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Linux Ubuntu and the C902
Mood: tired
Music: The Knife - This is Now
Sony Ericsson being what they are make pretty good phones. I have been using their phones for a while now. I swapped to the C902 in an upgrade deal from my current provider, 3. Nice phone, does a lot except for one. Play nice with Gnu/ Linux / Ubuntu.
It plays nice in 3 out of the 4 USB modes it has, normal phone mode (modem mode), MTP mode, Pictbridge and not in the most useful one, Mass Storage mode.
I have been annoyed at this for a while and in the end I decided to submit a Kernel patch to make hte device work. SO here I am writing some code to benefit others! I feel like I am making a contribution to the community. :D My customised kernel is compiling as I type. Hope it works! More later.....
New Computer
Mood: Tired
Music: William Towns - Gearbox
I built my new computer two nights ago and set up Windows (and games) last night. I was expecting a quantum difference to my computing experience after it was built.
I experienced this difference going from a 650MHz Intel Pentium 3 to a 1800MHz AMD Duron. It was blazingly fast with bells and whistles. However going from the Duron to a Core Duo 3GHz the same jump was expected but it wasn't sluggish but it wasn't great.
Half Life 2 still takes a while to load. Steam takes forever to start up and the graphics in games are not much different to what I had on my previous machine.
I believe (and hope) that it is a perception thing and if I do a side by side test I will see the differences. It might be because my new machine is driving a 22" monitor. :D (Results of test to follow)
AutoCAD woes
Mood:
Music: Radiohead - The Bends
Today I got so annoyed with AutoCAD that I had to fix the problem rather than ignoring it. AutoCAD has global values for linetype scaling and these in my practice are set to 10. LTSCALE = 10. This is a global office wide thing so all drawings look the same. However there were two drawings that had the same setting but both looked different?!? Huh?!? So maybe I thought, try the measurement setting, this changes it from feet and inches to metric. Annoyingly AutoCAD comes by default setup to feet and inches so if AutoCAD resets itself for some reason, say after a crash it can default to feet and inches. MEASUREMENT=1 is the setting required for metric. This still did not solve my problem. Then I read an article that stated, reload the linetypes! Wicked that worked. What a faff. :(
Moving house, new job and music
Mood: happy
Music: Chicane - Stoned in Love
Hmmm where do I begin? I am currently moving to Southfields as I am currently working in Fulham at GHK Architects. Seeing that rent is inordinately high (everywhere in the UK but major cities especially) I thought I would buy and hence my location. I am currently buying a flat and will do it up as I want to! Yay! My own place at last.
So its all change here. I have a new job, and nearly have a new house! All I need now is a new MP4 player....
I have narrowed the search down to the following three players, as my requirements are fairly stringent; Cowon D2 8GB, Samsung YPP2 8GB and the Meizu M6SL 8GB. All have their pros and cons. I might write up what I have found in my internet searches here. Someone might find it useful.... Not sure which to get still?!
Les Mystérieuses Cités d'Or
Mood: tired
Music: Dire Straits - Telegraph Road
Well it appears that my long awaited DVDs of the Mysterious Cities of Gold has turned up from HMV, a little late but I am not that fussed! I have waited 15years for this so whats a few more days!
Apparently I am Mendoza. Pfft.
Which Mysterious Cities of Gold Character are you?
Take this quiz!
Keeping up with the masses
Mood: awake
Music: Scissor Sisters - Laura
Well I have now successfully acquired a job and am now in the throws of getting somewhere to live. Currently am flat sharing in Southfields with an Italian and a South African. Cultural diversity in such a small area. :P Whilst the guys are nice I am looking forward to my own place again. Plus I get internet back so I don't have to do things like this at work. Mark you starting at 9:30am is great and means I get to sleep in and then surf before work.....
Made my first London mess up yesterday. My thinking was, get on the Tube at the front of the train and thus I have less to walk when i get to my destination.... Me and everyone else must have come up with that. The front carriages were REALLY packed. meh. Sardines come to mind..... Oh well won't be doing that again in a hurry. :D
Do you find those stripes annoying?
Mood: thoughtful
Music: Dire Straits - Telegraph Road
Gnome whilst being good for most things has a couple of annoying "features" or lack thereof.
Firstly Nautilus in Gnome has a drop down on the right to select between "View as List" and "View as Icons" but it really needs to have a "View as Preview" as that would make managing multimedia, especially pictures much easier. KDE4 has a nice new file manager called Dolphin which might push me over to KDE once they have ironed out the bugs in the shiny new Desktop Environment of KDE when it gets to 4.1
On another note I installed "slab" (gnome-main-menu) today and have a different starting menu, its a bit like the XP and Vista menus, I will probably switch back at some point though.....
Anyway the other annoyance I have had in Gnome ever since I have been using it is that in any list the DE provides there were horizontal stripes, or bars that made my eyes loose track of the items. Other people find them OK or do not even notice. However today was exciting as I discovered how to remove them! And here is how.....
Guide to Removing Nautilus (Gnome) horizontal bars in list view:
Note: This is not for those faint of heart as it involves editing system settings.
1) Right, you need to find out which "Controls" your theme is using. To do this go to "Appearance Preferences", click "Customise", go to the "Controls" tab and note the name selected. Take note of this name as it will be needed for the next step. Cancel all and close the "Appearance Preferences" box.
2) Go to home directory. Go to .themes and then the name found in step 1. Go to the gtk-2.0 directory. There should be a file here called gtkrc. These are the settings for how your theme displays colours etc.
3) Make a backup before editing this file. Open this file and search for the following "GtkTreeView::odd_row_color". If it does not exist just add the rows below to the default section, look for GtkTreeView if its a complex file, if it does have them make them match.
GtkTreeView::odd_row_color = "#ffffff"
GtkTreeView::even_row_color = "#ffffff"
This will make both rows white and therefore match the default background colour. If your default background is different to white, look for "base[NORMAL] = "#FFFFFF"" and then match the colours from that.
London or Bust
Mood: happy
Music: Brazil 2001 - Penetration
After recovering from the flu which I had before Christmas, I decided to continue my plan to move from Edinburgh back to the South of England, chiefly London. I can then see my parents and friends who live in South West England. After a couple of weeks of job hunting I now have a job in London at GHK and am nervous and excited all at once. Now to find somewhere to live.....
20000 Song on Last.fm
Mood: Happy
Music: Electric Light Orchestra - Turn To Stone
Electric Light Orchestra – Roll Over Beethoven made it as my 20000 song scrobbled on Last.fm! Woooo! Next target 30000 :P
Ubuntu Gutsy
Mood: happy
Music: Bond - Kashmir
After upgrading Ubuntu to the next version 7.10 or Gutsy, in which I had to manually do so, I had several problems which whilst I attempted to fix I began to pull my hair out.
So I bit the bullet and resinstalled Ubuntu deleting the previous install.
I should have done this in the first place, and read the warning signs from the fact that the update program was crashing. I ignored that and updated manually only to get weird errors with firefox and Thunderbird not starting as their startup scripts were in the wrong place and Openoffice crashing when browsing for templates.
The install process was soooooooo easy. It makes installing windows look hard. The hardest part was setting up the partitions but for a newbie there is even a guided process! What I thought was great was the migrate documents and settings from windows wizard. That was smart. I have been saying for a while something like this should exist.
Most of settings returned as they are stored in my home directory on other drive. What was great was the fact that Ubuntu said "Do you want to enable restricted drivers?" for my nVidia card. No fiddling with the settings using the terminal all automatic. Very nice. Very slick. It even detected my Wireless card and offered to use drivers for that! I had forgotten I had that card in this machine. 
The only thing I had to do manually was edit the mpd settings and manually recreate the music database.
I reinstalled, Sonata, MPD, K3B and Thunderbird using Synaptic and that was a breeze.
Ubuntu has come a long way since I first started using it about 2 years ago.
You can even try it using the live CD now!
Last.fm Nonsense
Mood: nervous
Music: Hank Marvin - Into the Light
I discovered that there are loads of really cool useless ways to analyse your listening data from last.fm :D
ATB
Afterlife
Air
Aphex Twin
Armin van Buuren
BT
Banco de Gaia
Bent
Blank & Jones
DJ Sammy
DJ Tiësto
Daft Punk
Deep Forest
Delerium
Energy 52
Enya
Era
Faithless
Fatboy Slim
Ferry Corsten
Fragma
Genesis
Groove Armada
Ian Van Dahl
Jakatta
Jam & Spoon
Kitaro
Lasgo
Leftfield
Massive Attack
Mauro Picotto
Moby
Paul Oakenfold
Peter Gabriel
Rank 1
Robert Miles
Salt Tank
Sash!
Sasha
Solar Stone
System F
Tangerine Dream
The Chemical Brothers
The Future Sound of London
The Prodigy
The Thrillseekers
Three Drives
Vangelis
York
iiO
Generate your own recommended artists musical cloud. 
Get your own graph at Last Graph
Sudden showers
Mood: bouncy
Music: Delta Goodrem - Throw It Away
I know know there has been weird weather recently but raining sawdust? ? ? 
Transformers
Mood: bouncy
Music: 4 Strings - Colourblind
Woooo! Just seen Transformers (the new movie) and it is TOTALLY AWESOME! Brilliant. Its like a giant mecha fest version of Independence Day. Plus it makes me want a Chevy . :D
Digging the road (again)
Mood: annoyed
Music: Sonata Arctica - My Land
I now know where the council wastes its money. It continually does things several times and then gets a hefty manpower bill.
A short while, about 8 months ago, the council spent a reasonable amount of money, repainting the road and putting up signs and cash eating machines, all in aid of creating a residents parking only area. Being mainly tenement parking the street was nigh on empty post this exercise. Makes you wonder what the exercise was in aid of? Extra revenue me thinks.
Anyway.
Shortly after that, about 5 to 6 months ago they started to dig the road up to relay the cobbles on the road. Most of the cobbles were to be reused which meant the paint on each cobble had to be removed, by hand. This took a team of many many many people. What a waste of time. They have only managed to relay half the street in the last 5 or 6 months too. Slow progress cleaning and relaying cobbles.
The road surface was so uneven it slowed people down, however now that they have sorted the surface out they have had to put speed bumps in. This also means they have to put up warning signs that it is a speed reducing area. They did that today.
Made a mess of a guys black Saab by getting dust all over it. I love the total dedication to health and safety. 
Yeah! Lets get the power saw out and use it without goggles and wave it around whilst on in an environment where you can hardly see..... 
the tooth saga - part 2 revenge of the dentist
Mood: hungry
Music: Natalie Imbruglia - Big Mistake
Well after talking to my friends in Edinburgh it was suggested that I went to the Chalmers Street Dental Centre for treatment. This was due to the fact they took people in an emergency rather than booking them into an appointment in the far future. The dental practice near to my work could not see me until next week. Anyway. I went this afternoon and the nurse I saw suggested that I come back this evening as the pain had not receded. I still had a throbbing pain at this point. I was booking in for a 7:40pm appointment! People still working at that hour on a Friday!
At this point I had not eaten since lunch as my mouth was sore.....
The dentist took one look at the tooth and said "It would be best if that came out immediately as if left you are going to get more problems and it might get worse." Erk! remove tooth now?!?!? Oh noes. So it was removed with a crack and other awful sounds. Local anaesthetic rocks. However due to me not liking dental treatment and having not eaten plus the fact I had some shock from the tooth removal I nearly fainted and gave the poor dentist and his nurse a fright. I then proceeded to gag on the swab and that finished me off and I collapsed. They lay me down until I got my colour back.
The nurse then suggested I wait in the waiting room for a while until I recover. It was also suggested that I got a friend to pick me up. So I texted Fee, who was currently in a car with her friend and I was picked up and taken home!
Two Thirty
Mood: tired
Music: Machinae Supremacy - Sidology Episode 2 - Trinity
If i recall correctly about three weeks ago I complained to my friend that my teeth were hurting and he suggested that I go to the dentist. Well I didn't and went on holiday instead. Probably should have set up a check up, but that takes about 3 months to wait and what ever was wrong with my teeth at the time would have gone away. I should have regular check ups but I hate the dentist. Anyway these things come back to bite you....
Last night I spent a large portion of the night writhing in pain from my rear top left wisdom tooth coming through. I don't remember teeth coming through being sooo painful. Even dosed up on painkillers it was close to unbearable. I ended up half lying on my sofa as lying down hurt more. Also I cannot believe the speed at which it come through. At first I thought it cannot be my wisdom tooth but after checking i found it half out and slightly skew angle. It righted itself and got most of the way out in about 5 hours! Well that it what it felt like anyway. :D
blah
Mood: sleepy
Music:
I just got back from Israel! Wooo! What an amazing experience. Post for that will come at a later point. (BIG post). What do you think the first thing I did was when I got back? That's right. Not go to bed, seeing that I had been up 24 hours travelling. Nope. I turned the computer on checked my emails and got sucked into Facebook (again).
The reason why I was up late travelling was that we visited Caesarea Maritima in the morning then caught a flight that arrived in the UK at 10 (UK time), and my connecting flight to Edinburgh was at 8. Not much time to sleep. Spent the night sitting, lying etc around in Stanstead airport. Fun. Not.
widgets are fun
Mood: happy
Music: Royksopp - Circuit Breaker
Widgets are fun but can really be annoying!
UT2004 Linux
Mood: thoughtful
Music: Amethystium - Ascension
Today I embarked on the installation of Unreal Tournament 2004. This was originally designed to work on both Windows and Linux but the fantastic people at Epic Games.
However as the original discs are hard to come by I have had to purchase the Anthology version by Midway. Unfortunately for some reason there are no Linux installers on the Anthology DVD.
Fear not! ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
fragg suggested I use this guide. However this guide is for installing from the Midway UT2004 disc rather than the Anthology DVD. There is a little extra information regarding the Anthology DVD on that thread but i thought it would be useful to make a guide for installing UT2004 from the Anthology DVD that might be useful for someone, somewhere.
Installing UT2004 from the Unreal Anthology by Midway
(thanks to type98 and coffeeadikt for their posts)
NOTE: This installation was undertaken on a 32 bit machine running Ubuntu Edgy Eft.
NOTE: Unshield might not work properly on your installation, especially if running the 64bit version. The caveat in type98's post might be helpful if it doesn't.
NOTE: This worked for me but might not for you, if you have helpful additions then I would be grateful.
Preparation for Installation
The Midway Anthology DVD does not have an installer script. The files on the DVD are in an Installshield CAB format files that needs to be extracted. This cannot be done using cabextract as that is for Microsoft CAB files, instead we need a copy of "unshield".
1) Obtain a copy of "unshield" using your package manager or from SynCE - Unshield
2) Next, obtain the latest linux ut2004 patch (v3369 as of this writing) Linux Patch
3) Free up roughly 16GB of space for the install process, about 5.3GB for CAB files and 11GB for extracted files.
Installation
4) Mount the DVD if not already loaded/mounted (For example, if the DVD drive is /dev/hdb and the mount point is /mnt): # mount -r -t iso9660 /dev/hdb /mnt
5) Copy CAB files to a temporary location, this can be done by going into the 10 directories named Disk 1 to 10 and copying the CAB files using your favourite file manager or by;
# mkdir junk; cd junk
/junk# cp /mnt/Disk?/data?.* .
/junk# cp /mnt/Disk10/data??.* .
6) Decompress the copied CAB files to the installation directory of choice (here using the following command in the temporary directory; unshield -d /install/directory -D3 x data1.cab
(Note: -D 3 turns debugging on)
(Note: make sure you have all 11 CAB files otherwise extraction will not work properly)
You should have now all four games in the one installation directory.
Note: It is probably possible to play the other games from this DVD but this guide is currently for UT2004
The other games are not needed, nor is windows executable, the directory called OCXFiles and any files starting with _ and Launcher
7) Delete all directories beginning with _, 1_, 2_ and 3_ and the executable
# rm -rf _* 1_* 2_* 3_* Launcher* All_UT2004.EXE OCXFiles
You should now have a directory looking like this
4_UT2004_Animations
4_UT2004_Benchmark
4_UT2004_EXE
4_UT2004_ForceFeedback
4_UT2004_Help
4_UT2004_Help_English
4_UT2004_Help_French
4_UT2004_Help_GermanAll
4_UT2004_Help_Italian
4_UT2004_Help_Spanish
4_UT2004_KarmaData
4_UT2004_Manual_English
4_UT2004_Manual_French
4_UT2004_Manual_German
4_UT2004_Manual_Italian
4_UT2004_Manual_Spanish
4_UT2004_Maps
4_UT2004_Music
4_UT2004_Sounds_All
4_UT2004_Sounds_English
4_UT2004_Sounds_French
4_UT2004_Sounds_GermanAll
4_UT2004_Sounds_Italian
4_UT2004_Sounds_Spanish
4_UT2004_Speech_English
4_UT2004_Speech_French
4_UT2004_Speech_German
4_UT2004_Speech_Italian
4_UT2004_Speech_Spanish
4_UT2004_StaticMeshes
4_UT2004_System_All
4_UT2004_System_English
4_UT2004_System_French
4_UT2004_System_GermanAll
4_UT2004_System_Italian
4_UT2004_System_Spanish
4_UT2004_Textures
4_UT2004_Web
Note if you are not planning on playing in German, Spanish or French then remove any directories relating to those languages, this will save disk space
8) Remove other language options
# rm -rf *French *German* *Spanish *Italian
9) Remove UT2004 executable, again.
# rm -rf 4_UT2004_EXE
10) Move any files in the English appended directory to corresponding directory, e.g. 4_UT2004_Help_English to 4_UT2004_Help. And rename any directories ending with _All to its root e.g. Sounds_All to Sounds
11) Rename all directories so that the 4_UT2004_ is removed
This can be done in your favourite file browser by using the following bash script
for file in 4_UT2004_*
do
newname=`echo $file | sed -e 's/4_UT2004_//'`
mv $file $newname
done
Directory should now look like this
Animations
Benchmark
ForceFeedback
Help
KarmaData
Manual
Maps
Music
Sounds
Speech
StaticMeshes
System
Textures
Web
12) Now to get the Linux executables and other required files that are provided by the patch. Move the patch to the isntall directory and extract it.
Unpack the ut2004 linux patch
/install/directory# tar -jxf ut2004-lnxpatch3369.tar.bz2
Copy the all files+dir under UT2004-Patch into the top level
directories
# cd UT2004-Patch
UT2004-Patch# tar cf - . |( cd .. ; tar xvf -)
13) Copy System files to the games system folder, the game requires, OpenAL and SDL
Make sure that the /install/directory/System has a local copy
of libSDL-1.2.so.0 and openal.so.
/install/directory/System# cp /usr/lib/libSDL-1.2.so.0 ./libSDL-1.2.so.0
/install/directory/System# cp /usr/lib/libopenal.so.0.0.0 openal.so
14) Create text file called CDkey and insert your CD key into the first line
15 Run and enjoy
MODS
16) If you want MODs then follow
a) If you are wanting any mods, the easiest way to install them is to use the Loki installers. However the Loki installer will error on, "Game not installed" if you follow the above instructions. This is due to the installer looking for a file in a hidden directory. To solve this, copy the following text into a text document, rename file to ut2004.xml and place in "~/.loki/installed"
Code:
<option ... ></option>
<option ... ></option>
Replace INSTALL_DIR with the installation directory used above.
b) The Loki installed mods have their own play scripts. They will look for an executable file called "ut2004" in the root of the install directory. Simply copy the following code into a file called ut2004, place it in the installation directory chmod +x it and presto!
Code:
#!/bin/sh
SUBDIR="."
#----------------------------------------
script=$0
count=0
while [ -L "$script" ]
do
script=`perl -e "print readlink(\"$script\"), \"\n\""`
count=`expr $count + 1`
if [ $count -gt 100 ]
then
echo "Too many symbolic links"
exit 1
fi
done
GAME_DIR=`dirname $script`
cd $GAME_DIR
cd System
./ut2004-bin "$@"
BT to the rescue
Mood: tired
Music: Hybrid - Opening Credits
I might be skeptical of most "service" industry companies these days as to whether they actually offer a service or pretend to and then take your money. However today BT offered a good service to the company I work for. Our phones have been playing up for about two months now and trying to get BT to come out and check the lines was like getting blood from a stone, which is the typical response from most large "service" companies these days. 
BT tracing the fault using some funky device and crocodile clips.
However once we managed to get through to someone that was helpful. two engineer's were sent out and within 45mins they had traced the fault, fixed it and had left! Sorted. I found that once you cut through the red tape and call centre nonsense the guys that come on site are effecient helpful and do a good job. 
Two vans none the less. Ultra efficient or just a waste of resources? (Note that the Openreach van has knocked over a strategically placed cone)
SyncroWOW
Mood: happy
Music: St. Germain - Land Of.....
Recently work has acquired a Microsoft Small Business Server from Dell. This meant that every workstation at work was upgraded from using Outlook Express to full blown Outlook (2003). This was rather daunting at first as I have never used Outlook before. But in traditional Microsoft manner the program is full of many baffling options some useful and others appear to be quite quite useless and many of these options once turned off meant the program was easier to use. Anyway Outlook is hooked up to the Microsoft Exchange Server on the server box (downstairs in the basement :) ) and this means we can share contacts, have individual mail (yay!) and share calenders.
I have always used the calender on my phone as my diary and I played around with syncing the phone to Outlook at work. One installation of Sony Ericsson's proprietary software later and everything worked fine and I got my work calender and phone calender synchronized. Yay! I now know what is happening at work whilst on the move, useful for meetings and I also can spot conflicts with late meetings and things happening in my own time.
Well this was all well and good but I had no real way of looking at this information at home. I had the phone but I would have liked to have that information in a program such as Outlook and sync. I then find that Evolution has progressed a long long way since the last time I used it and now comes with a sync option for PDAs, Unfortunately this did not work for my phone. However one Google search later and i discover Multisync, one apt-get install later and i run the program. It even set up my Bluetooth connection for me and synced straight into Evolution!!!!
Wow. No fuss. No mess. Simple and quick. I am really really impressed. I now have all my phone numbers, and calender stored on my machine in case of phone loss! I can then easily sync it back again!
Useless sales people
Mood: stressed
Music: Amethystium - Odyssey
Now I am aware that all sales people are there for is to sell a product but if they are nice about it and give me a set of information rather than sales patter I can make my own mind up as to whether an "offer" or "deal" is actually any good rather than a load of hype, and I am then happy as a customer thinking that I have been given good service. They are representing the company and therefore my experience with them will go a long way to influencing my overall attitude towards that company.
I am about to renew my mobile (cell) phone contract and am "shopping" around for a good package of minutes etc.
So if you go into a store and ask for information about their current tariffs and stating explicitly at the start you are only "shopping around for a good deal" you do not expect to get some pushy salesperson at the end of the conversation trying to sign you up "to the best deal ever" (TM). I expect some pushiness but to keep trying to get you sign up after stating several times that I do not want to sign up today is stupid and downright annoying. For instance I stated that I wanted to think about the offer, to which the salesperson replies "there is nothing to think about", so then I stating that I needed to sort other things out before making this commitment, and again the person comes back with "why", so then I state again that I want some time to think about it, only to get more pushy sales patter shit, I started to get really annoyed. Yes I had spent some of his time to get the answers I needed but to not let go like a terrier with a bone is stupid. I think he will scare customers away rather than make sales. In the end I told him that I did not want to take out the contract today and his response was "why?" so i said because I do not want to. To which he stated, "OK let me take your number so that I can phone you about this and other offers", to which I stated "I am not giving you my phone number", to which he stated "but you are willing to spend time with us why not give us your number", after several more pushy questions I got fed up and said "goodbye" and walked out.
F**king pushy people. I hate being cornered like that. He was a bully with an intimidate sales tactic. I am a large offensive arsehole and you will buy this or I will intimidate you and keep attacking you until you succumb and buy whatever I say just to make me stop. He would not take no. SO I left. No sale. Not now not ever. I was really thinking of going with the company for my mobile phone and now I am thinking of elsewhere. They had 80% chance of me taking out a contract and now probably 20%. Oh well their loss. I had a nice conversation with a cute girl who was great and very helpful and then the terrier interjected and took over being an arsehole to his coworker too.
Utter Drivel
Mood: depressed
Music: Lux - Northern Lights
Well after being really ill for the last few weeks with some sort of shit flu virus I am slowly getting better. I never usually take days off work but I took one recently and slept most of it. This virus makes me sooo tired, ratty and unhappy. I hate it. Wahhh. Anyway whilst recovering I am psyching myself up for a "discussion" that I need to have the the authorities at work about pay. I really could do with a payrise as I have to fork out about £1500 for my exam this year. Yup I am going to be taking my professional Architect exam and become a fully qualified Architect. Yay!
On a different note. What is it with people and something-for-nothing attitude? People on the beach in Devon (near my parents house) have been taking stuff without even hesitating or reporting it under salvaging rights. In my view this is stealing. Oh and then they put it on Ebay. FFS a quick buck for nothing, whilst risking going to prison. But that won't happen as the prisons are full. (That's a rant for another time and place). One of the things found apart from people's personal belongings are water-logged motorbikes. I can see the Ebay aution tag "Water logged motor bike for sale. Doubt it would work, only £500. Bargain. Only 100 left."...
Lately i am glad I have music to keep me sane in this crazy world. However I wish I could find a band to play in. Maybe I should found one and get other people to play in it.... It could be called the "The Holistic Phylum Experience". Hmmm or maybe "Tower of Monkeys" or maybe "horseganja" or "The Java Brotherhood" but that sounds too much like a Comic... or maybe none of those....
Global footprint and some nice pictures :)
Mood: tired
Music: Kamelot - Temples of Gold
A test I took to wok out my Global Footprint in hectares!
CATEGORY GLOBAL HECTARES
FOOD 1.6
MOBILITY 0
SHELTER 1.1
GOODS/SERVICES 0.8
TOTAL FOOTPRINT 3.5
IN COMPARISON, THE AVERAGE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN YOUR COUNTRY IS 5.3 GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
WORLDWIDE, THERE EXIST 1.8 BIOLOGICALLY PRODUCTIVE GLOBAL HECTARES PER PERSON.
IF EVERYONE LIVED LIKE YOU, WE WOULD NEED 1.9 PLANETS.
TAKE YOUR TEST HERE
Sun through the trees
Mist in the morning
Gridwars
Mood: Buzzing
Music: Apoptygma Berserk - Fade To Black
Many thanks to the illustrious fragg I have been introduced to the game of Gridwars 2. Not at all related to the vaguely similar sounding Guild Wars this game consists of a rectangular grid in which you fight an onslaught of never ending enemies. It is however a clone of the XBOX360 game Geometry Wars but for the made for the PC. Apparently the author has been asked to remove the game from distribution but as of today it is still around for download (Yay!). I would describe this game as a bizarre hybrid between Pacman on speed and Tempest 2000. The graphics are very reminiscent of Tempest 2000 but are in a league of their own for spontaneous visual delight. I can only survive for just over 2 minutes in the game, I expect fragg can easily beat that (yah! yea of oh great game mastery I will beat you one day...) but the game is challenging enough but not impossible to make you want to play again and again. Below are a couple of screenshots from the game taken during one of my "campaigns". 
Shot of the "Grid" and the ship I am controlling is running away to the right being chased by a swarm of blue things.... 
Me using a bomb to clear the screen of all enemies (which is useful but they are in limited number)
Download Gridwars 2 from here.