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.

A Reminder

I have never been much of a fan of PayPal, they act like a bank but are not regulated as one. As I needed to download the latest version of Tortoise SVN I read this on the news page. Its seems that Pay Pal arbitrarily suspended the projects donation account for very tenuous reasons. They weren't very forthcoming when he protested. Not only that but they froze the ability to access the money in the account. A terrible way to act, imagine if the Pay Pal account were the main source of funding for the project and no money could be access for 180 days. That might very well be the death knell for some industries.