cigarettes and alcohol

It was Danny's 30th birthday party yesterday evening. Held at Danny's local the Foresters Arms in Romiley (aka the piggy).
It all started at 2.30, however it involved watching Football which didn't interest me too much, so I headed down arriving about 6pm.
Using to the GMPTE journey planner to plan I took at train to Stockport then a bus to the centre of Romiley, then walked up the hill to the Piggy.

Holly, Jo, Woller and Paul were already there when I arrived, sat outside in the beer garden. Danny looked happy surrounded by friends, dressed in a dark side of the moon t shirt and a leather jacket.
Paul, started telling me about his trip to Australia, and proposal to Saskia.

Danny had arranged a Pub Golf tournament. I had heard of pub golf before but never played it before. It basically involves drinking a series of drinks, each drink has a par. The par indicates how many swigs it should take to drink. A pint was par 4 meaning it should be drunk in 4 swigs, consuming in 3 would score a birdie, two an eagle. There is a time limit on how long it takes to drink and some other rules which I forgot. I took Paul's place after he backed out I was teamed up ith Berger and two of Dans friends Abby and I think Becky. After the first hole and given most of the participants had been drinking most of the day already the competition descended into Chaos. Dan lost and won a shirt signed by his friends. There was a buffet following the golf, and a live band.

I sat and eat with the follow competitors, Paul and Holly. The band were good but it was very stuffy inside, so we headed back out to the beer garden. We tried to mingle, and I was chatting to Woller, Paul and Joe for a while though by now the effects of the golf had started to scramble my brain.

I took some not photos with my phone there are on facebook.

Holly was kind enough to offer me a lift home which was great, head feels a little sore this morning though.

Bridge Burning

My flight arrived at Liverpool airport at 6.25am about 20 minutes early. Unfortunately my dad was slightly late so I was stood bleary eyed outside the airport freezing in the early morning chill.

Was very glad to see him when he did arrive, getting back home I had breakfast tried to sleep a little wasnt able to so instead started watching some TV and relaxing. Cocoa seemed happy to see me, I gave her a long tickle. Mum must have done a good job of looking after her as her coat was very fluffy.

Bruce called me around 5 as he was going to the John Millington, so I quickly had a shower got changed and headed there on the train. Embarrassingly my debit card decided to stop working not sure why, I'll have to call them on Monday. I had no cash so had to rely on my credit card. I didnt find this out until I attempted to buy a ticked on the train, as its only one stop I didn't think I would make it when the card declined.

Phil and Caroline were also at the pub, well I say that they were there, they were pretty hung over from a night out the previous evening. Bruce and Nina were n a good mood. We all had a chat and a drink before Phil and Caroline took off. Nina Bruce and I went for a curry at the Silsila. It is a sort of modern Indian, with fish tanks on the walls and nice cutlery, I enjoyed the food very much though. I had a sort of spicy chicken dish, with pepper chilli and garlic.

Riding the train back I noticed how much work they are doing on Cheadle Hulme station. There have built towers on each of the platforms they look to me like lift shafts I think that they will run gantries between the platforms with lifts and stairs. They have been working on that station for ages I remember part of the car park being taken over for construction works while I was at college.

Leaving Poland

Had to do a few practical things today, some shopping for Kath's gran. Apparently she told Kath that as there was a man in the house he could help carry several litres of her favourite yoghurt drink from the shop upto the flat. Which I of course obligingly did. I had a huge laugh when I saw "Power fist" cleaner.


After shopping Kath showed me how to make spicy tomato soup. Which we ate with Desperadoes beer with lime and a garlic baguette.

Having upgraded my internet connection with Virgin I had a spare Dlink 615 router which I gave to Kath. It's wireless N with multiple in multiple out so should provide better connection. I got it up and running cloning the MAC address of the old one and setting up the Wifi.

Wanting to enjoy the last of the good weather we went for a walk to the Cathedral then another beer before heading back to the apartment for a long cuddle.

We had planned to go for a nice meal out at a restaurant, however we decided to go and pizza and a beer instead. Taking a taxi to the American pizza 66, and ordering there awesome quattro pizza where you get to decide on different toppings for each quarter.

When we got back to the apartment Kaths gran wanted to say goodbye. She doesn't speak English so Kath had to translate, it was very touching she even gave me a kiss goodbye. Made me feel very happy to have met all her family and be liked by them.

In order to get the flight I had to take a bus from Białystok to Warsaw airport, leaving at 11.30pm. We arrived at the Airport about 2.45am in the morning. Time for a coffee and a cuddle before I headed through security and Kath headed back to Białystok.

Visit to the lake

Today Kath and I decided to visit White River reservoirs at Zalew Dojlidy. Stopping first at the local shop to get a little picnic for lunch.
Heading out there were a few drops of water in the air but the sky seemed clear so we took a risk. Riding the bus out of the city to the more rural zone, Arriving at the lake we sat down to have a bite to eat. No sooner did we eat the first sandwich, the weather turned and wind and rain started down. We hid out under the roof of a nearby shop (which was closed due to the time of year).

Instead we decided to head to a shopping mall for a coffee then a film. There wasn't a lot to choose from so we decided to go for Limitless. A film about a man who stumbles upon a drug NZT which increases his mental capacity many fold. It wasn't a bad film, quite an interesting take on the idea. I suspect drug companies are already working on drugs like this.

After the film the weather had turned for the better so we went for a walk round the park then stopped at the jazz bar for a drink. Then to an Italian for dinner. The Italian had an awesome backwards clock



Deciding to get and early night, we watched then new Woody Allen film "You will meet a tall dark stranger". Following the lives of a family, and the influence of a fortune teller has on them. Almost the antitheses of the American, the characters explain virtually everything going on. more of a play than a film really. I don't think that it is his best film the ending left everything to the imagination of the viewer.

Fountains in Białystok

After a nice lie in we took a walk around Białystok. From Kaths apartment around the Branicki palace gardens. Since I was last there they have and are doing an awful lot of work. They have been renovating and restoring the gardens, including the fountains.

I found out that Białystok has a community wireless with free WiFi in large parts of the city. It requires only a simple signup. Result!

After the walk we met up with Kath's colleagues Paul and Joanna. We met them at a Mexican restaurant, which had featured in the Polish equivalent of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares.

Paul and Joanna were both very nice, bringing Kath her insurance form for her upcoming surgery and her timetable. They seemed like a force of nature trying to sort out there little business.

Paul told us a funny story about Kath trying to get her expenses repaid. Back in their early days of medicine they were working at a hospital out of town, they had basically no money but were supposed to have their bus tickets refunded. However as with most bureaucracy the money didn't appear. Paul goaded Kath to call and complain, so she rang and delivered a speech down the phone to the shocked women on the other end of the line.  The women seemed terribly shocked and took a minute before she responded, "I wish I could help but this is 66 Pizza!". Apparently Paul didn't stop laughing the entire bus ride home.

After Dinner Paul arranged for us to take a tour of the anatomy department where he works. It was very interesting for me to see all the anatomical exhibits, sections of brains, lungs, and various body parts pickled in formaldehyde. It must have taken a long time to section out the various parts, not to mention the drawings.

We had to get back to Kaths apartment, for 3.30 as her gran was having physiotherapy. After which Kath and I went to the awesome African Coffee house. They have coffees from all over the world, different blends and types. I took an expresso and we tried a cold coffee, with mint and coffee ice cubes.

In the evening Kath and I headed out to meet Goofy and Ella. We started in Bierhalle. Its hard not to  like Goofy, he is the life and soul of a night out. Funny even in English, and more fluent than I remember. He reminds me very much of Matt Woller. We ate and drank, chatting and laughing, while the Barcelona, Real Madrid game placed out on the TV screens. It was a fun evening we even went to another bar for a nightcap.

Gąbin to Białystok

Another day of travelling beckoned as Kath and I left the parents house and headed to Białstok. Wojtek was also heading to Warsaw back to university. The weather was hot and sunny again, the sun shone hard as we waited for the bus to Warsaw. Unfortunately the world and dog had the same idea, the bus arriving full of people.

After some debate we decided to head to Płock as there was a direct service from there to Warsaw and our train. Technically we could have taken a bus directly to Białstok. However it would mean 6 hours on a bus, so changing to the train in Warsaw seemed like a much better plan.

Kath's dad was good enough to give us a lift to Płock, where we picked up an autobus to Warsaw. Wojtek slept most of the way, so much so Kath was worried about being able to wake him up. The autobus took a few hours and dropped us all off in the Centre of Warsaw. We said goodbye to Wojtek, and narrowly missed one train. So we enjoyed a coffee and a muffin at coffee heaven. Our enjoyment only slightly dampened by the little girl begging.

After coffee we went for a wander around the weirdly shaped department store next to the central station. Killing time before the train arrived. I wanted to get a magazine so we went into a shop which sold magazines around the world. I took a copy of the economist, Kath got a copy of a womens magazine. I noticed the times on sale for 68 złotys, about £15!

We took the train to Białstok finally arriving about 9.30 in the evening. We felt pretty tired after all the travelling so ordered a pizza then had a early night.

Płock

Today we decided to go and see Kath's cousin and her boyfriend. We took along Karolina, Wojtek couldn't get out of bed.

Płock was about an hour away by bus. Briefly the capital of Poland 1079–1138, so has some nice buildings and architecture. The current source of wealth is the nearby oil refinery.

First stop was the Zoo where we met up with Kath's cousin. The zoo is fairly new and very well done. With a range of animals, Penguins, Kangaroos, Lions, Snow Leopards and a really nice butterfly enclosure that you can walk through and watch the butterflies close up. I enjoyed the Zoo, especially the Meerkats and the Pengiuns.

Karolina, got a chance to go in the petting zoo part to see the goats sheep and rabbits. She seemed to have a fun time.

After the zoo Karolina went off with her cousin while Kath and I went into the town. The weather was gorgeous and it was a nice walk from the Zoo past the Cathedral then down into the old market town. We found a nice bar with its own brewery, we tried out several of the beers. The wheat beer was really nice. Then we had a lunch, I had a highlander special, a kind of pancake filled with meat and sauce served with cabbage, it was really tasty. While we were sat we watched people playing in the fountain and squirting each other with water. Apparently it is Polish tradition to throw water over young women on Easter Monday, it ensures that they get married apparently! 

After lunch we went to see the cousins flat they had decorated. It was quite a nice place however, I found it very difficult as they spoke no English so it was a very awkward time.

We all left an attempted to get the bus back to Gąbin, unfortunately it being Easter Monday the bus we had been trying to catch wasn't running. Instead we had to wait for a while and goto a different place to get a city bus. Killing time at McDonalds, where I was able to get online. My mobile plan doesn't have roaming data so I was reliant on free WiFi. I was stuffed and just had a drink but Karoline and Kath shared a McFlurry with smarties, yummy!

After a long wait finally we managed to get the bus back, as we alighted and walked back to Kath's parents a car drove past and someone sprayed us all with a water pistol, nice!

Easter in Poland

Poland is a fairly religious country, following the Catholic faith so Easter is a really big deal. There was lots of preparation, the table was dressed. Wanda even said a prayer before we ate. The preparation took a while, there were loads of different things to eat, different meats, salads, and lots of eggs.

It was a really incredibly spread, so much so that I ate my own body weight in food.  After Easter breakfast Kath and were so stuffed that we decided to go for a long walk through the forest. This time about 5km to a nearby lake. We had a beer at looking out over the water, it was beautiful.

In the evening we watched a film with Wojtek. The American starring George Clooney as a hit man. He hides in a Remote Italian town on the run from other hit man. It had a good rating on IMDB however I didn't think it was deserved. I found it a plodding drama, with far too many silent shots of Clooney brooding. In what I felt was a vein attempt to build up the tension. I never identified with his character at all, given in the first moment he guns down a potentially innocent women.

Arrival in Poland

My dad picked me up bright and early, at 5am. I was feeling somewhat sleepy and a little achy after spending the previous day helping my parents re-roof their shed.

Everything was on time and a few hours later I walked out at arrivals to find Kath mesmerised by a pet raccoon who was waiting with its owners for someone arriving.

We had a coffee and a sandwich then headed to the bus station. Kath warned me that is was a pretty awful station and while she wasn't wrong. I looked like something out of a 70's era Soviet station. It stank, and looked more like Stalag 17. What was more interesting was part of the station includes a hostel. It looked more like a horror film, next to the bus station and railway lines, grey, ugly and dirty.

Fortunately I had Kath to keep me company. I was a bit afraid that we would end up on  one of the 70s era bus, fortunately ours was a more modern variety.

Our eventual destination was Gąbin, a small city where Kath's parents live. Easter is a big thing in Poland so Kath and I were to join them for a few days. I had never met Kath's dad before and am unused to big family gatherings so was a little apprehensive.

We arrived in the late afternoon, the weather was beautiful. Met up with Kath's mum Wanda, sister Karolina, brother Wojtek and dad Marek. It was a little overwhelming at first, so Kath and I went for a walk in the forest. Luckily they all speak English so I wasn't totally at sea.

After the walk we sat down to a traditional post Easter meal. There was no meat on Easter Saturday so the meal had lots of herring, and salad. It was tasty and different for me. 

After the meal we had  a gin and tonic and some Lithuanian Vodka in celebration of Wojtek's names day. Polish celebrate both birthdays and names day. It was very nice family time.

Wind power fails to deliver

Wind power: Even worse than you thought • The Register

Blogger mobile

Just visited pets at home to buy food for Cocoa. Mum came with me ostensibly to buy food for storm only she decided the the 20kg bags are too big. Playing with my phone I found the blogger mobile app so I thought I would give it a try. So far its pretty good, though I prefer a real keyboard over a virtual one any day.

Under cover of darkness

I just finished reading The Road of Bones: A Journey to the Dark Heart of Russia

Inspired by the painting Vladimirka Road by Isaak Levitan  Poolman and his friend Max decide to embard on a trip down the Vladimirka Road from Moscow to Siberia. Tracing the route taken by millions of unfortunate people purged by both the Tsars and the Soviets.
Max dies of cancer before the trip, so Poolman embarks on his own, and the book recounts his journey across Russia, interspersed with harrowing accounts of the dissapeared people, and the horrifying stories of lives destroyed by the oppressive regimes in Russia. Interspersed with the history his journey is interspersed with meetings with Russians each of whom has their own story to tell.
It was a really depressing read, though cathartic and moving. It made me feel glad to live in a country which doesn't persecute and march its people off to gulag simply for telling a joke at the expense of the generalissimo.

Machu Picchu

Its been a crazy week. Last weekend Kath was here, we had an amazing time together. Friday night we had a cuddly evening with Fish and chips from the new chips shop in Handforth. They were very tasty. Amusingly as we walked back with dinner, there was a gaggle of young girls outside my neighbours house having a party. We decided not to join them, and went inside to devour our dinner and enjoy a few beers cuddled up on the sofa.

On Saturday Kath and I headed into Manchester. We had a ticket for Afternoon tea at Cloud 23 bar in the Hilton Hotel. The views are pretty spectacular, and the tea and cake were very tasty. Some photos here After the tea we wondered into Manchester to do some shopping. I got myself some new trainers, and Kath got some things from Primark. We had dinner in Chiquito, then met up with Phil and Caroline for a drink.
We took the train back to Handforth and had a beer in the Railway before meeting up with Bruce for a drink in the renovated Bulls Head.
On Monday I had the day off and we went to visit Dunham Massey. A National trust property, we walked around the grounds. In an effort to find a place to park were I didn't have to pay £5 I managed to stupidly hurt my back. So I was slightly hobbling around. It was a nice walk though, the day was beautiful Spring had arrived, cherry blossoms have come out. We saw lots of deer running around. Heading into Altrincham for lunch at the Slug and Lettuce slightly spoiled by the young women on the next table who was having an argument with her dad. Moaning about the unfairness of the world. I resisted the temptation to slap her and have a rant about her!
Tuesday Kath went home, I was very sad to say goodbye, it seems to get harder everytime.
Wednesday I met up with my previous work colleagues for a sort of goodbye meal. It was a very pleasant evening at the bulls head.
Thursday I had a random message from Paul to tell me that he was coming up to see Ian. I met him Danny Jo Berger and Woller at TGI Friday at the Trafford Centre. Was really good to catch up with everyone. Having chat about what we have been upto. Jo bought Ian a wonderful book full of breasts which will make an interesting coffee table material. Wonder how Nicks' Char will think about that on the coffee table?

The Magic Treehouse

Started my new job last week, quite a different environment to the last place. From a tiny office sat with one guy to one corner of a huge open plan space. So Far I have met all my new colleagues, and busied myself learning about the project I will be working on. At this stage its all a bit overwhelming, hopefully in time I will get into the swing of things.

One of the biggest departures is that I am now dependant on an IT department. In the past I have always been an administrator able to set up things as I wanted. Now I am merely another sheep, I have to go cap in hand and ask the helpdesk to give me access to servers. Its quite strange, and more than a little frustrating. I guess it is the problem with large companies, they have to protect themselves from potentials rogues.

Adding a disk to VMWare Centos

First add the disk from the VMWare server manager

1. From the VMWare Server select the VM.
2. Choose "Add Hardware"
3. Create a new virtual disk.
4. Choose the capacity for the example 20GB.
5. Finish off

Next to get the Linux guest to recognize the disk. Assuming you already have one physical volume mounted using LVM the new disk should be /dev/sdb NB I had to reboot before the new disk was recognised. I wanted to add the new drive as an extra block of contiguous space.

1. fdisk /dev/sdb
2. n
3. primary partition
4. 1
5. accept the defaults for first and last cylinders 
6. w

Add the disk to the LVM Volume. The current disk is 20GB and I am adding an additional 20GB

1. vgextend VolGroup00 /dev/sdb1
2. lvextend -l 40GB /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
3. resize2fs /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00

Mirage

Yesterday was notable for two things. A massive earthquake hit Japan, the 6th biggest recorded since records began. The pictures of the following Tsunami sweeping houses, cars, and roads away creeping across Japan was incredibly scary. My thoughts go out to the people affected by the quake.

Life in the UK goes on though and it was my last day at my current job. What a last day so many issues at one point I had to switch off my phone and email just to try and focus. I was so stressed trying to keep everyone happy. Its one of the main reasons I decided to leave. The company policy seemed to be if someone was good at their job just give them more and more work until they drown. Still I did not want to leave with work unfinished to I pressured on and I managed to fix the final two pieces of development about 4.30pm packed up my stuff and said goodbye to everyone.

Monday morning I start off at Close Asset Management I am finding it pretty scary starting a new job after so many years working for my current company. I just hope that I am able to do a good job for them and improve my career.

Ready to start

I spent most of the weekend fixing computers, first for Charlotte then Alison. Al's pc was particularly bad lots of viruses and a lot of missing data. I used NTFS undelete to restore her music collection.

Last night I went out with Nick, Ian and Danny. Heading to the Governors house in Cheadle Hulme. Hadn't seen him for ages. It was a very funny evening, as usual blokes spent in light hearted banter.

We arrived at the bar and while I was queuing for a drink whom should appear but Hannah Fairhurst. We had a good catch up, she is getting married in only a few weeks. It seems like another lifetime when I used to hang around with them.

Ian told me about his business partners plan for a Nuclear powered cruise ship. Personally don't think it is much of a goer, a reactor might be cheap to run but would cost millions to buy, not to mention the paperwork required!

Danny made us laugh unintentionally with he stories about trying to get a test drive of a BMW. The moral of the story for me was don't kid a kidda ;)

Something strange happened on the way home, the Police pulled us over. Nick was sober so all was OK. I was last pulled over when I was a teenager!

I got home made a drunken phone call to Kath, then watched an episode of the killing. Its the first crime drama that has really gripped me in ages. The whole series is the investigation of one murder. The effects of the crime on the varies protagonists including the family friends and suspects is excellently played out.

Today I finished offf Als pc and handed it to Ian, then had an incredibly lazy day. Basically chilled out with Cocoa watching TV and reading Time. At some point in the afternoon the doorbell rang. It was neighbours kids rang my bell asking if I knew how dirty my cars was and whether I would like them to clean it. I must admit I was slightly peeved but it is very dirty. Keeping the car clean hasnt been high on my agenda. Anyway given that Cocoa had just thrown up on the floor I gave it a pass. Hope I'm not regarded as a terrible reclusive neighbour. Sometimes I think I am the wrong demographic to live in this neighbourhood. There are a lot of older people who spend a lot of time on their gardens.

Codex

Spent most of yesterday trying to recover data from a friends pc. I found quite a useful utility ntfs undelete. Using it I think I have recovered the bulk of her files.

In the evening Bruce and Nina invited us round a to watch the England versus France in the rugby 6 Nations tournament. Nina cooked a lovely spread. Spinach and Feta pie, with tomato and potato salads. It was really tasty; Two nice meals out in two days I am pretty spoilt.

I was going to catch the train round then Phil offered me a lift. Caroline was with him. She had managed to fall out of bed and bruise herself. We arrived just in time for the 5pm kick off. The match was pretty nail biting. The first half was very even, both sides making lots of mistakes. In the second half England came out stronger and took the game to France.

After the match we watch Lets Dance, and then the film Faster. The Rock plays a criminal looking for revenge after he gets out from Prison. I found the "plot" quite convoluted however it wasn't important to really follow, the film was all about the action set pieces.

I worked through a pack of Peroni during the afternoon and was a little tipsy by the time I got home. I phoned Kath and fell asleep talking to her. We try and talk every night before bed and I find it hard to sleep without saying goodnight to her.

Little by Little

Friday was my mums birthday, I bought her a copy of a book she wanted "The Road of Bones: A Journey to the Dark Heart of Russia". I picked up my parents and my mums friend Kath and we all headed to the Kathmandu Tandoori for a meal. I have never been before, but a women I used to study Japanese with recommended it. Walking in I was a bit apprehensive the décor was a bit dated. The staff were very friendly though. The menu was very appealing, I tried a rather interesting dish with noodles chicken, lamb and prawns. Mum and Kath had the chicken chilli and my dad had the prawn chilli. When it arrived, I was incredibly jealous of their meals. Not that my Chow Chow wasn't tasty, it was very nice. It was just the Chilli was so well presented, the chicken strips were nicely cut and the flavour of the sauce was great. Kath also bought my mum some books, so she will have plenty to read.

It was a really nice evening, I think my mum enjoyed herself very much.

Video: This Angry Birds Cake Is Playable. It’s also ABSOLUTELY AMAZING

Video: This Angry Birds Cake Is Playable. It’s also ABSOLUTELY AMAZING

As You Are

Found this great guide to setting up a replication mysql replication slave.

That when I started the salve I had a particular problem that I got the following error "Could not find target log during relay log initialization".

I found adding the following to /etc/mysql/my.cnf
relay-log = /var/lib/mysql/slave-relay.log
relay-log-index = /var/lib/mysql/slave-relay-log.index

Then deleting any remnants of failed attempts
cd /var/lib/mysql
rm *relay*
rm master.info

Fixed the issue.

Morning Mr Magpie

Went out to Manchester yesterday for Caroline's birthday. I met Phil Caroline and TJ at TV21 in Manchester. In a rather surreal moment I found them nestled in a mock spaceship having a few drinks.
After a few drinks in there we headed towards the station stopping off for a couple of drinks along the way.
Next stop we went took the train to Stockport then a cab to the Joshua Brook in Gee Cross. This is where the party really started, with Caroline's family and Phil's parents brother and Jules all turning out.

I managed to cadge a lift back with Jim and Jules which was very nice of them. Was pretty toasted by the time I got home, I'm not the drinker I used to be.

The International

As most of you know I have a special interest in call rates to Poland.

I have just discovered a rather bizarre disparity in Three Mobiles call costs. I am currently on PAYG, though looking at the monthly tariffs.

PAYG calls to Poland are 9pence per minute for mobiles and 2 pence per minute for landlines. That is cheaper than I can make calls to landlines in the UK.

However if I take out a contract and pay monthly the costs rises to
Voice Call. 46p / minute
Text Message. 25.5p / text
Photo Message. 35.7p / message
Video Message. 76.6p / message
Video Call. £1.50 / minute

I Robot

I have been quiet for some time, so I decided it was about time I updated where I am.

First piece of news is after 6 years working at my current company I have decided to move on. I have accepted a new position as a support developer at a company based in Northwich. It was a hard decision to make however I am pretty excited to work on something new. I will be supporting and developing a new portal.

As part of the move I will lose my current mobile phone, which is provided by my current employer. I had long wanted to get an IPhone but after two failed attempts at buying one I decided to go down a different route. I got myself a Samsung Nexus S. It is an Android phone and so far I must say I am very impressed. Its very responsive and does multi tasking really well. I was talking to Kath on Skype while composing an email an attaching a picture of Cocoa

.

My old phone is a Blackberry Storm and while I briefly had an Apple Iphone 3G to play with the Storm is the phone I draw most of my comparisons from. The Camera is much better than on my Blackberry Storm. Also much better than the Storm is the haptic feedback. The Storm uses something called "Sure Type", where you actually depress the screen. It was an attempt to give your fingers some feedback for people missing keys which depress; I believe that Blackberry have dumped this on the Torch. The sure touch thing is good for new users but actually slows typing plus over time bits of the screen don't depress so well. The Nexus has feedback in that it vibrates as you hit the navigation keys or when they are locked. The screen is a lot larger, brighter and more sensitive to the touch.

One interesting factoid is while the Storm you can hold it in any direction in landscape mode. Android definitely has a top and bottom, both in portrait and landscape mode.

The Storm was dreadful for applications. It small memory and the General lack of decent applications meant I basically only had a couple. In a couple of days of having an Android phone I am swimming in them. I can edit photo on my phone, use the GPS, call Kath on Skype (please can you add video calling Skype?), and play angry birds! I am missing some applications that are Apple only, like Speed test, though given how many Android users there are I think most applications will end up with a Android version

Most people say I am crazy but I kind of miss using ITunes for music syncing. It acts as a mass storage device I can simply drag music into the music folder.

Overall so far I am very impressed with Android, and not missing the the Blackberry one bit!

The game has changed

Virgin recently upgraded all their broadband services, and for existing customers this meant an upgrade to 30MB/s srevice for a one off cost of £30. This being a bargin I phoned up adn ordered my new device. This morning I recieved my new Virgin Media "Super Hub". Basically they have integrated the cable modem into a wireless router. Its escencially a netgear manufactured router with a Virgin branded firmware.
Annoyingly they seem to have removed the DDNS option. This is very annoying as Virgin don't do static ip addresses so getting remote access can be tricky.

I am pretty happy with the speed though, faster upload and and download

Try broadband speed test or test your speed and donate to charity at the same time.

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Visual Studio 2008 MVC SQL Error

I have been trying to follow some MVC tutorials online and got to the step about ading the sql database.
Visual Studio popped up to tell me to install SQL 2005 Express, well I have SQL 2008 Express installed. Indeed the error link redirects to 2008.

I finally found out its because I installed SQL server as the default rather than the expected SQLEXPRESS instance.

To fix this I went into tools->options selected Database tools, data connections and removed the instance name from SQL Server instance name.

If you have no idea what the instance is called you can use the SQL server installation centre, choose tools then Installed SQL Server features discovery report. This will list all the instances of SQL and features installed on your computer.

Feist - The Limit to your Love

Young Blood

Yesterday was the 22nd lan party, and it was a big one. 20 people turned out including some old faces who hadn't turned up for several years.

It was most of the usual games, mostly because a lot of new games need internet access to e played. Next lan we are going to have internet which opens up a new possibility for games. Concepts like Steam and Windows Live are killing the ability to play games offline, in the name of anti piracy, it is such a shame really. However it has forced us to make a change and pay for a phone line and ADSL for the legion. Which in turn means we are going to have to be more organised and host more regular lans. If we can do one about ever two to three months we should cover the cost of the phone line.

We tried out my new local takeaway Enjoy Pizza and Grill, they seemed pretty pleased to get an order for 16 Pizzas, 2 kebabs, 2 burgers and a bag of chips. Personally I preferred them to Pizza La Vita but I do admit thanks to the cold weather they were a little cool by the time we made it back to the legion.

The new server seemed to work OK though not sure anything can cope with people moving 85GB at a time across the network.

Punching in a dream

It has been a busy week have some big decisions to make and the stress has somewhat gotten to me. Fortunately I was able to release some tension on Friday Night as I went for a few drinks with Bruce and Nick.
We headed to the Governors House for a few pints. It was a lot quieter than last time we were there at Christmas eve, fortunately no band either. Bruce was asking Nicks advice after having some issues with the landlord of his Cheltenham flat. She wants Bruce to take time off work so that the flat can have a gas inspection. Additionally, the flat has no phone line and the TV antenna doesn't actually pick up any TV station other than Russia today and Al Jazeera. The landlord doesn't think that she should fix either of these, Nick believes that she should as they are fixed items.

Nick looks like he has managed to sell the house he was working on, which frees him up to get going on his own place. By the sounds of it he has some big plans to remodel it.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg in fan-page hack – on Facebook! | Naked Security

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg in fan-page hack – on Facebook! | Naked Security

How many Internet pirates are there, anyway?

How many Internet pirates are there, anyway?

C.L.U.

I went to see Tron:Legacy last night with Bruce and Phil. Initially I had gone round to Bruce's house to get the server ready for the Lan party next weekend. We managed to pool a lot of spare part that we had lying around to make quite a reasonable server, things are looking good.

Tron:Legacy was interesting, it has been many years since I saw the original so much so I barely remembered the plot. Only the light cycle racing stuck out in my memory. Clearly technology has moved on significantly since the first film. Legacy was a 3D, film which meant the entrance price was £9.80 (plus the cost of 3D glasses if you didn't already have them). I am still unconvinced by 3D. It looked spectacular of course, but after several hours I was glad to take the glasses off. I still see 3D as a bit of a gimmick rather than something which really adds to film. Only Avatar has really impressed me with its depth and ability to immerse the viewer in a 3D landscape. 3D did make the Grid look spectacular, but it would still look impressive in 2D.

beware maybe spoilers

The Grid is an imagining of the world inside the computer. The story starts out with Kevin Flynn explaining the story of the first film to his young son sam, before disappearing. Years later Alan designer of Tron spoke receives a page from Flynn apparently sent from a long closed arcade. Young Sam Flynn goes to investigate only to discover his fathers hidden workshop, where he is sucked into the matrix the grid.

He finds a world where his father is an outlaw living in the nether regions resigned not to fight anymore after his own program C.L.U. a digital copy of him turned against him. Kevin has spent years meditating on his failure to create a virtual world with Quorra. Quorra is the last of a digital race which manifested inside the grid, Kevin saw them as a miracle C.L.U. as a perversion of the perfect world and destroyed them in the great purge.

I think had we have gone to the Imax I might have been slightly snow blind by the end of the film with all the strong colours from the grid!

Throughout the film I kept thinking of Inception. Especially they are both films explore the power of the mind to create alternative realities. In Inception the reality are the dreamworlds, Tron has has digital world of the Grid. Both explore the nature of creating a world, and that our own minds can work against us. In Inception Cobs subconscious works against him, whereas Flynn's obsession with creating a "perfect" world ended up causing genocide.

Both are good films, and both have exception sound tracks. Trons was privider by Daft Punk who arranged an exceptional score. Han Zimmer made the haunting Inception sound track, which added so much to the film. Overall I think inception was a little smarter and more slickly put together. Inception also wins points for being more original, rather than another rehashing of an 80's era film. Tron:Legacy is a very entertaining spectacle film, which managed to have a little more depth than the average action film.

Word Problems

I had my parents round for dinner last night. I tried my hand at making a Mexican style meal, Burritos. I thought they were pretty tasty alternative to the Fajita we normally have. I didn't manage to find enchilada sauce but I did use fresh chilli rather than powder.

I wouldn't recommend Sainsbury's Tex mex dip selection though. I served it with Tortillas and found the dips pretty bland and unappealing.

It has come as a bit of a surprise to me that I actually enjoy cooking. Before I moved out of my parents I hardly made anything, and I was pretty worried about what I would eat. Fortunately I have managed to find a lot of things to make and I prepare an awful lot of my own food. I'm pretty proud of myself for not living off takeaways and ready meals.

Bone House

I just want to assure the world that I am not Judge John D. Cooke. I did not preside over the Microsoft Antitrust case. Nor am I a member of the American Criminology Society and much as your publication The Criminologist make for riveting reading I really could do without all your email.

So pretty please Judge make sure you give people the correct email address in future, okay?

Thanks!

All Terrain-Ice Cream Transport

All Terrain-Ice Cream Transport
Originally uploaded by Louis K.

Want an ice cream?

Fish Fight

Just watched Gordon Ramsey Shark bait. It quite upset me, sharks are amazing creatures so it was shocking to see the industry behind shark fin soup.
I remember diving and seeing sharks was incredible. The fact that they could be driven to extinction in the next few decades, and the manor in which the fins are extracted, cut off the live animal which is then thrown back into the water was harrowing to watch.
Personally I have never eaten shark fin soup and after seeing that video I would never. Anyone wanting to know more take a look at the shark trust and Channel Four big fish fight.

Tricks with Chmod

Found a helpful blog post with some tips on using chmod.

Just saved me ages in scripting time, excellent!

Sort Classes C#

I had a problem in C# where I needed to sort an array of classes based on one of the properties. It posed several issues, firstly the class definition came from a web service I wasn't in control of I couldn't implement IComparable which would have allowed me to use the sort routine. I suppose I could have made my own structure that implemented IComparable but given this was a quick fix I used a simple bubble sort. Not very efficient but simple and robust and given the datasets are usually less then 10 elements (and never more than 26) should be efficient enough. NB this is a cut down version that runs as a console application.


using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;

namespace BubbleSort_2
{
class Program
{
///

/// Simple Structure to represent insight
///

public class insight
{
public Name_match_indicator nameMatchIndicator { get; set; }
}
///

/// Name Match Indicator, this is from the Equifax Project
///

public enum Name_match_indicator
{
A = 0,
B = 1,
C = 2,
D = 3,
E = 4,
F = 5,
G = 6,
H = 7,
I = 8,
J = 9,
K = 10,
L = 11,
M = 12,
N = 13,
P = 14,
Q = 15,
R = 16,
S = 17,
T = 18,
U = 19,
V = 20,
W = 21,
X = 22,
Y = 23,
Z = 24,
}

static void Main(string[] args)
{
Random random = new Random();
string tmp;
// array to hold values
insight[] a = new insight[10];
for (int i1 = 0; i1 < a.Length; i1++) { //Generate a random character tmp = Convert.ToChar(Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor(26 * random.NextDouble() + 65))).ToString(); a[i1] = new insight(); //convert random char into Enumerated type a[i1].nameMatchIndicator = (Name_match_indicator)Enum.Parse(typeof(Name_match_indicator), tmp); } // number of elements in array int x = a.Length; int i; int j; insight temp = new insight(); for (i = (x - 1); i >= 0; i--)
{
for (j = 1; j <= i; j++) { //Make the Comparison if (a[j - 1].nameMatchIndicator.CompareTo(a[j].nameMatchIndicator) > 0)
{
// if they arnt comparable switch them.
temp = a[j - 1];
a[j - 1] = a[j];
a[j] = temp;
}
}
}

for (int k = 0; k < x; k++) { Console.WriteLine("{0}. {1}", k, a[k].nameMatchIndicator); } Console.Read(); } } }

Fibonacci Series Program using Recursion in C#

According to Wikipedia the Fibonacci numbers are the numbers in the following integer sequence:

0,\;1,\;1,\;2,\;3,\;5,\;8,\;13,\;21,\;34,\;55,\;89,\;144,\; \ldots\; (sequence A000045 in OEIS)

By definition, the first two Fibonacci numbers are 0 and 1, and each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two. Some sources omit the initial 0, instead beginning the sequence with two ones.

C#.NET Tutorial, C#.NET Basics - CSharpTalk.com: Fibonacci Series Program using Recursion in C#: "Fibonacci Series Program using Recursion Code"

The security gadget that UK bankers want squelched

The security gadget that UK bankers want squelched.

Pounding

It was Andy's leaving do last night. We went to the Deaf Institute on Grosvenor Street.

I was a good evening lots of people turned out to wish him the best. I had a good chat with Ian, about the perils of long distance relationships and many others things. Dave and Claire were there, digging into some pita bread as I arrived. Its the first time I have met them since they got engaged.

I asked Andy if he had managed to learn any Chinese, he told me the only thing he learned so far was the word for dog, so that he could check that is not what he is eating! I think its more Korea that you have to worry about eating dog, though the Chinese do appear to eat pretty much anything.

Danny arrived later on with a wonderful hat. I haven't seen him for ages, and he appeared to be in a very good mood.

I cannot remember a huge amount about the evening, probably to do with the large amount of alcohol I imbibed. I caught a cab home with Ian, after a quick kebab in Abduls. Which actually turned out to be the biggest kebab I have had for a long time, I couldn't even finish it.

Show Solution in Visual Studio 2008

I recently converted all our projects to use Visual Studio 2008 (a bit behind I realise!) I needed to add another project to a solution however for some reason Microsoft have defaulted Visual Studio not to display a solution if there is only one project. Fortunately this can be redressed following the advice here

Your Protector

Yesterday we went round to my parents for dinner for dinner. My parents made us a beef and yorkshire pudding dinner. It was really very tasty, we both enjoyed it very much. I love my parents house at this time of year, sitting in the living room warm by the fire.

We felt very lazy today, we stayed up last night watching bad movies on TV. So I made a nice spoiling breakfast of bacon and eggs then we played a bit of Super Mario Bros Wii. I have never really been into it but started playing it with Kath.

Andy G came round to pick up his data. I have been recovering it from Emily's old PC. The copy took a couple of hours, while we played Wii Sports. Kath surprised us both beating us at bowling, while Archery expert proved difficult for us all.

I just made dinner, tonight we had a stir fry and a bottle of White wine. Then we had some of Kath's amazing carrot cake with ice cream, heaven! Kath even took pity on me and did the washing up what an amazing girlfriend :)

Night Terror

Last year I spent New Years Eve in Poland. This year I struggled to decide how to spend it. In the end decided to stay in and invite a few people round. Kath and I went out to Stockport to buy some nibbles ad alcohol. It was very busy people going crazy for the offers, 10 cans for £7.

We got back from Stockport and rearranged the furniture and put the nibbles out on the table. With just enough time for a quick sit down and a cuddle before anyone arrived.

Joe and Holly arrived first. Jo was driving as they planned to leave in time to celebrate midnight with Holly's mothers.

I tried to get the Wii on the go unfortunately Jo thrashed me at bowling and I managed to whack Kath with the remote. The Wiimote jacket stopped it hurting her but the sound of the impact was quite loud.

Phil and Caroline arrived next, ladened with Alpha, Archers and Cheesecake. Later in the evening after we had been snacking for a while Phil picked up a can of Beer and exclaimed "there is cheesecake in my beer!". It amused me so much that I made it my Facebook status!

At the stroke of midnight we headed out into the Garden to enjoy the fireworks. The firework display scared Cocoa. She had spent the evening being the centre of attention, with everyone using the mouse on a string toy to torment her. She seemed happy to have lots of play and to get lots of strokes and attention.

We toasted New Year with the Champagne that Martin and Charlotte gave me as a moving in present. The sky was full of Chinese lanterns and fireworks.

I tried to get Phil and Caroline a taxi home but the firs three numbers I called were busy and the final firm the guy actually laughed when I asked for a taxi, customer service Fail! Fortunately the distance to Phil's house is not much further than my parents so it should not have taken much more than an hour to get home. Plus the weather has improved finally with positive temperatures.

In Sleep

Christmas Day I went round to my parents. I decided to walk, it was quiet refreshing in the snow and cold.

The walk takes about 50 minutes though there is the rather steep climb of Deanwater hill at the end. I as I crossed the bridge over the river Bollin, looking down the River was frozen over. I had never seen it Freeze before, but such has been the cold snap this year it was.

My parents did the full works of turkey, roast potatoes, roast parsnips home made chestnut stuffing, pigs in blankets, home made gravy, all very tasty.

After dinner I sat and watched TV with Storm, resting my rather overfull belly. I watch Casablanca a black and white classic. It is actually a very good film with some incredible characters and lines.

After that I headed home, had a few beers and watched from Paris with love. An enjoyable action film with John Travolta as an asskicking secret agent. Normally this is not the sort of film I would enjoy but as a brain off enjoyable film that didn't take itself too seriously.

Over And Out

Last Christmas Eve I went out to Bramhall and it was a bit of a disaster as the poor weather saw very few people turn out to Beluga in Bramhall.

This year we decided to go to the Governors House in Cheadle Hulme. Bruce picked me Nick and Ian up and we arrived about 8. The place was packed, several deep at the bar. Joe and Holly were already there nestled in a quiet corner. The only place we could all find to sit together was in the front room unfortunately there was a band setting up there. We started chatting catching up while more people arrived. The queue for the bar became 30 minutes. Bruce told me not only couldn't you get to the bar once there it was almost impossible to get back through the crush of people.

Then the band started up. Now firstly the were incredibly loud. So loud we were virtually unable to speak to one another. The band themselves weren't bad, however the choice of music was a little odd. I like Pink Floyd but I am not sure that they are the right sort of music for a Christmas Eve party. Most songs people requested were denied instead we were treated to a series of rather self indulgent (for the band) power ballad type songs. So unable to get to the bar or hold a decent conversation there evening got pretty old fairly quickly. By 11.30 we and (most other people near the band not that it gave them a hint left).

I hope we don't have some sort of Christmas Eve curse doomed to have rubbish Christmas eves! Next up of New Year, Kath will be here then so I want us to do something enjoyable, not sure what though, would welcome ideas!

Pieces of what

Feeling a bit rough today, fortunately working from home so able to cope. I went out last night for a few drinks at the Magnet in Stockport. Due to its high level of Chav Scum I wouldn't normally entertain drinking Stockport, however this place is pretty special. They had a very nice Christmas, called Champagne Christmas Ale

They had a excellent range of beers on tap, it was a friendly place. They also do a nice line in Pork pies :)

I had been invited out to meet up with some friends back from my school days. Was really a fun evening catching up and reminiscing about old times.

Do You Want It All ?

Who knew condensing combination boilers were at risk from frozen condensate pipes? I woke up in the morning to a freezing cold house, the temperature outside was sub zero. There was water dripping from the bottom of my boiler (Valliant Ecotec), and a message on screen error F.28. I looked up in the manual and the error meant that the burner could not ignite. At this point I had visions of very expensive parts, assuming of course I could get anyone to come out at all.

I had Cocoa booked in to see the vet at 9.30. She needed her booster vaccinations and a general checkup. Her last vet was in Altrincham, and though her was very good it was very stressful to take her so so far stuck in a cat carrier. So this time we went to a more local place, in Handforth. Cocoa is a house cat so I was told I probably wouldn't have to treat her for fleas. Unfortunately it appear this is not the case as the vet found signs that she has managed to pick them up from somewhere.

So by 10am I had a broken boiler and fleas! Given the time of year and the poor weather all the plumbers I called were busy. I was starting to worry I would never find anyone, however I managed to find someone. I called up a local plumbers merchants and got a few numbers from them. So I finally got a plumber and after a few minutes they worked out the problem. The pipe that carries the condensate outside was frozen backing up water into the burning chamber. A few minutes with a blow torch heating was restored. I'll know what to look for next time, and I have already lagged the pipes to try and stop them freezing again.

Chilli Freak

Patents on software are something I have argued against for a long time. Apart from stifling innovation. Copywrite protect developers while patents grant a monopoloy sometimes on vary spurious grounds for 20 years. I also appears that only large companies are able to enforce patents anyway. The register has this article patents do not protect small firms/.

Civilisation 5 Patch now out

Firaxis is launching a massive patch for Civ 5 which addresses a lot of the criticisms about he clueless AI. This patch list has so many fixes but one of my personal favourites is
"New “Angry Genghis” loading screen (replaces the “fluffy-bunny Genghis” loading screen)."

There are also some fixes to reduce the memory footprint so hopefully that will stop the game from crashing later on (something which has all but stopped me playing.

Some commentary on Ars Technica here

Hannibal

Ever needed a fake number but worried about making one up that is actually somebodies real number? Ofcom has the answer, a list of Telephone Numbers for use in TV and Radio drama programmes

The lighthouse

Yesterday was full of unexpected surprised. I got two presents, Kath bough me a new sports bag. My old one was literally falling to bits, I have been uysing it since I was in high school. She got me a nice new Puma one, I really like can't wait to try it out at the gym tonight.

I also got a second parcel from Lulu. She sent me a CD with photos form her wedding and a cap from the Shanghai expo. I didn't have a chance to check out the photo yet so more on them later.

Not sure where this year has gone too, seems to have gone by so quickly, already nearly Christmas. Fortunately thanks to the internet I have already bought all but a few presents.

Dry and Dusty

Ars Technica have an interesting look of the effect of cognitive dissonance . For those not familiar cognitive dissonance is the state of mind where you hold two conflicting views on a subject. This can be anything from buyers remorse after an expensive purchase, you wanted it but are then guilty. The study had people in an MRI scan while rating items then having them compare items with the same ratings. All goes to show the brain is a strange and complex beast.

Old Stone

Just in case you were worried about getting sued after clearing the snow away from your drive, the government have helpfully produced a best practice guide

There's no law stopping you from clearing snow and ice on the pavement outside your home or from public spaces. It's unlikely you'll be sued or held legally responsible for any injuries on the path if you have cleared it carefully. Follow the snow code when clearing snow and ice safely.

Profiler for Mono

Saw a great blog about writing a profiler for Mono. I would love to use something like this to profile our software. One day I will.

Tumble and fall

I read this article on Ars Technica. It made me think how much the world has changed even in my lifetime. When I was young the big fear seem to be drugs. The media was obsessed with "drug fiends" junkies who would prey on normal society do anything to get their fix. There was the myth of the first time being free as if dealers were lurking around giving out drugs like candy.

Somewhere in the last decade thought the fiend focus seems to have shifted. Nowadays the big fear is that somehow paedophiles are lurking ready to pounce on young children. This has caused all sort of reactions from the banning of parents being able to video tape their children in the school nativity play, to children being prevented from playing outside. Most of these fears are irrational, the chance of a child being snatched away are infinitely small especially compared against the risks of say crossing the road. Plus locking use all away in hermetically sealed boxes actually stops children developing the skills to deal with risky situations.

I hope when I am a parent I am able to be rational, judge the real risks and not live my life in fear that some unknown force is going to get me. Obviously there are risks in life. Would I be the person I am if I was more conservative as a child? I used to play in the fields, had a rope swing over a pond which was deep dirty and dangerous, I feel in and it could have gone the wrong way, but it didn't nor does it for the majority.

Safe without

I finished Wolf Hall last night. At 650 pages it is a bit of an epic, but well worth it. The author Hilary Mantle has managed to take a well known piece of history Henry XIII wives and put a new spin on it. The main character (though there are a lot of characters in the novel) is Thomas Cromwell. She manages to turn what could be very dull historical moments like Parliament sessions into dramatic and interesting scenes. Building a portrayal of 16th century England which is accessible and interesting. Opening with his childhood, abusive father and trip overseas. Then switching to Thomas as a 40 year old in the service of Cardinal Wolsey. Thomas stays loyal to Wolsey despite his fall from grace after failing to obtain a annulment of Henry XIII and Catherine of Aragon.

I found it to be a page turner and was sad in a way to reach the end. I can certainly understand why it won the man booker price in 2009.

There are much better reviews than I could write by the Gaurdian and Telegraph

Firework

Kath got me a surprise gift cannot wait to load it up with some tunes and take it for a spin. Its almost 10% the capacity of my iPod 3rd generation but smaller than the wheel should just clip to my shorts while I am at the gym, amazing! Thanks so much!

Coffee and a sweet treat to think better?

Caffeine and glucose combined improves the efficiency of brain activity

According to this piece on ScienceDaily (2010-11-24) The combination of caffeine and glucose can improve the efficiency of brain activity, according to a recent study in which functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to identify the neural substrate for the combined effects of these two substances.

All the more reason for a coffee and a cake :)

Golden Platitudes

It is my birthday today and I have been greeted by lots of lovely Facebook messages. I guess with site like Facebook it is getting more simpler to remember when peoples birthdays are. Still it ways a pleasure to get lots of nice messages so thanks everyone!

Bit worried about Kath today she has some stomach bug, wish I could go and make her feel better.

I got really angry with work today, there are some problems and unfortunately I took it out on someone else which is always a bad idea. I will have to apologise next time I see them.

Currently fighting a weird issue with NHibernate, for some reason it refuses to save my IDictinoary child objects. It Saves other things correctly just not IDictionaries, very odd. I even bit the built and tried upgrading to a later version which caused a few breaking changes. At least through the magic of Spotify I have been able to listen to the Manics all day to take the edge off.

Kind of glad I didn't stay up for the start of the Ashes last night, like my colleague I gave up after Andrew Strauss was out after the third ball.

Zombie Bite Calculator

Created by Oatmeal

Crystal Castles - Not In Love ft. Robert Smith

Crystal Castles - Not In Love ft. Robert Smith

Chromatic

I woke up this morning to the news that North Korea had shelled South Korea. I remember reading a long time ago about the Korean war and how devastating it was. The use of incendiary bombs, and a scored earth policy levelling most of the North and parts of the South. There is a good article on History News Network. Surprising the almost casual use of Napalm and even the consideration of using Nuclear weapons to destroy Chinese forces and create a radioactive divide between Korea and China.

Do You Want It All ?

Sunday Morning and I feel achy, my knees are sore and my back is killing me. Would like to say I was at some crazy rock concert jumping around like a mad man. Instead I spent most of yesterday in my loft crawling about wearing googles and a facemask while laying insulation. So hopefully the house will be warmer now.

I used two different types of insulation, some mineral wool I bought a while back and the other recycled plastic bottles. Having used both I would say the plastic bottles are lass itchy but way more of a pain. Harder to cut and more elastic so as soon at the roll is out of the plastic is expands quickly unfurling itself.

Hopefully it will be worth it. Being the cost of the materials was about £40's it shouldn't be difficult to recoup the costs.

Skype on Fedora 14

I was getting an error after installing Skype "Failed to execute child process “skype” (No such file or directory)". Fortunately a quick google search lead me to the answer here

Ballmer and Gates: Here's why we're not breaking up Microsoft

Ballmer and Gates: Here's why we're not breaking up Microsoft

The Suburbs

Tuesday

Kath Has been in the UK Since Tuesday and here is a blog of our adventures together. I picked her up from Liverpool airport Tuesday night. It was a cold evening, colder in the UK than in Poland. It is always a great feeling to see her waiting for me. By the time we got back from Liverpool it was getting late so we got ourselves fish and chips from the big fish which is an awesome chippy.

Wednesday

Unfortunately I couldn't get any time off at the moment so I had to head into work. Kath walked into Handforth at lunch time and we went to Konak Cafe. I had a tuna melt panini while Kath had a Club sandwich. Both were very tasty but I think the club sandwich was a bit special.
In the evening we had planned to meet Nick, but he had come down with a bad cold so instead we went shopping. The plan was to make a nice pie have a couple of beers and enjoy each others company. However on returning one of the beer bottles managed to escape through the bottom of the shopping bag, exploding beer and glass all over the kitchen. It also chipped one of the floors tiles which was very annoying. Fortunately after the clear up and consumption of the remaining beer (and pie) we were able to laugh about it, in fact it was a very giggly evening, triumph from catastrophe.

Thursday

My parents invited us for dinner. They made beef bourguignon which was very tasty. I showed Kath what my dad and I had bee upto converting my old room into an office. It looks really good now the bookcases are all built. Just need my dad to start moving all his stuff in.
Had a lovely evening with them, and storm doggy.

Friday

We decided to meet up with Andy Gilmore in Manchester. Taking the train was an experience, it was late by nearly 30 minutes, which is actually longer than the journey time to Manchester. It started to feel a bit cold stood on the platform. There were mostly young lads in groups ready for a night out. By the smell of it there was a lot more than tobacco was being consumed in the train shelter :D
We finally made it into the city and started walking to meet Andy on Market street there seemed to be an endless crowd of people all going in the opposite direction. It was amazing I had never seen so many people. Fighting the crowd we finally met Andy near boots, apparently the crowd was due to Joe McElderry switching on the Christmas lights.
After all the delays we were all getting pretty hungry so Andy suggested Sam's Chop House. It was pretty busy but we managed to get a table after a 20 minute wait. I had never been before and I was mightily impressed. Descending the stairs into a warm friendly pub setting. The food was hearty, tasty food and excellent service. I had a steak, Andy Steak and Kidney pudding and Kath tried the sausage and mash. I really enjoyed it. Andy had some big news for us, he has a new job which is going to involve a move. Seems like an amazing opportunity for him so I wish him all the best thought I will miss meeting up with him, despite the fact we dont do it often enough. After the meal we had another drink in the Ape and Apple before leaving Andy to catch the train home. Being slightly early for the train we had a nightcap in the balcony bar before catching the train, which was bang on time.

Saturday

Given we had enjoyed such a good evening there we decided to take spend the Day out in Manchester.
Kath wanted to go to Primark as it it cheap even compared to Polish prices. Unfortunately the rest of the world seemed to have decided the same thing the queues were immense. In spite of the crowds Kath managed to find some pretty tops and some lovely underwear.
This earned me enough brownie points that she offered to buy lunch. We headed to the print works and decided to try the food at Papa G's. A kind of Greek Cypriot restaurant they did a lovely line in cooked meat and bread. Service was rapid and the food was edible, thought I felt like it is basically an up-market kebab house.
After lunch we walked around bit then went into M&S o I could buy a few shirts for work, no Christmas shopping yet.
We did a lot of walking I tried to show Kath a bit of Manchester, from the Gardens to St Annes square, the Town hall Lincoln Square. Then a tour round Manchester Art Gallery.
Amazingly during our wonder, I bumped into an old friend, James Kay someone I have not seen in something like ten years. Strangely enough I had only been talking about him the night before as I just ordered Goldeneye for the Wii a game we used to play obsessively in my college days. Strange as it was to bump into him at least he lives in Manchester, the next people we meet were fresh up from London Paul, Saskia and Andy Fletcher were also in the Art Gallery as we walked in. They had come up to see Andy as it was his birthday.
I must make an admission despite living in Manchester all my life I had never been round the gallery before. So it was very interesting. I liked to see the Painting by Edwin Landseer done before casting the bronzes which sit at Nelsons column in London. You can certainly see how wealthy the Manchester corporation was to amass such a collection. I thought it was interesting the ornate way the works are framed with placards at the bottom.
After walking around the various galleries we started to feel tired to headed home stopping off at Cafe Nero for a Chai Latte before taking the train home.
I made us dinner while Kath packed (and was kind enough to do some ironing for me isn't she wonderful!). Dinner was spicy prawn and garlic stir fry with rice noodles. I think it is one of my better dishes, we both enjoyed it.
I felt very sad in the evening knowing I would soon have to crop Kath off at the airport and revert back to my solitary existence. We stay pretty close while she is in Poland, talking often by text phone and the internet, but nothing quite matches the intimacy of being physically close, holding her in my arms.

Cannot log into SQL Server following SSL certificate installation

I managed to lock myself out of sql server on one of our servers. I got the following error on login with the following error "A connection was successfully established with the server, but then an error occurred during the pre-login handshake"

After a lot of googling I finally found that the issue was that I had installed a self signed certificate using the Windows 2003 resource kit. Due to the fact SQL server uses ssl certificates to secure the login my certificate had broken my ability to log in.

Following the steps listed in this Microsoft Knowledge base article fixed the problem. Essentially stop sql server, removed the certificates regenerate (ensuring to use the identifier as listed in IIS manger on the S parameter of selfssl e.g. C:\Program Files\IIS Resources\SelfSSL>selfssl.exe /N:CN=YOURSEVER /K:1024 /V:7
/S:1899305700 /P:443) then restart sqlserver.

Crayon

According to the Guardian Musical releases from the show Glee have now managed to beat one of the Beatles records. The fictional high-school glee club has amassed 75 top 100 singles, trouncing the Beatles'; record of 71.

Given for a moment Glee is all about releasing cover after cover of previous hits songs (including two penned by Lennon and McCartney). What does this say about our changing music, and indeed cultural habits. Have spectacle shows like Glee and the X Factor taken over from the business of actually producing music for good or is this just a passing phase?

Free Ebook Programming Windows phone 7

Charles Petzold author of the definitive programming Windows books has a free ebook on programming for the new Windows Phone 7. You can download it here

Rest My Chemistry

I got my dad to switch to three, after giving him an IPhone 3G for his birthday. I recommend that he switch to Three from Orange as they have very good offers on data tariffs; he was mostly interested on having email on the move. Apparently it is not only me recommending Three mobile network, according to the register they have just been named the best network in a YouGov Poll.

Lets get some anecdotal evidence, to any Orange users reading this, are you happy with your network?

Like this like that

For anyone in the market for the an iphone 4 the website topcashback* promises £100 back for contracts taken through e2save. This works for Orange, TMobile, Vodafone and O2 but unfortunately not for Three who currently have the cheapest iphone 4 deal (yes I know officially Tesco have a cheaper one but finding one seems to be as difficult as locating the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!).

Moneysavingexpert have a great comparison of the iphone deals here

Personally I really want one, but like the government I am going through my own personal deficit reduction so taking on a new contract is out for the time being.

NB this is a referral link which means I get a kickback if you sign upto the topcashback site.

Vuvuzela

Interesting article on why the Royal Navy must cut down on total ship in order to build two aircraft carriers

On a related but less important pondering, to me it is one of the curiosity of CIV that plans cant obliterate shipping.

Notepad++ Compile

I saw this tutorial to set up the compiler and allow Notepad++ to compile files using csc http://www.dreamincode.net/forums/blog/334/entry-1946-codetalk/ (link is now dead you can view on waybackmachine).

Machete

Yesterday I spent the day finishing off a wiring job. One leftover thing I had never finished was to rewire the lights my bedrooms. I needed to do this before I can add extra insulation to the loft (which I would like to get done before winter sets in). It was a fiddly job spent in the dirty and dark loft, awkwardly trying to balance on bits of wood so as not to fall through the ceiling. I was glad to finally get it done though another job off the list.

In the evening I went round to Bruce, we played the F1 games for the Playstation 3. I found it like a lot of modern racing games the realism has detracted from the fun in playing the game. After a few rounds we decided to watch a film, Bruce chose Machete. A Robert Rodriguez film, it s a sort of Mexploitation tale of a Mexican Federale who after losing his family find himself embroiled in a complex plot. This is a gory action with ultra violence, linked to a question about immigration parodying the stupidity of people on both sides of the debate.

It was a little over the top for more tastes, but not terrible, avoid if you don't like gore though!

Civ V

Finally managed to start playing Sid Meier's Civilization V, so far its excellent. Civilization V is the latest incarnation of the Civilization series. I have been playing since getting hooked on Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Complete (PC). SMAC followed Civ two coming before Civ III, and it hooked me. Phil and I used to play for hours, famously we once played until 4am and he had to work the next day (I had university I think I did make it to lectures somehow).

The graphics are greatly improved, the world map looks great. They have streamlined the whole game, removing the spying and religion features. Personally I think that this really helps make the game simpler and more fun. To get you going Advisors pop up to help make recommendations on their areas. The main thrust of the game remains the same however, starting from a lone city in 4000BC build up our Civilization into an great power.

One of the biggest improvements is the battle options. The unit counts are reduced to a more sensible one per tile, so no more stupid 20 unit stacks crushing your cities. Units cost more so it more important to keep hold of them upgrade them. Tactics now seem to be favored over swamping enemies with units.

There is one new feature, city states. These are computer controlled cities which can be interacted with in a variety of ways, befriending, trading or attacking.

The only issue that I have had so far is the games stability. I rally enjoyed Civ IV I wasnt sure how they could improve it, but they have managed to tweak the game in all sorts of wyas to make it a simpler and more fun experience while still maintaining the essence of what makes Civ uch a good series. If you like god games this is one of the best!

That would be something

I have just finished reading White Noise  a book which according to the reviews is either modern classic or dreadful. Personally speaking I would rate it good, not great nor dreadful. White Noise was published in the 80s so is a story very much of its time. It focuses on Jack Gladney a lecturer on Hilter Studies, his family life. Its a very black comedy using satire to deconstruct many aspects of modern life. If anything some of the comments are even more cutting now in an age of Facebook and Twitter the in 1980s pre mobile phone revolution.

Gladney has a tangled family life, a collegue / friend who lectures in car crashes, yet is terrified by his own mortality.

I enjoyed the story, I also enjoyed reminiscing about the 80's, I could certainly relate to some of the scenes of family interaction, though not the multiple marriages fortunately my parents are still together. It is weird to think of a time before mobile phones, before the internet dominated. Now if I don't know something I ca look it up in minutes, growing up I had to spend hours in the library researching.  I wonder what is coming next?

o.O

Dream is collapsing

Went to see Bruce and Nina last night, they invited me around for dinner. She made a chicken curry, it was not bad little

After dinner we watched TV culminating in watching the Mixed marshal arts final with Alex Reid versus Tom Watson. I expected Kaite Prices partner to get his pretty boy ass kicked in good style. In actual fact he put in an incredible fight, trading blow for blow and absorbing huge amounts of punishment. I really enjoyed it, not sure if I preferred it to boxing, but still was good savage fun.

I have to work again today, so off now back to the office.

Save Me

It is Saturday, at home a have a brand new copy of Civ 5 ready to be played. Instead I sit alone in an almost empty office, trying to hit a deadline. t least with no colleagues I can listen to some music on Spotify and eat junk tasty food from the Bakery next door.
The good news is work is progressing well so with luck I will have something ready for Monday morning.