MrChris

Took the car in this week for a seat belt re-tensioner replacement as per Toyota's nice letter.
The missus gets in the car last night and the passenger seat belt isn't attached to the car at the bottom at all!
Cue some calls to the garage involving 'very disappointed' and 'get this fixed'. Best bit though was their left and right hands not talking; after I book it in to get it sorted next week I get a courtesy call from them asking if I was satisfied with the work done...
I took the opportunity.

On a lighter note: Pushchair purchased, Cot/Bed purchased, Car seat purchased, Copious amounts of clothes for small persons acquired (thank heavens for my sister having kids first). So far we're pretty much set for the arrival of a small person.. still if July could just take a few more months to get here, that'd be great!

Been down in Dorset (Christchurch), staying here:
http://tinyurl.com/6zh7ov

I screwed up the dates, so turned up on Monday completely unexpected. Hotel was great though, they only had an upgrade room which they gave us for the same price as we'd paid for the normal one (probably helped by my paying in advance, but hey).
The hotel restaurant is pretty damn good, some of the finest food I'd had in a long time.

Got to spend the first day on the beach eating ice-creams and enjoying the good weather.
Second day was a long walk in the new forest, which is remarkably calming.

Dinner this evening was at Gary Rhodes new restaurant:
http://tinyurl.com/c5e9nl

I can honestly say I've never had better.
From the menu I had a salmon starter; the steak and kidney main and the jam rolly polly desert.

If you're looking for a good quality, affordable break, I heartily recommend trying these out.

Burn after Reading was interesting. Of all the Coen Brothers films I've seen I think I still prefer The Hudsucker Proxy, but this was very enjoyable too.
As the wife said, she only looked at her watch once - presumably one of the occasions when Brad or George weren't on the screen. I have to say Brad Pitt was pretty good in this; I've never been a detractor of his, but this was a more interesting (if dumb) character than usual.

The plot revolves aroun... the plot... the... oh its just mad ok, there were more WTF moments in this film than I've had all year from the blockbusters, but they were ace so its ok.

On a side note, we had lamb for the first time in ages yesterday and it was gorgeous.

Was having a great day, got the guys around, bit of xbox, bit of nosh, bit of volt metering (dont ask); so when it comes time to get dinner in we figured fish & chips, not had them for ages, so why not.

So I get up to go get some (nobody delivers fish & chips?!), head down to the street and wander past my car. As I approach I notice the drivers window seems a bit cleaner than usual - great! - oh, no, looks like I left it open - doh! - oh, whats this, broken glass all over the pavement... why the fecking scummy b*strds!!

There was nothing valuable on show, or indeed in the car, but some gob sh*te, felt the need to break the window and have a rummage in the glove box anyway, just in case. They'll have gotten a few CD's tops, only 1 of which I'll miss (the other that would have been troubling was actually in the CD player so I know thats safe).

Talk about annoying! Grrrrrrrrrrr!!! And now in a show of true old-man-age, I feel compelled to blame everyone under the age of 25 and want anyone who so much as doesnt say 'please' when decorum dicates is proper locked up!

BAH!

Seems two of the roof tiles fell in over the weekend and we've got red air-conn fluid dripping through. It looks quite funny actually, the printer looks like its bleeding (half the sodden tiles landed on it, queue one knackered printer).

So I'm now enduring the chinese water torture for the day as the steady drip... drip... drip... of the coolant goes on behind me.

So, I saw this last night on TV and immediately thought of you lot... that says something I'm sure...

Freaky furry Orangina ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHA9Ig7HOGA

ricoboy24 : Viagra + Ribbed Condoms + Midget = Time of your life. +14 Diggs.

Right, I'll be off to the shops then...

Boring techy post to follow.

So I've got a bit of a problem at the moment with working out how best to distribute a plugin to a third party app. Given the nature of the application (Cruisecontrol), and the changes the plugin makes (adding a tab to the navigation bar), you'd think it would be quite straight forward.
However, there are many (MANY) Cruisecontrol plugins that do similar things and what I dont want to do is automate the installation such that I nuke a previously configured plugin (not often I'm this nice, but hey).
My current options seem to be a batch file that does exactly what I dont want it to do and replaces the header file with my pre-configured one, or an exhaustive text file with detailed instructions that nobody will read and doesnt look all nice and automated.

The other plugins seem to favour the latter, and maybe I'm just trying to be too clever...

So I've become a bit addicted to lifehacker.com, there's a load of interesting utility software on there (with the obligatory tosh thrown in for good measure).

For example, this link on syncing any caldenar with Google Calendars is quite nice:
http://lifehacker.com/399407/how-to-sync-any-desktop-calendar-with-google-calendar

Whilst TeraCopy is also very good for copying batches of files without being asked about over-writes constantly (if you dont just hit 'yes to all'):
http://lifehacker.com/399362/power-up-windows-explorer-with-free-add+ons

But this one is both interesting and a bit weird
http://lifehacker.com/399351/know-your-stuff-inventories-your-home
From their download page: 'Meteorologically and politically secure Swiss location'... now I'm all for security, but this is the first time I've been offered a swiss server on which to store my data!

I'm probably way behind the times on this..
The 'last lecture' of CMU professor, 'Randy Pausch' ; very interesting, and quite touching.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5700431505846055184

-- the VR world demonstrated about 2/3rds in is pretty spectacular even for todays standards... and there's definately some uD'isms in there.

Back from honeymoon and what do I discover? Russia is doing something worth while!
http://www2.kerrang.com/2008/07/emo_and_goth_to_be_made_illega.html

Their rationale is ace, but I'm sure they could have just gone with 'their idiots' and been done with it.

On an unrelated note, the Roomba is currently performing its duties admirably, I'm most impressed, now I just need to get the kitchen version and we'll be set!

Looks like GH is turning into pacman (well, ok, we've only eaten one power pill so far, but hey its a start)..

http://greenhatsoftware.com/news/newsKAIBDZIVDL.html







No... I've no idea where that analogy came from either.

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

This turned up in one of my RSS feeds today and I must say I think its a stunning set of photos, though I can't tell how much of it is staged and how much is freeform.

http://blog.photoshelter.com/2008/05/bill-henson-at-the-opera-1.html

Almost makes me want to get into this whole photography thing...

Whilst browsing for t-shirts...

http://rottencotton.com/shirts/crazy_ass/950_skull_fuck.jpg

More here:
http://rottencotton.com/shirts/crazy_ass/crazy_ass.htm

(and yes I know he's doing it wrong, but there's still too much cartiledge around the neck).

Glass of wine, video game or two and a good meal cooked by the young lady.

Oh dear, it did have to be Bradford didnt it...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/7204543.stm

Well, I've finally had a holiday in this country that didnt suck - mainly because I didnt answer any work calls/texts/emails.

Spent 5 days in Harrogate at 'Hotel du Vin', a rather lovely 4 star joint that thoroughly exceeded my expectations. We had a cheap room - under the main reception area so you could occassionally (very occasionally) hear footsteps from upstairs - but it was huge with a walk-in shower, free standing bath and nice large, airy main room.
The hotel advertised its own bistro as rather good and indeed it was. The wine (as you'd expect in a hotel called 'du vin'), was expensive, but good quality. The food was also excellent, though we only ate there once as, again, it was a bit pricey.

Harrogate was fun (sorry I didnt come find the locals - UD, no number and figured you'd be working away anyway). Betties was, as ever, very nice - been a while since I've had a proper cream tea so that was fun.
Spent as much time as we could out walking around in Harrogate and the surrounding areas; Brimen rocks, Old mother shiptons cave, various old houses etc. Unfortunately we both got colds half way through though so obviously fresh air isnt as good as people make out!

So yeah, scrabbling around on rocks, catching a cold and still, great holiday overall!

Now to catch up with the 200+ emails in my mailbox... where's that delete button...

Unfortunately its not the TVR yet… sodding finances, really should learn to save money.

Anyway, one new Toyota Yaris (http://www.toyota.co.uk/cgi-bin/toyota/bv/generic_editorial.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0794345008.1190711214@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccgaddmdjlijflcfngcfkmdfkidffk.0&CampaignID=C2123&navRoot=toyota_1024_root&portal=null&nodiv=TRUE&edname=YA3_SR_ad&id=MSR_YARIS&catname=%2ftoyota_root%2fTopNav%2fNew+Cars&zone=Zone+YARIS&menuid=10170&sr=Mall )

-- feck me that’s a long URL!

Silver, only a 1.0 so it’s a step down on my old car, but a step up in so many other ways! Its an 06 model so pretty spiffy inside, though the ride is very high. Still trying to get used to the controls etc (need to work out how the fuel gauge works…), it’s a rather cool all digital dash though so it suits my techi-ness down to the ground.

So, last month was engagement ring, this month is car… what to buy next month… yacht maybe?

This may be a re-post (I can't be arse looking back).

Every year or so I read this:
http://mindstalk.net/vinge/vinge-sing.html

Vernor Vinge on his definition of 'the singularity'; from the abstract:

'Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended.
Is such progress avoidable? If not to be avoided, can events be guided so that we may survive? These questions are investigated. Some possible answers (and some further dangers) are presented.'

Its a very interesting paper, some interesting hypothoses and a nice narrative style.
Recommended reading.


...

Of course it doesnt hurt that vinge rhymes with m.... oh, you get it! ;)