Inner Geek, which appreciates efficiency in all its forms. Whether that be in the way certain people move, in seeing a gadget that just works with no fuss or seeing technology applied in clever ways that makes things Easier.
Any more ? Watched the latest Tarantino film (would name it but kiddies may read :-) and while it was good, couldn't help feeling that it could have been better. I dunno, maybe the excellence of Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction have spoiled us :-) Good day for another reason, I got two hugs off RCA.
After my last post cleared my head somewhat and got me back to Positive Mental Attitude, I've had a rough few days due to my tongue swelling up on me (eeooo - saying no more !). It's almost better, which means I will now be terrorizing neighbours and nearby cats by singing along to iTunes. I'm currently chilling out to The XX from above after thinking that it really helps to have the iPod picking out the soft tracks for in car music :-)
This post has kinda jumped around a bit :
Eve Alliance Newsletter
New Music
Traffic
Hybrid cars
Films
More music
Check out the newsletter :-) It's hopefully a good example of something written By Gamers For Gamers showing how they enjoy the game they've taken to their hearts.
Oh last thing - another thing I sneaked into the newsletter was an oldie :
Something close to that has been my Eve signature over the years :-) Bit of an Eve in joke :-)
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Blog block usually means ...
Distraction ...
I think that's the key word at the moment. Wish it were distraction of the good kind, like spending every evening talking to someone special (we'll leave it up to the imagination as to what happens after that). No such luck lately, although I think I've been keeping our Craziequeen amused over Facebook chat :-)
The distraction at the moment involves pain and management of it ... Usually, I can cope with my various aches and pains by distracting (that word again :-) myself away from noticing them. Often by nefarious means :-) Ok - in this case nefarious means thinking about chasing girls, although not quite in the way you might think.
I call it "positive mental reinforcement" and it's based around how you want other people to see you. On the one hand, you can wallow in the aches and pains and go for being the cripple. Even though I've broken a fair proportion of myself over the years, that's not my style. Especially as I'm fully aware that even with the collection of broken bits, I'm not nearly as badly off as some people :
I can manage my depression without chemicals (literally in the case of avoiding the hayfever pills that cause it !)
I've only had surgery once to fix an injury (if a borken nose counts :-)
Can't bowl no more cos of shoulder but I still have 95% mobility there
Lots of leg and back muscle trouble but I have 90% of the old power still available
(that'd be 100% if I exercised!)
Only underlying medical condition is too much tummy acid (managed by no alcohol and giving my tummy something to do when it complains)
So even though I do sometimes (like now!) have muscles that suffer from the after effects of too much running around a few years ago, does that mean I have to be defined by it ?
No !
One of the books I was a big fan of as a teenager was the Keill Randor, Last Legionary of Moros series. That character had a great way of dealing with pain, he'd focus on it, understand it and then would shunt it away to a lockbox in his mind and throw the key away. It works too ! (except for headaches - the technique needs concentration which gets nuked by headaches)
Needs a kinda "Reset Button" hitting though to take the step to recognise (or Grok, as Valentine Michael Smith would say it) the pain though. Then you can figure out how bad it really is, or how insignificant it really is. And then deal with it as appropriate. Gotta admit, I'm not as good there as I should be. I deal with the pain by ignoring the symptoms, instead of attacking the cause.
I guess this post is a bit like hitting that Reset Button. It's recognising "yeah ! I feel ow". But it's also recognising "am I a cripple ? hell no" before moving on to a bit of "get up off the floor ya muppet and stop feeling sorry for yourself". And that last bit is precisely what I need every so often. Gets me back to that word "nefarious" too :-) What's the more attractive ? Dealing with the issues or letting the issues take control ...
I dunno there but if thinking I have to look strong to others helps me actually Be strong, then I guess that's a good way of managing the legacies of that running around thing. Bit like the sore tongue I have at the moment. I'm overweight, so I could do with missing a few of the teacakes and muffins I indulge in at work. But no - I'm still hunting them down as a way of telling the tongue exactly what I think of it (bacon sarnie day tomorrow - not missing out). And it gives me a chance to grin at the Canteen Girls too.
Ahh - sore tongue that's making it unpleasant to eat at the moment - I better close this one and put some dinner on. Can't stay healthy unless you eat proper, although I wouldn't call my diet "proper". Seems to work for me though :-)
Before I go though, quick mention for a special person. Our Snow Queen at work is an absolute wonder. Honest, smart, devious, lots of fun and always willing to lend an ear. Hasn't told me to go away yet either, which shows tolerance for geeks that goes beyond the call of duty. She's one of the better things about where I work and I'll be having fun keeping her guessing about the other better things there :-) We help keep each other sane at work, although sometimes it probably feels like I'm attempting to send people into the Huggy Jackets.
That bright beaming Snow Queen smile has been really helping out while I've been struggling.
PS The back would appreciate a little bit of TLC to go with the "ignore it and it'll go away" theory. Just need to find a willing volunteer to give me a good pummelling ;-) And if you're in a pit, then having a hand there really helps when trying to climb out.
I think that's the key word at the moment. Wish it were distraction of the good kind, like spending every evening talking to someone special (we'll leave it up to the imagination as to what happens after that). No such luck lately, although I think I've been keeping our Craziequeen amused over Facebook chat :-)
The distraction at the moment involves pain and management of it ... Usually, I can cope with my various aches and pains by distracting (that word again :-) myself away from noticing them. Often by nefarious means :-) Ok - in this case nefarious means thinking about chasing girls, although not quite in the way you might think.
I call it "positive mental reinforcement" and it's based around how you want other people to see you. On the one hand, you can wallow in the aches and pains and go for being the cripple. Even though I've broken a fair proportion of myself over the years, that's not my style. Especially as I'm fully aware that even with the collection of broken bits, I'm not nearly as badly off as some people :
I can manage my depression without chemicals (literally in the case of avoiding the hayfever pills that cause it !)
I've only had surgery once to fix an injury (if a borken nose counts :-)
Can't bowl no more cos of shoulder but I still have 95% mobility there
Lots of leg and back muscle trouble but I have 90% of the old power still available
(that'd be 100% if I exercised!)
Only underlying medical condition is too much tummy acid (managed by no alcohol and giving my tummy something to do when it complains)
So even though I do sometimes (like now!) have muscles that suffer from the after effects of too much running around a few years ago, does that mean I have to be defined by it ?
No !
One of the books I was a big fan of as a teenager was the Keill Randor, Last Legionary of Moros series. That character had a great way of dealing with pain, he'd focus on it, understand it and then would shunt it away to a lockbox in his mind and throw the key away. It works too ! (except for headaches - the technique needs concentration which gets nuked by headaches)
Needs a kinda "Reset Button" hitting though to take the step to recognise (or Grok, as Valentine Michael Smith would say it) the pain though. Then you can figure out how bad it really is, or how insignificant it really is. And then deal with it as appropriate. Gotta admit, I'm not as good there as I should be. I deal with the pain by ignoring the symptoms, instead of attacking the cause.
I guess this post is a bit like hitting that Reset Button. It's recognising "yeah ! I feel ow". But it's also recognising "am I a cripple ? hell no" before moving on to a bit of "get up off the floor ya muppet and stop feeling sorry for yourself". And that last bit is precisely what I need every so often. Gets me back to that word "nefarious" too :-) What's the more attractive ? Dealing with the issues or letting the issues take control ...
I dunno there but if thinking I have to look strong to others helps me actually Be strong, then I guess that's a good way of managing the legacies of that running around thing. Bit like the sore tongue I have at the moment. I'm overweight, so I could do with missing a few of the teacakes and muffins I indulge in at work. But no - I'm still hunting them down as a way of telling the tongue exactly what I think of it (bacon sarnie day tomorrow - not missing out). And it gives me a chance to grin at the Canteen Girls too.
Ahh - sore tongue that's making it unpleasant to eat at the moment - I better close this one and put some dinner on. Can't stay healthy unless you eat proper, although I wouldn't call my diet "proper". Seems to work for me though :-)
Before I go though, quick mention for a special person. Our Snow Queen at work is an absolute wonder. Honest, smart, devious, lots of fun and always willing to lend an ear. Hasn't told me to go away yet either, which shows tolerance for geeks that goes beyond the call of duty. She's one of the better things about where I work and I'll be having fun keeping her guessing about the other better things there :-) We help keep each other sane at work, although sometimes it probably feels like I'm attempting to send people into the Huggy Jackets.
That bright beaming Snow Queen smile has been really helping out while I've been struggling.
PS The back would appreciate a little bit of TLC to go with the "ignore it and it'll go away" theory. Just need to find a willing volunteer to give me a good pummelling ;-) And if you're in a pit, then having a hand there really helps when trying to climb out.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Trying to figure out which is luckier ...
Me or the cat ...
Coming back from gaming, which means a cruise up the motorway. Not many others around, so it's an easy 70mph cruise hoping not to fall asleep (had a couple of mugs of coffee so no problem there). So I have one eye on the road and the other on the Audi that's about to overtake me.
Hmm ... what's that white thing on the road just ahead ?
CRIKEY ... SWERVE ... BOING ... (that'd be the suspension on the car sorting itself out after the swerve) ... *!*%*"%£££$ ... Phew !
White cat, in my lane in just about the right place to get flattened by my passenger side wheels. Think we both got lucky, as I saw the little blighter in time to do the big swerve, with not much time wasted in the "CRIKEY" part :-)
Anyway - white cat goes left, I swerve to the right around him, Audi in the middle lane has kittens as I nearly take his nose off, end result one live cat and an intact set of bumpers.
I reckon the biker on the way there has his days numbers though. He was doing a steady 80mph cruise in the outside lane. Except when a car in the inside lane was about to overtake something. Then he'd move into the middle lane. Good job I was keeping an eye on the idiot (standard procedure, assume all others on the road are idiots and it'll mean less dents for you) as he chose to move into my intended lane while technically in my blind spot. Watched him do the same to another car a minute or two later as well.
Fun gaming session, no dents, a smile and a Teacake From Heaven from the Little Canteen Girl, good day all round. Oh and I'm still getting mileage out of making things explode inside the computers at work.
Coming back from gaming, which means a cruise up the motorway. Not many others around, so it's an easy 70mph cruise hoping not to fall asleep (had a couple of mugs of coffee so no problem there). So I have one eye on the road and the other on the Audi that's about to overtake me.
Hmm ... what's that white thing on the road just ahead ?
CRIKEY ... SWERVE ... BOING ... (that'd be the suspension on the car sorting itself out after the swerve) ... *!*%*"%£££$ ... Phew !
White cat, in my lane in just about the right place to get flattened by my passenger side wheels. Think we both got lucky, as I saw the little blighter in time to do the big swerve, with not much time wasted in the "CRIKEY" part :-)
Anyway - white cat goes left, I swerve to the right around him, Audi in the middle lane has kittens as I nearly take his nose off, end result one live cat and an intact set of bumpers.
I reckon the biker on the way there has his days numbers though. He was doing a steady 80mph cruise in the outside lane. Except when a car in the inside lane was about to overtake something. Then he'd move into the middle lane. Good job I was keeping an eye on the idiot (standard procedure, assume all others on the road are idiots and it'll mean less dents for you) as he chose to move into my intended lane while technically in my blind spot. Watched him do the same to another car a minute or two later as well.
Fun gaming session, no dents, a smile and a Teacake From Heaven from the Little Canteen Girl, good day all round. Oh and I'm still getting mileage out of making things explode inside the computers at work.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Huggable music
Yey :-) Music post again. Facebook people might want to open the original post in Blogger to get the full benefit of all the Youtube links I put in these posts. Hopefully the linky I'll put in will get through the FB import ...
Another music post ! I do these to show off to other people what I've been listening to. There's some great music out there that you may not have heard yet. Here's your chance ! (helped of course by lots of Youtube links)
Anyway - this music special brought to you and inspired by the word hug. Or rather the iTunes following a Bat For Lashes track by a Garbage track :
Wants a Hug : Bat For Lashes - Sleep Alone. This one's the new single out and I'm hoping there's some good B sides on it. May have to start buying singles again cos of the outstanding stuff coming from this gifted (and highly cute!) artist with the voice of an angel.
Would Stab if Hug Attempted (sorry Shirley!) : Garbage - You Look So Fine. Great voice again, interesting cos it's a bit different. Bleed Like Me was an excellent album, hoping for more soon.
So that's the inspiration, what else have I been listening to that's Hug-Related ? Here goes - and enjoy :-)
Too much hug ! (is that possible?) : Duffy and Mercy. Another "different" voice, not sure how it'll go with non-Duffy music (the coke ad is terrible) but with her own stuff, she's incredible.
Will make you want a hug : Portishead and Roads. Portishead have that quality that, when their stuff comes on, you stop and listen. Piercing, pure, primal vocals matched with a distinctive style all their own. And they're from just down the road too.
Will not stop dancing long enough to get a hug : Little Boots and Remedy. Another amazing voice in an utterly adorable package. Bit of a contrast with what I'm usually into cos her style is more Boppy Disco but the sheer quality of that voice and how it fits the style means it's one that often hits the iPod. Her album got released a month or so ago and I'm already hoping the next one comes out soon.
Talking of hitting the iPod - a "Don't let me go Hug" : Goldfrapp with their cover of It's Not Over Yet from BBC's Live Lounge. This song sold my sister and I 4 albums. Well ... it started it off and then Seventh Tree sold the other three. A definite touch of beauty to offset all the ugliness on our screens at the moment.
One for me to practice in my quest for hugs : Chris Isaak (plus 1) singing Blue Hotel. CyberKitten already posted a link to Wicked Game but this is a pretty good track too from that album. Cheers to CK for reintroducing me to this voice and that guitar play :-)
And talking of guitars ... Hug From History : Dire Straits with Romeo and Juliet. Probably the best guitar player I've heard, with a voice that anyone would be happy they could sing along to. Currently listening to Mark Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia but anything from Knopfler is extremely high quality.
Watch Out ! These girls will run you down and then hug you : Voice of the Beehive and I Think I Love You.
Double Hug ! Alisha's Attic with Indestructible. Caught this one Saturday morning as I was on the way out the door. Thought : "WOW" and then bought every album and cd single I could get my hands on. Two sisters, subtly different voices, same charm.
Long Distance Hug : Lene Marlin with Here We Are. Almost got me remarking to the wonderful Sandra that this lady would be a fantastic reason for learning Swedish before I realised she was Norwegian. Doh ! Flexible artist, the voice matches up well both with ballads and more boppy tracks.
Have Hug, Will Travel : Tori Amos taking a Taxi Ride. This one's from the Scarlet's Walk album which I've linked more from over the years.
Wow, that's a fair few tracks listed now so it's time to close ... but before that, a few mentions to those I'm also listening to a lot (but can't figure out Hug Links for :-). I picked up Queen's A Kind Of Magic (Thanks Wormtongue !) a few weeks ago, plus I've been enjoying Avril Lavigne, Gloria Estefan, Paramore, a lot of KT Tunstall and an Old favourite in George Harrison too. First heard him as a non-Beatle with I Got My Mind Set On You, which stuck in my mind for 20 years. More timeless quality music here, with his Let It Roll collection album being one I've recently acquired through iTunes.
Last one - All About Eve with Pieces Of Our Heart from the Scarlet and Other Stories album. This one really shows off the distinctive voice of Julianne Regan which I've been in love with for 20 years now. The first 3 All About Eve albums were excellent and the not so well known MICE album (New and Improved) is also well worth picking up, although you'll probably only find it for download.
Hopefully not too long before my next music post, I really enjoy doing these and hope people find something new to listen to from them :-)
Another music post ! I do these to show off to other people what I've been listening to. There's some great music out there that you may not have heard yet. Here's your chance ! (helped of course by lots of Youtube links)
Anyway - this music special brought to you and inspired by the word hug. Or rather the iTunes following a Bat For Lashes track by a Garbage track :
Wants a Hug : Bat For Lashes - Sleep Alone. This one's the new single out and I'm hoping there's some good B sides on it. May have to start buying singles again cos of the outstanding stuff coming from this gifted (and highly cute!) artist with the voice of an angel.
Would Stab if Hug Attempted (sorry Shirley!) : Garbage - You Look So Fine. Great voice again, interesting cos it's a bit different. Bleed Like Me was an excellent album, hoping for more soon.
So that's the inspiration, what else have I been listening to that's Hug-Related ? Here goes - and enjoy :-)
Too much hug ! (is that possible?) : Duffy and Mercy. Another "different" voice, not sure how it'll go with non-Duffy music (the coke ad is terrible) but with her own stuff, she's incredible.
Will make you want a hug : Portishead and Roads. Portishead have that quality that, when their stuff comes on, you stop and listen. Piercing, pure, primal vocals matched with a distinctive style all their own. And they're from just down the road too.
Will not stop dancing long enough to get a hug : Little Boots and Remedy. Another amazing voice in an utterly adorable package. Bit of a contrast with what I'm usually into cos her style is more Boppy Disco but the sheer quality of that voice and how it fits the style means it's one that often hits the iPod. Her album got released a month or so ago and I'm already hoping the next one comes out soon.
Talking of hitting the iPod - a "Don't let me go Hug" : Goldfrapp with their cover of It's Not Over Yet from BBC's Live Lounge. This song sold my sister and I 4 albums. Well ... it started it off and then Seventh Tree sold the other three. A definite touch of beauty to offset all the ugliness on our screens at the moment.
One for me to practice in my quest for hugs : Chris Isaak (plus 1) singing Blue Hotel. CyberKitten already posted a link to Wicked Game but this is a pretty good track too from that album. Cheers to CK for reintroducing me to this voice and that guitar play :-)
And talking of guitars ... Hug From History : Dire Straits with Romeo and Juliet. Probably the best guitar player I've heard, with a voice that anyone would be happy they could sing along to. Currently listening to Mark Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia but anything from Knopfler is extremely high quality.
Watch Out ! These girls will run you down and then hug you : Voice of the Beehive and I Think I Love You.
Double Hug ! Alisha's Attic with Indestructible. Caught this one Saturday morning as I was on the way out the door. Thought : "WOW" and then bought every album and cd single I could get my hands on. Two sisters, subtly different voices, same charm.
Long Distance Hug : Lene Marlin with Here We Are. Almost got me remarking to the wonderful Sandra that this lady would be a fantastic reason for learning Swedish before I realised she was Norwegian. Doh ! Flexible artist, the voice matches up well both with ballads and more boppy tracks.
Have Hug, Will Travel : Tori Amos taking a Taxi Ride. This one's from the Scarlet's Walk album which I've linked more from over the years.
Wow, that's a fair few tracks listed now so it's time to close ... but before that, a few mentions to those I'm also listening to a lot (but can't figure out Hug Links for :-). I picked up Queen's A Kind Of Magic (Thanks Wormtongue !) a few weeks ago, plus I've been enjoying Avril Lavigne, Gloria Estefan, Paramore, a lot of KT Tunstall and an Old favourite in George Harrison too. First heard him as a non-Beatle with I Got My Mind Set On You, which stuck in my mind for 20 years. More timeless quality music here, with his Let It Roll collection album being one I've recently acquired through iTunes.
Last one - All About Eve with Pieces Of Our Heart from the Scarlet and Other Stories album. This one really shows off the distinctive voice of Julianne Regan which I've been in love with for 20 years now. The first 3 All About Eve albums were excellent and the not so well known MICE album (New and Improved) is also well worth picking up, although you'll probably only find it for download.
Hopefully not too long before my next music post, I really enjoy doing these and hope people find something new to listen to from them :-)
Friday, August 07, 2009
Hey ! Who switched the battery ?
Couple of things to talk about before I put the dinner on :
Wow. I was doing fine this week, hyper to the point of having to work hard to bite down on some of the weirder comments that pop into my head. Some of them escaped and there's a particularly nutty email waiting for someone when she gets in on Monday. (Work related !) But on an afternoon where I took flexi leave to watch the cricket, I just crashed ... Going for a little SleepySession upstairs while the cricket's on type crashed.
Could be a Friday thing, could be a Body-Needs-Minerals thing. It's probably conditioning but I'll attack the minerals thing later by grabbing a Fish Supper. The thyroid works by using Iodine, which is an element that it uses to make the hormones that contribute to regulating energy levels.
So where does the fish come in ? Well, there's a couple of ways to get your Iodine, supplements or natural. By natural, that's foods that have a decent Iodine content, like seafood. Supplements will do a job too but they can have other effects too, less desirable ones. Things like the multivitamins I had to stop taking because they turned my personality into one most people wouldn't want to know.
So it'll be codnchips tonight :-) After a bacon sarnie and turkey sandwich from the lovely canteen girls earlier. I eat well at the moment, perhaps too well ;-)
What's number two on things to talk about today ?
Well - the dinosaur that work can be (hey - all organisations can be slow to wake up to a rapidly changing world and slow can be a good thing, it means we haven't done a Knee Jerk reaction) has woken up to all the Social Engineering stuff we can do nowadays. That'd be Facebook, Blogging, Twittering and all the rest.
Spotted the reaction on the work internal news pages today and to be fair to them, it's actually a good one. They've split it into two, Sponsored and Personal. Sponsored is where you actively declare what you're working on and effectively become a mouthpiece of the organisation. Personal is like what this blog will remain, a non work use of a way to say Hello World. And for me, another way to sort out thoughts and get them out of my head before my head explodes.
I read the info on it today and to be even more fair, they've called it Guidelines instead of Rules. Sponsored is a little heavy (too much editorial control, seems too much like a job) but I reckon they've done a decent job with the Personal guidelines. They're actually looser than the ones I operate already, which boil down to :
Talk about the Good, rant elsewhere about the Bad.
Keep the anonymity going,
Look for fun Codenames, only talk about people if you think they won't mind.
Don't let slip any personal information - always sensible.
(like - "hey ! I'm away with work for a week, come steal stuff from my house!" would be bad)
There's a lot of great people where I work but I only mention a limited selection cos my imagination has failed to come up with decent codenames for some of the others. Quite a few people at work know about my blog now (including my boss) and I think my boss's boss had his eyes opened by how much information can be picked up when you go to a website due to me using Sitemeter as an example. Your IP address can be a goldmine and if you run a website or a domain, your true name and home address could well be publicly available.
Looks like with the new guidance I can happily keep on going the same way I have so far :-) But I won't be starting up a Sponsored one. The rules there have way too much editorial control taken out of the hands of the author, which is fairy nuff but it's not something I'm interested in getting involved with. Oh there's also a "no endorsements" rule in there, which I've broken a heap of times already cos I like to say when I see good stuff and me saying I use HP laptops or Ford cars is technically an endorsement.
Right - getting hungry now, so it's time to chuck the fish in the oven (maybe a little garlic bread too :-) and pay more attention to the 4 Eleventh Hour episodes I'm watching tonight :-)
PS The Iodine thing is something I've figured out - everyone's body is unique and we all react to stuff in different ways. I've figured a link between crashing and Iodine from fish and it could well be psychosomatic. If you know yourself, then you'll be able to fix the various imbalances we suffer from. Like my current upset tummy - it's not something it's eaten, it's more like it's shouting "EAT SOMETHING!", time to put the oven on so I can do just that :-)
Wow. I was doing fine this week, hyper to the point of having to work hard to bite down on some of the weirder comments that pop into my head. Some of them escaped and there's a particularly nutty email waiting for someone when she gets in on Monday. (Work related !) But on an afternoon where I took flexi leave to watch the cricket, I just crashed ... Going for a little SleepySession upstairs while the cricket's on type crashed.
Could be a Friday thing, could be a Body-Needs-Minerals thing. It's probably conditioning but I'll attack the minerals thing later by grabbing a Fish Supper. The thyroid works by using Iodine, which is an element that it uses to make the hormones that contribute to regulating energy levels.
So where does the fish come in ? Well, there's a couple of ways to get your Iodine, supplements or natural. By natural, that's foods that have a decent Iodine content, like seafood. Supplements will do a job too but they can have other effects too, less desirable ones. Things like the multivitamins I had to stop taking because they turned my personality into one most people wouldn't want to know.
So it'll be codnchips tonight :-) After a bacon sarnie and turkey sandwich from the lovely canteen girls earlier. I eat well at the moment, perhaps too well ;-)
What's number two on things to talk about today ?
Well - the dinosaur that work can be (hey - all organisations can be slow to wake up to a rapidly changing world and slow can be a good thing, it means we haven't done a Knee Jerk reaction) has woken up to all the Social Engineering stuff we can do nowadays. That'd be Facebook, Blogging, Twittering and all the rest.
Spotted the reaction on the work internal news pages today and to be fair to them, it's actually a good one. They've split it into two, Sponsored and Personal. Sponsored is where you actively declare what you're working on and effectively become a mouthpiece of the organisation. Personal is like what this blog will remain, a non work use of a way to say Hello World. And for me, another way to sort out thoughts and get them out of my head before my head explodes.
I read the info on it today and to be even more fair, they've called it Guidelines instead of Rules. Sponsored is a little heavy (too much editorial control, seems too much like a job) but I reckon they've done a decent job with the Personal guidelines. They're actually looser than the ones I operate already, which boil down to :
Talk about the Good, rant elsewhere about the Bad.
Keep the anonymity going,
Look for fun Codenames, only talk about people if you think they won't mind.
Don't let slip any personal information - always sensible.
(like - "hey ! I'm away with work for a week, come steal stuff from my house!" would be bad)
There's a lot of great people where I work but I only mention a limited selection cos my imagination has failed to come up with decent codenames for some of the others. Quite a few people at work know about my blog now (including my boss) and I think my boss's boss had his eyes opened by how much information can be picked up when you go to a website due to me using Sitemeter as an example. Your IP address can be a goldmine and if you run a website or a domain, your true name and home address could well be publicly available.
Looks like with the new guidance I can happily keep on going the same way I have so far :-) But I won't be starting up a Sponsored one. The rules there have way too much editorial control taken out of the hands of the author, which is fairy nuff but it's not something I'm interested in getting involved with. Oh there's also a "no endorsements" rule in there, which I've broken a heap of times already cos I like to say when I see good stuff and me saying I use HP laptops or Ford cars is technically an endorsement.
Right - getting hungry now, so it's time to chuck the fish in the oven (maybe a little garlic bread too :-) and pay more attention to the 4 Eleventh Hour episodes I'm watching tonight :-)
PS The Iodine thing is something I've figured out - everyone's body is unique and we all react to stuff in different ways. I've figured a link between crashing and Iodine from fish and it could well be psychosomatic. If you know yourself, then you'll be able to fix the various imbalances we suffer from. Like my current upset tummy - it's not something it's eaten, it's more like it's shouting "EAT SOMETHING!", time to put the oven on so I can do just that :-)
Monday, August 03, 2009
Geek frustration
Hmm
This time a few days ago, I was looking forward to having a first look at Windows 7 before giving it a good n thorough going over ...
I'm a bit frustrated though, my Inner Geek is looking for wayz n meanz to keep itself amused. The Windows 7, short as it is, has gone on to my techie blog but to save technophobes deciphering what's on there it took one look at my desktop PC and burst out laughing :-). Probably a good thing too cos you could sum up the Windows 7 flirtation as :
Objective of trying Windows 7 - to answer the question "is it worth buying this software ?"
To which the answer is a comprehensive "NOOO!". Lol. Nothing to do with Windows 7, more to do with the hardware that I have available. It's actually been one of the better Testing Things I've done because :
The objective has been answered (muahahaha - I'm carefully avoiding the words "success" and "achieved").
There's been zero disruption to my PCs.
I've got my answer with the minimum of time, effort & hair loss.
I've saved £80 that I can spend on pizza, movies and popcorn.
Result !
But my Inner Geek is now a little put out at being frustrated out of an opportunity to look at something new, which is probably why I spent a fair bit of the Cricket-Watching-On-Sofa time yesterday reading the Ubuntu installation manual. Ubuntu is a piece of absolutely free software that runs your computer but it's a little different to the Windows stuff everyone else uses. I've seen what it's based on before but that was over 10 years ago.
Shame about no result in the cricket today, although it does put us one game closer to regaining the Ashes. 1-0 up with 2 games to play. If England win either of the next two, then we win the series. If the weather beats the teams, then England win too. Fingers crossed for England winning it the right way, which will have us giving the Aussies a thumping in the next two games.
No pen & paper gaming tonight sadly, so I'm now chilling out to Paramore on iTunes (Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygene is queued up for later) and if I have enough time later, it's Queen's A Kind Of Magic.
This time a few days ago, I was looking forward to having a first look at Windows 7 before giving it a good n thorough going over ...
I'm a bit frustrated though, my Inner Geek is looking for wayz n meanz to keep itself amused. The Windows 7, short as it is, has gone on to my techie blog but to save technophobes deciphering what's on there it took one look at my desktop PC and burst out laughing :-). Probably a good thing too cos you could sum up the Windows 7 flirtation as :
Objective of trying Windows 7 - to answer the question "is it worth buying this software ?"
To which the answer is a comprehensive "NOOO!". Lol. Nothing to do with Windows 7, more to do with the hardware that I have available. It's actually been one of the better Testing Things I've done because :
The objective has been answered (muahahaha - I'm carefully avoiding the words "success" and "achieved").
There's been zero disruption to my PCs.
I've got my answer with the minimum of time, effort & hair loss.
I've saved £80 that I can spend on pizza, movies and popcorn.
Result !
But my Inner Geek is now a little put out at being frustrated out of an opportunity to look at something new, which is probably why I spent a fair bit of the Cricket-Watching-On-Sofa time yesterday reading the Ubuntu installation manual. Ubuntu is a piece of absolutely free software that runs your computer but it's a little different to the Windows stuff everyone else uses. I've seen what it's based on before but that was over 10 years ago.
Shame about no result in the cricket today, although it does put us one game closer to regaining the Ashes. 1-0 up with 2 games to play. If England win either of the next two, then we win the series. If the weather beats the teams, then England win too. Fingers crossed for England winning it the right way, which will have us giving the Aussies a thumping in the next two games.
No pen & paper gaming tonight sadly, so I'm now chilling out to Paramore on iTunes (Jean-Michel Jarre's Oxygene is queued up for later) and if I have enough time later, it's Queen's A Kind Of Magic.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Bored driver-geek, Fuzzy Focus
Must be getting sensible in my dotage ...
Spotted one of those adverts that Toyota are doing about their optimal drive thing, which got my Inner Engineer Geek (think Inner Child but with more expensive toys) curious. Wasn't too bothered by the Optimal Drive thing, which doesn't actually seem too different to what we've seen before powering cars. Bit more efficient, bit cleaner but nothing actually new.
I then spent over an hour peeking through all the info on their new Prius. Which really did get that Inner Geek Engineer going ...
I seem to cycle with my cars, one that's sporty, one that's soft n fluffy :
1st one doesn't count, it was a Fiesta 950cc which was only really good for knowing the basics of cars. Especially cars that are reluctant to go but when they do fire up, they're good for a new driver cos they're not fast enough to really let get you into trouble.
Next car was the Buggy :-) A Mk1 Astra 1.6. Enough power to keep an 18 year old interested but still old n feeble enough to hit the Fluffy tag. Cars of that age (made 1982, had it from 93 to 97) tend to need to stay in the cotton wool cos things might drop off. Like front bodywork under the bumper that was so rusty you could call it an ill-kempt scabrous beard.
Oh - it was fun to find out that the Buggy had a fitting end - it died in a Pillar Of Flame :-) And nearly took someone's house with it too ... It was the bloke we'd sold it to, doing a bit of welding on it. He'd left the windows open and a welding spark flew in and onto the seats ... WHOOOMMFFF ! Byebye car. No one hurt in the incident but I get the feeling Mr Welder got a few slapsies :-)
Third car was a Belmont SRi, which I took over from my mum cos it was pulling her arms out of their sockets. My arms weren't much better either cos I'd dislocated my shoulder the year before but it was an excellent car to take me through my first year of work. 1.8 litre, 130bhp, 43mpg (just got made before catalytic convertors wrecked fuel economy) and sporty suspension worked very well for me doing over 20,000 miles a year.
Back to Fluffy ... And on to a Rover 420 GSi Executive Limited Edition. Niiiice. Especially when left out with the seats in the full glare of the sun. This car taught me that Leather Seats = Scorched Arse. Lol :-) Honestly, not a bad car but terrible reliability. The mechanical failures went on and on and it did a few showstoppers on me.
Zoomzoomzoom - Puma :-) Probably my most favourite car so far, although the Astra will always keep the sentimental Buggy crown. 130bhp again and in a very effective package. When sitting behind the wheel, you feel connected to what the car's doing in a rather special way. It drove like a Road Legal Go Kart, you could predict exactly what it would do and what mad stuff it would let you get away with. It also felt like it would be cheering you on to the next Crazy Stunt (usually with a white knuckled passenger too). And on top of the sportiness, it was highly effective as a day to day workhorse too. Did 60,000+ miles in that car :-)
But - I think it's given me a few unfortunate expectations from my latest car, which is another Sporty job in the form of a Focus ST170. You'd have thought that 170bhp, traction control, 6 gears, electronic stability gubbins and other assorted toys would hold the interest but honestly ... yawn. It's not as connected as the Puma, feeling as if the driver is a lot more insulated from what's going on. The electric squirbly widgets get in the way of the driver thinking they're the one keeping the car straight.
The Prius sounds rather interesting though. It would have nowhere near the potential performance levels of the Focus with a 0 to 60 of 10.4 secs compared to about 7 for the Focus but the motors give a handy bit of Surge power. There's a 100bhp engine in there that is supplemented by 82hp of electric motor, which is actually more power than the Focus ... Interesting ...
So - lots of toys under the bonnet to give the Inner Geek Engineer something to play with (my drive to work would fit right in with the Hybrid Stuff) and toys in the car to satisfy the Cushy aspect. They're a bit expensive at £18k, so I'd need to wait a couple of years before going for one. I'll be waiting a few years anyway cos the 3 year loan for my Focus has 2x years to run. And I'll probably change my mind again before then too :-)
Last thought - bit disappointing to see that Toyota aren't saying anything about the MR2 on their site any more :-( The world needs Bad Boy cars which emphasise Fun in driving and convertibles like the MR2 are only good for one thing - driving quick with the top down.
Hmm - thinking Prius, greenie stuff, thoughts of trying for 100mpg. I better do something stooopid before people think I'm getting sensible in my old age :-)
Spotted one of those adverts that Toyota are doing about their optimal drive thing, which got my Inner Engineer Geek (think Inner Child but with more expensive toys) curious. Wasn't too bothered by the Optimal Drive thing, which doesn't actually seem too different to what we've seen before powering cars. Bit more efficient, bit cleaner but nothing actually new.
I then spent over an hour peeking through all the info on their new Prius. Which really did get that Inner Geek Engineer going ...
I seem to cycle with my cars, one that's sporty, one that's soft n fluffy :
1st one doesn't count, it was a Fiesta 950cc which was only really good for knowing the basics of cars. Especially cars that are reluctant to go but when they do fire up, they're good for a new driver cos they're not fast enough to really let get you into trouble.
Next car was the Buggy :-) A Mk1 Astra 1.6. Enough power to keep an 18 year old interested but still old n feeble enough to hit the Fluffy tag. Cars of that age (made 1982, had it from 93 to 97) tend to need to stay in the cotton wool cos things might drop off. Like front bodywork under the bumper that was so rusty you could call it an ill-kempt scabrous beard.
Oh - it was fun to find out that the Buggy had a fitting end - it died in a Pillar Of Flame :-) And nearly took someone's house with it too ... It was the bloke we'd sold it to, doing a bit of welding on it. He'd left the windows open and a welding spark flew in and onto the seats ... WHOOOMMFFF ! Byebye car. No one hurt in the incident but I get the feeling Mr Welder got a few slapsies :-)
Third car was a Belmont SRi, which I took over from my mum cos it was pulling her arms out of their sockets. My arms weren't much better either cos I'd dislocated my shoulder the year before but it was an excellent car to take me through my first year of work. 1.8 litre, 130bhp, 43mpg (just got made before catalytic convertors wrecked fuel economy) and sporty suspension worked very well for me doing over 20,000 miles a year.
Back to Fluffy ... And on to a Rover 420 GSi Executive Limited Edition. Niiiice. Especially when left out with the seats in the full glare of the sun. This car taught me that Leather Seats = Scorched Arse. Lol :-) Honestly, not a bad car but terrible reliability. The mechanical failures went on and on and it did a few showstoppers on me.
Zoomzoomzoom - Puma :-) Probably my most favourite car so far, although the Astra will always keep the sentimental Buggy crown. 130bhp again and in a very effective package. When sitting behind the wheel, you feel connected to what the car's doing in a rather special way. It drove like a Road Legal Go Kart, you could predict exactly what it would do and what mad stuff it would let you get away with. It also felt like it would be cheering you on to the next Crazy Stunt (usually with a white knuckled passenger too). And on top of the sportiness, it was highly effective as a day to day workhorse too. Did 60,000+ miles in that car :-)
But - I think it's given me a few unfortunate expectations from my latest car, which is another Sporty job in the form of a Focus ST170. You'd have thought that 170bhp, traction control, 6 gears, electronic stability gubbins and other assorted toys would hold the interest but honestly ... yawn. It's not as connected as the Puma, feeling as if the driver is a lot more insulated from what's going on. The electric squirbly widgets get in the way of the driver thinking they're the one keeping the car straight.
The Prius sounds rather interesting though. It would have nowhere near the potential performance levels of the Focus with a 0 to 60 of 10.4 secs compared to about 7 for the Focus but the motors give a handy bit of Surge power. There's a 100bhp engine in there that is supplemented by 82hp of electric motor, which is actually more power than the Focus ... Interesting ...
So - lots of toys under the bonnet to give the Inner Geek Engineer something to play with (my drive to work would fit right in with the Hybrid Stuff) and toys in the car to satisfy the Cushy aspect. They're a bit expensive at £18k, so I'd need to wait a couple of years before going for one. I'll be waiting a few years anyway cos the 3 year loan for my Focus has 2x years to run. And I'll probably change my mind again before then too :-)
Last thought - bit disappointing to see that Toyota aren't saying anything about the MR2 on their site any more :-( The world needs Bad Boy cars which emphasise Fun in driving and convertibles like the MR2 are only good for one thing - driving quick with the top down.
... looks outside - sees dark dismal and rain - thinks "DOH!" ...Need bigga house, garage and Kit Car :-)
Hmm - thinking Prius, greenie stuff, thoughts of trying for 100mpg. I better do something stooopid before people think I'm getting sensible in my old age :-)
Friday, July 24, 2009
Thoughts of ... YARR Me Hearties !
Having a few dangerous thoughts at the moment ...
When it comes to buying a car, it's an unfamiliar piece of machinery, different from everything else you've driven. So you get a test drive and give it a good try out before you part with any cash. How come that doesn't seem to be possible with certain computers ?
There's 3 major domestic computer operating systems out there at the moment : Windows, Linux and Apple's MacOS. Windows and Linux are what almost all PCs will use, with Apple's MacOS being for proprietary (but now mostly Intel based) Mac hardware. Windows is a well known quantity, Linux can be tried out for free under the Gnu Public Licence (it's the package distributions that cost you money). Apple's MacOS is something you'll only be able to properly evaluate if you actually own a Mac.
The trouble is though, that the proprietary Mac hardware costs double (literally) what it would to acquire a well specced PC. Let's take a look at that :
Macbook - basic one would cost me £750. And that's for something with just a 13.3inch screen (size does matter). Everyone who knows Macs says they're wonderful, however one thing I do know is that they barely have any games available for them (which in a laptop for me might not be such a big issue)
Windows laptop - this one cost me £369, has a 17" screen and I can play games on it. Not that I do play many games on my laptop but it's nice to have the option :-). However, a 17" MacBook Pro would cost me £1,849 minimum. I could buy 5 of my laptop for the same price.
So you're paying a huge amount of money for something that involves a Leap Of Faith.
Hang on - where does that "YARR Me Hearties !" come in to all of this ? Well, there is a way you can test drive what it's like to run the Mac Operating System. It's called doing a Hackintosh and it begins a few years ago, when Apple made the Big Decision to move away from the Motorola 680x0 series and IBM's PowerPC and towards the Intel processors that everybody else uses. So what's inside a Mac is now very close to what's in a Windows PC.
Yuk - geektalk creepin' in there and this is the wrong one of my blogs for that. :-)
Right - this Hackintosh thing involves downloading a tweaked copy of the Macintosh system and then installing it on to standard PC hardware. The tweaks allow it to run with subtly different hardware to the expected Apple stuff. I've read a few things on how it works and I reckon I could do it. However, there are a few barriers :
It would mean downloading a piece of copyrighted software. Which is illegal ... And highly risky as well as all the muppets who believe you have a right to download stuff "Cos It's There" have meant that traffic monitoring is coming in much more.
It breaks the Apple licence agreement - "this software must only be installed on Apple hardware".
The IP address gets tagged as one using peer to peer filesharing software. This is the biggie ... There's a performance hit from other P2P pirates trying to get stuff from your machine, even after you stop the software. That's cos the other P2P people know you're out there, they go asking your machine for stuff and your machine has to deal with that. Performance hit.
(I do have a wayz n meanz to stop this happening but I'm not too interested in implementing it)
So the dangerous "let's have a test drive" thoughts come up against the legality behind the issue and the high likelihood that you'll leave tracks while effectively stealing your software.
On the one hand, you have the supposedly wonderful computer that costs 5x what the competition costs. On the other you have the Rational Mind saying "is it worth it ?" And one thing to answer the "is it worth it?" question would be a test drive. And I'm not talking about poking the machine in the shop and cooing at the pretty lights and the awfully nice screensaver (that I'd disable), I mean :
Sitting on the sofa in front of the telly with laptop on lap while :
Drafting up a blog post
Seeing the emails coming in
Keeping an eye on Facebook
Nattering over Windows Live Messenger
Listening to the music play over the network in iTunes
And maybe a few more things too
That's what I mean by a test drive. It's not something that's going to happen over 10 minutes in the shop, it needs the software running on a machine over a weekend. Bit like some of the deals car people were offering, where you could have a 24 or 48 hour test drive - see what it's like doing the shopping, going into car parks, fitting in the garage, behaviour in traffic. Things like that.
A Hackintosh conversion would allow you to do that test drive, albeit with a little less of the stability you'd expect from a bought machine. I'm keeping the dangerous thoughts at bay at the moment, I'll resist the temptation of downloading the Hackintosh conversion software. I like my internet connection and cable tv (same pipe), I don't want to lose it by getting caught downloading and installing illegal software ...
So how about it Apple ?
Possible customer here, wants a test drive. Won't buy your hardware until I know precisely how it may or may not meet my needs. Doesn't have to be a permanent thing, a 30 day trial would be fine.
I'm sure there's plenty more potential Mac owners out there who are wary about the Big MacOS Change who don't want to risk the extra money.
PS Linux isn't really being an option. I'd like to move away from Windows (too many quirky bugs) but I've seen Linux before. Even though it's effectively free, my Inner Geek is just going "Meh".
When it comes to buying a car, it's an unfamiliar piece of machinery, different from everything else you've driven. So you get a test drive and give it a good try out before you part with any cash. How come that doesn't seem to be possible with certain computers ?
There's 3 major domestic computer operating systems out there at the moment : Windows, Linux and Apple's MacOS. Windows and Linux are what almost all PCs will use, with Apple's MacOS being for proprietary (but now mostly Intel based) Mac hardware. Windows is a well known quantity, Linux can be tried out for free under the Gnu Public Licence (it's the package distributions that cost you money). Apple's MacOS is something you'll only be able to properly evaluate if you actually own a Mac.
The trouble is though, that the proprietary Mac hardware costs double (literally) what it would to acquire a well specced PC. Let's take a look at that :
Macbook - basic one would cost me £750. And that's for something with just a 13.3inch screen (size does matter). Everyone who knows Macs says they're wonderful, however one thing I do know is that they barely have any games available for them (which in a laptop for me might not be such a big issue)
Windows laptop - this one cost me £369, has a 17" screen and I can play games on it. Not that I do play many games on my laptop but it's nice to have the option :-). However, a 17" MacBook Pro would cost me £1,849 minimum. I could buy 5 of my laptop for the same price.
So you're paying a huge amount of money for something that involves a Leap Of Faith.
Hang on - where does that "YARR Me Hearties !" come in to all of this ? Well, there is a way you can test drive what it's like to run the Mac Operating System. It's called doing a Hackintosh and it begins a few years ago, when Apple made the Big Decision to move away from the Motorola 680x0 series and IBM's PowerPC and towards the Intel processors that everybody else uses. So what's inside a Mac is now very close to what's in a Windows PC.
Yuk - geektalk creepin' in there and this is the wrong one of my blogs for that. :-)
Right - this Hackintosh thing involves downloading a tweaked copy of the Macintosh system and then installing it on to standard PC hardware. The tweaks allow it to run with subtly different hardware to the expected Apple stuff. I've read a few things on how it works and I reckon I could do it. However, there are a few barriers :
It would mean downloading a piece of copyrighted software. Which is illegal ... And highly risky as well as all the muppets who believe you have a right to download stuff "Cos It's There" have meant that traffic monitoring is coming in much more.
It breaks the Apple licence agreement - "this software must only be installed on Apple hardware".
The IP address gets tagged as one using peer to peer filesharing software. This is the biggie ... There's a performance hit from other P2P pirates trying to get stuff from your machine, even after you stop the software. That's cos the other P2P people know you're out there, they go asking your machine for stuff and your machine has to deal with that. Performance hit.
(I do have a wayz n meanz to stop this happening but I'm not too interested in implementing it)
So the dangerous "let's have a test drive" thoughts come up against the legality behind the issue and the high likelihood that you'll leave tracks while effectively stealing your software.
On the one hand, you have the supposedly wonderful computer that costs 5x what the competition costs. On the other you have the Rational Mind saying "is it worth it ?" And one thing to answer the "is it worth it?" question would be a test drive. And I'm not talking about poking the machine in the shop and cooing at the pretty lights and the awfully nice screensaver (that I'd disable), I mean :
Sitting on the sofa in front of the telly with laptop on lap while :
Drafting up a blog post
Seeing the emails coming in
Keeping an eye on Facebook
Nattering over Windows Live Messenger
Listening to the music play over the network in iTunes
And maybe a few more things too
That's what I mean by a test drive. It's not something that's going to happen over 10 minutes in the shop, it needs the software running on a machine over a weekend. Bit like some of the deals car people were offering, where you could have a 24 or 48 hour test drive - see what it's like doing the shopping, going into car parks, fitting in the garage, behaviour in traffic. Things like that.
A Hackintosh conversion would allow you to do that test drive, albeit with a little less of the stability you'd expect from a bought machine. I'm keeping the dangerous thoughts at bay at the moment, I'll resist the temptation of downloading the Hackintosh conversion software. I like my internet connection and cable tv (same pipe), I don't want to lose it by getting caught downloading and installing illegal software ...
So how about it Apple ?
Possible customer here, wants a test drive. Won't buy your hardware until I know precisely how it may or may not meet my needs. Doesn't have to be a permanent thing, a 30 day trial would be fine.
I'm sure there's plenty more potential Mac owners out there who are wary about the Big MacOS Change who don't want to risk the extra money.
PS Linux isn't really being an option. I'd like to move away from Windows (too many quirky bugs) but I've seen Linux before. Even though it's effectively free, my Inner Geek is just going "Meh".
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Back to work - do I have to ?
Muahaha - there's always a bit of wistful thinking on the last day of a period of annual leave :-)
I enjoy what I work on and enjoy working with the people on the team but I definitely end up feeling the need for a bit of time away every once in a while. And while I am away, I'm normally telling myself off at least twice for thinking werk when I should be chilling out. I'm back tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it for a few good reasons :-)
I get to see Miss KT again and raid the canteen for Muffins and Teacakes
(I've been teacake-free for over a week now, plus I've not done any muffin-hunting)
I'll be catching up with the Snow Queen, Wild Thing, The Boss and Lady Sunshine
(I work with some great people but those 4 I enjoy talking to most)
Seeing how The Rose has been getting on
(I got a smile from the subterfuge with the nametag but apart from that, she hasn't been in much)
And I get to catch up with what's been happening over the last week
(part recreation, part serious as I compile in my head patterns of what's been happening with the kit)
So - back to work tomorrow, what have I been up to while being away ?
Shoulder and back seem less sore, these are stress related long term injuries anyway. As I get stressed, my muscles tense up which tends to kick off the back and shoulder issues. But I've had good movement in the shoulder, which is always a promising sign. I've also been keeping the RSI away through regular gaming :-) Seems a contradiction that doesn't it ? Gaming = less RSI. Seems to be working true though, if I stay away from the games, my right wrist starts to hurt. If I have a few evening sessions on a "twitch" game, my right wrist settles down.
It just goes to show - if you're troubled by a long term chronic injury or pain, then examine all possible causes to see what bearing they have on the effect. With me, my muscles like to get used or they start to complain, hence the unhappy back from not enough exercise in that area contrasting with the RSI getting better from me using the wrist to play those "twitch" computer games.
Hey - enough of pain. I try not to think too much about pain, as it gets in the way of my main "Feel Good Motivation". That one came to me a few years ago when I was desperately trying to catch up to a very pretty pair of ladies in the car park. I had a choice - I could either mope, let the pain control me, not catch up to the pretty ladies and feel "ARRG", or I could say "is it really that bad ?", block the pain and give them a big grin as I caught up. So I now try to show as little outward sign as possible of the inner pain issues.
It's all about knowing how best to motivate oneself and some days I find it easier than others. Like I'll be looking forward to getting in tomorrow morning because I'll rather quickly go hunting for a teacake ;-)
What else ? Kinda failed in one objective, which was to replace the flush lever on the loo. However, the old one is now kinda working as intended in that it returns to its start position after a flush. It's getting pretty old, so the bits that are supposed to rotate are kinda welded to each other, which is why I've not been able to replace it. The Lifter-Bit is welded to the Rotatey-Bit, so I can't switch it for the new Lever-Bit.
Tried Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO) on the urgings of a mate ... and then promptly reactivated the WoW subscription. DDO isn't such a bad game, I particularly liked the progressive quests and instancing. It falls down though in the D&D part - D&D is an excellent table top game where the pace is much slower but it can be very tough to translate that system to a computer game. WoW is just a faster, simpler, better game all round.
Bit of a shame that me heading back into WoW means I'm much less active in Eve. They're both excellent Massive Multiplayer Online games and I play both of them because they're different. WoW is a "twitch" game, Eve has a much slower pace. My interest in games tends to switch between fast pace and slow pace and I think I'm needing the faster pace at the moment.
Cricket !
It's Ashes time again, hence me seeing this week as a good one to take off :-) We had an extremely tense and exciting finish to the first Test, with National Hero Monty Panesar holding off the Aussies at the close at the other end to James Anderson. England did well to draw that game but it's looking very promising that they'll take a 1-0 lead in the series at Lords.
I have been out of the house ... honest :-)
Tuesday had me heading into the centre of Bristol to see what I could see at Cabot Circus. Not sure what it is with me and shopping at the moment, the only money I spent was lunch plus car park. I must own all the dvds and cds that I'm interested in having at the moment, although with the demise of Zavvi, HMV have put their prices up to the point where I'm not interested in the impulse buying. Or maybe it was the atmospheric conditions in the competing shop - if a shop is hot and humid, that kind of atmosphere has me walking out quickly.
I did make one other rather rapid exit from a shop on Tuesday ... I spotted someone pretty bearing down on me with what appeared to be a rather determined expression and legged it. Ok, ok, it was the Apple store, she had the long, dark hair that I'm a sucker for and I felt in danger of spending a lot of money on something I really don't need :-) I think I'll be looking into trying to turn my desktop PC into a Hackintosh to allow me to check out Apple before committing to it on my next laptop.
"YEESSSSSS!!!!" goes the cry as England take another Aussie wicket. 5 down now as Swann sends one through the gate left by Marcus North. Looking forward to England winning this one today, so I'd better get back to watching the game :-)
PS It was also good to get out of the house on Thursday to watch Ice Age 3. Not the best film but enjoyable. And it was another Crazie Movie Outing and the company on those is always great :-) We're a good bunch of intelligent oddballs and I always get on well with intelligent people.
I enjoy what I work on and enjoy working with the people on the team but I definitely end up feeling the need for a bit of time away every once in a while. And while I am away, I'm normally telling myself off at least twice for thinking werk when I should be chilling out. I'm back tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it for a few good reasons :-)
I get to see Miss KT again and raid the canteen for Muffins and Teacakes
(I've been teacake-free for over a week now, plus I've not done any muffin-hunting)
I'll be catching up with the Snow Queen, Wild Thing, The Boss and Lady Sunshine
(I work with some great people but those 4 I enjoy talking to most)
Seeing how The Rose has been getting on
(I got a smile from the subterfuge with the nametag but apart from that, she hasn't been in much)
And I get to catch up with what's been happening over the last week
(part recreation, part serious as I compile in my head patterns of what's been happening with the kit)
So - back to work tomorrow, what have I been up to while being away ?
Shoulder and back seem less sore, these are stress related long term injuries anyway. As I get stressed, my muscles tense up which tends to kick off the back and shoulder issues. But I've had good movement in the shoulder, which is always a promising sign. I've also been keeping the RSI away through regular gaming :-) Seems a contradiction that doesn't it ? Gaming = less RSI. Seems to be working true though, if I stay away from the games, my right wrist starts to hurt. If I have a few evening sessions on a "twitch" game, my right wrist settles down.
It just goes to show - if you're troubled by a long term chronic injury or pain, then examine all possible causes to see what bearing they have on the effect. With me, my muscles like to get used or they start to complain, hence the unhappy back from not enough exercise in that area contrasting with the RSI getting better from me using the wrist to play those "twitch" computer games.
Hey - enough of pain. I try not to think too much about pain, as it gets in the way of my main "Feel Good Motivation". That one came to me a few years ago when I was desperately trying to catch up to a very pretty pair of ladies in the car park. I had a choice - I could either mope, let the pain control me, not catch up to the pretty ladies and feel "ARRG", or I could say "is it really that bad ?", block the pain and give them a big grin as I caught up. So I now try to show as little outward sign as possible of the inner pain issues.
It's all about knowing how best to motivate oneself and some days I find it easier than others. Like I'll be looking forward to getting in tomorrow morning because I'll rather quickly go hunting for a teacake ;-)
What else ? Kinda failed in one objective, which was to replace the flush lever on the loo. However, the old one is now kinda working as intended in that it returns to its start position after a flush. It's getting pretty old, so the bits that are supposed to rotate are kinda welded to each other, which is why I've not been able to replace it. The Lifter-Bit is welded to the Rotatey-Bit, so I can't switch it for the new Lever-Bit.
Tried Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO) on the urgings of a mate ... and then promptly reactivated the WoW subscription. DDO isn't such a bad game, I particularly liked the progressive quests and instancing. It falls down though in the D&D part - D&D is an excellent table top game where the pace is much slower but it can be very tough to translate that system to a computer game. WoW is just a faster, simpler, better game all round.
Bit of a shame that me heading back into WoW means I'm much less active in Eve. They're both excellent Massive Multiplayer Online games and I play both of them because they're different. WoW is a "twitch" game, Eve has a much slower pace. My interest in games tends to switch between fast pace and slow pace and I think I'm needing the faster pace at the moment.
Cricket !
It's Ashes time again, hence me seeing this week as a good one to take off :-) We had an extremely tense and exciting finish to the first Test, with National Hero Monty Panesar holding off the Aussies at the close at the other end to James Anderson. England did well to draw that game but it's looking very promising that they'll take a 1-0 lead in the series at Lords.
I have been out of the house ... honest :-)
Tuesday had me heading into the centre of Bristol to see what I could see at Cabot Circus. Not sure what it is with me and shopping at the moment, the only money I spent was lunch plus car park. I must own all the dvds and cds that I'm interested in having at the moment, although with the demise of Zavvi, HMV have put their prices up to the point where I'm not interested in the impulse buying. Or maybe it was the atmospheric conditions in the competing shop - if a shop is hot and humid, that kind of atmosphere has me walking out quickly.
I did make one other rather rapid exit from a shop on Tuesday ... I spotted someone pretty bearing down on me with what appeared to be a rather determined expression and legged it. Ok, ok, it was the Apple store, she had the long, dark hair that I'm a sucker for and I felt in danger of spending a lot of money on something I really don't need :-) I think I'll be looking into trying to turn my desktop PC into a Hackintosh to allow me to check out Apple before committing to it on my next laptop.
"YEESSSSSS!!!!" goes the cry as England take another Aussie wicket. 5 down now as Swann sends one through the gate left by Marcus North. Looking forward to England winning this one today, so I'd better get back to watching the game :-)
PS It was also good to get out of the house on Thursday to watch Ice Age 3. Not the best film but enjoyable. And it was another Crazie Movie Outing and the company on those is always great :-) We're a good bunch of intelligent oddballs and I always get on well with intelligent people.
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