Month: October 2013

I wasn’t going to add in a post today because :

I’m super tired;
It was going to be a whinge;
And I hate doing whingey posts.

It was originally going to be a whinge about advertising but I read this post (Link) about the issues affecting my current Warcraft server and the words in there that said Blizzard were deleting negative posts kinda broke the straw.

Ok – 2 issues today and I’ll save the gaming one until later.

First one is advertising …

I had another one of those spam emails today. “Can we post on your website ?”. No. I’m responsible for what goes here and I have to stand by what appears here. I posted years ago about taking my guild’s website off the links list (when I was guild master at the time – this is the Mercenaries guild) because their website didn’t have the basic tools added that stopped spam. And we had a massive amount of spam, most of it pointing people to porn sites.

I don’t have a problem with people indulging in porn. It can be amusing, instructive? and occasionally hilarious. What I do have a problem with is the potential for my page to be flagged for adult content. I don’t know what the consequences are but I doubt they’re good … On the interwebs, you’re not just responsible for your own page, you’re responsible for what you link people to.

Oh and there’s also the tendency on places like Youtube for the adverts to be so much louder than the video you’re wanting to be watching. I don’t want people getting inflicted with annoying popups or offensive adverts. I definitely don’t want people getting drive-by viruses from advertising, like how a certain national newspaper got caught (Register link).

I will mention people here, like Lexus (yey!), Ford (ok), Vauxhall (previously yey!, now very meh), Apple (cautious yey), Microsoft (may their UI designers burn in hell) and whichever supermarket I went to last. But that’s just my opinion and I’m usually giving the bad as well as the good. I aim to give a balanced opinion, advertising is anything but. As I said on Facebook earlier, the prospect of adding unbalanced advertising lies here turns my stomach. And if you advertise, that gives someone editorial control over you (“we didn’t like that post, take it down or no advert paycheck”). Not gonna happen.

(This is why I try not to post while tired !)

So no advertising – cos I hate it enough to want to avoid inflicting it on others. I don’t need the paltry money it brings (although extra cash is always nice).

Gaming ?

I tried logging into the Warcraft servers last night (gave up immediately because of a very early start today) and had more of a go today. No joy. I play on the Draenor Europe server which is currently having a few issues. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve experienced enough disconnects to convince me that group work is a bad idea.

It’s an online MULTIPLAYER game ! Group work is what you’re supposed to do on it !

I’d consider starting off a character on another server but I’m honestly too tired tonight (more below). Tonight’s attempt at Warcraft was abysmal – it took about 5 attempts to log in, I did one of those group work things (being disconnected before and after) but took the hint when it completely froze up (couldn’t select a character to log in with) afterwards. Tonight would not be a Warcraft night.

This is another sign actually – addiction makes you more sensitive about these things. If you’re tearing hair out about a game being unavailable, it’s time to do something different. I’m half-watching the round of Youtube videos behind this post and after those, I’ll be reading books while listening to music.

Wait – this post is mainly anti-censorship. The place people go to complain about their online service being unavailable is the forums for the service. Those forums are typically controlled by the providers and they don’t like criticism, it tends to get deleted. So – this post is partly about giving those dissatisfied people a voice. We should get game credit for this current debacle but I doubt we will, Blizzard doesn’t do that. CCP do with Eve but not Blizzard.

We have similar dissatisfaction at work with the IT. It goes down more often than it should (we should have >99% availability, we don’t) and we’re subject to stupid limits on the amount of data we can store. On top of that, we’re forced to use Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server as our primary system. It’s not fit for purpose as that and forces us to hold off on making new files. It prevents us being as efficient as we should be.

In both the case of Warcraft and work, we have the right to be highly annoyed because we’re paying an inordinate amount of money for a service that isn’t up to the job. It isn’t delivering. We are not getting our value.

But that’s enough about work. I try to keep the anti-work stuff at a minimum. I work with some great people but we are handicapped by the ultimate management, the support groups (aiming my rifle at the IT here) and idiots who inflict policy on people without understanding the implications.

Closing off now …

Today was actually a really good day, I’m just overtired now because it was also a very long day. Up at about 6am, to get a bus at 6.30am to catch a coach at 7.30am. I live under 3 miles away from work, yet I have to allow an hour to get in due to policies inflicted upon us – that’s silly.

Wait – good day. I saw shinies !

It is pretty good to see what we work on. We’re a bit disconnected from the reality when we’re stuck in the office. We deal with massive pieces of kit filled with complex machinery that all interconnects. We don’t get an appreciation of how it all interweaves, with that being the most accurate term when you’re looking at :
HVAC, network, power, low pressure water, high pressure water, chilled water and all the other services coming in too.

It’s mindbending putting all that together and making it all work efficiently.

And quite possibly that’s why I enjoy working with the big toys I work with. But it wouldn’t be the same without the people who are part of the teams putting it all together and the people who use it after we hand it over to them.

I think I’ve used that title before somewhere … Mind you, in almost 900 posts I’m bound to have repeated a few !

There’s a massive storm coming through the UK at the moment and we’ve been in the firing line. Ok, it’s not the hurricane force or tropical cyclone type that does so much damage in other countries but it’s been a big deal for us. It’s a little more than the average UK rainstorm that we get.

This morning ? Fine while waiting for the bus but as soon as I got off, the heavens opened and I was being the drowned rat by the time I got to my desk. Coming home, I got caught in a brief shower on my way to the bus stop but it wasn’t as bad as in the morning.

Except … Massive flashes, a couple of forky lightnings and three huge rumblings. No – I wasn’t hungry, the canteen had cookies today. A good thing too cos I visited Sainsburys. No cookies means shopping while hungry (never advisable) means more shopping than will fit in the bag.

Yeah – bit damp. But I can live with damp, although I’d prefer to have my steel umbrella (da car) on my way into work. Add “increased potential of colds and flu” to the results of the discrimination by postcode policy.

How am I doing ? I’m not suffering from any colds (yet – and I wouldn’t notice if I did anyway cos I sneeze so much !). My condition is actually improving daily. My skin is repairing nicely and this is a few days after the drugs ran out. It’s not fixed properly yet but it’s definitely encouraging. I’ve not used any of the moisturiser I got given, I’ve not actually needed it because the only dryness has been around the bits that are still damaged. And this is comparing to fingers that felt like sandpaper last year.

Back to the weather – it’s going to be an interesting few days … (of the Interesting Times curse type interesting). Trains have been suspended, the local bridges got closed. By the way I can hear it raining, I suspect there may be flooding problems.

And there’s the dinner bell ringing … Picture time ! Spotted these today :

Add floods to zombie with that apocalypse thing.

Oh hell – I’m doomed.

We made some truly beautiful machines back in the day before science took over and made them look weird. Mind you, some of them were also awesomely powerful machines of destruction too (the Vulcan was designed to obliterate cities).

And finally :

I know the answer … to the riddle 😉

Not angry mad mind you, just nutty mad.

Warning – there’s even more techie talk in this post …

Ok, so since switching the network around I’ve had 2 evenings where there’s been no interruption in the audio streaming. Result ! However … It means my old laptop and my printer can no longer see the network. There’s solutions to both :

I have a new widget for the old laptop which will let it connect.
I can plug the printer in to the desktop and access it through that.

However (again!) … There is another solution. A plan that goes past Cunning into Mad Scientist territory. And … I already have the bits to make it work.

Right now, I have a wifi network transmitting at 5GHz. It works, it’s away from the interference. But it means my old kit (laptop and printer) can’t see the network because they can only work at 2.4GHz.

The solution (and Cunning part of the plan) – to have a second device that transmits at 2.4GHz. In effect, having two independent networks going.

But – it gets better. Why not give the jammer something to jam while happily sending you want on a frequency it can’t see ? My wifi network is currently called “Aquarius” (don’t ask – I must have been watching something Greek or mythological and it sounded good at the time). What I could do is set things up as follows :

Internet router transmits on “Hahacantfindme” at 5GHz
(I’d pick something else like Athena)
Laptop sends its audio through that.
Old router plugs into the internet router and transmits on “Aquarius” at 2.4GHz.
I.e. you give the jammer what it expects to see.
And my old laptop and printer can get back on the network through Aquarius.

Everybody’s happy, including the jammer because it has something to jam. Owner of the jammer on the other hand ? I can see them going “Hey ! How come the music isn’t breaking up like it did before ?” Muahaha.

There is another solution that does the same thing – Apple do a device called the Time Machine which does data backup duties. It can also extend wifi networks, just like what the 2nd router plan above would do. It is a couple of hundred £££ though, so perhaps an accessory too far.

I hope if anything this post has illustrated one thing :

It is dangerous to give techies too much gear to play with. They get daft ideas of how to use it.

Ok, so I’m watching the Strictly come dancing midweek show at the moment and my “how things work” eye is being caught by how they’re moving.

On the dance show, it’s all about movement with :

Precision
Coordination
Elegance
Timing
And a little bit of power

Whenever I see people do things, I’m always thinking of whether I can adopt what they’re doing to make what I do better. That’s how I learned how to sprint, although it caught me out when it sent my bowling completely wonky for a game. (I’d listened to commentators and a small change made the ball move in the air the other way to what I normally did).

I’ll never be a great dancer. I make things up as I go along a bit too much. I’m reactive when I move. (I dodge well). When I try, I’m usually trying to ape what other people are doing which leads to an uncoordinated mess.

What I do have though is power and precision. When I hand things to people, it’s usually such a gentle handover that they don’t realise they have the object I’ve passed to them. As I’ve said before though, that power can work against me because it can take that extra fraction of a second to get the legs moving.

Elegance ? Yeah, it looks good but it tends to be extra flourish that can get you in trouble. (Like today when I nearly tripped over my own feet doing a spin-dodge!) With the cricket, I’d tend to try and work out any flourish, it slows you down. Quick, precise movements are what you need. That’s why sportspeople tend to look wooden on programmes like Strictly.

I’ve put a reasonable amount of thought into how I move. Mostly, the interest is in protecting my body against itself. I can walk extremely quickly but it tends to grind my knees away. I can walk even quicker but that breaks the ligaments in my knees. I can run super fast – but without knee pads it feels like it’s making my knees explode.

That thought on movement has led to me adopting a walking style that tries to minimise how much sideways movement goes through my knees. It’s precise enough with the footfalls that I can go near silent with the right shoes. That’s not about sneaking up on people (although that can have hilarious results), if you make noise that’s energy that’s not going into getting you where you’re going.

The protection thing goes into other movements – because my muscles are so sensitive at the moment that I have to be very careful to not make moves that will send me into cramp or unhook the damaged bit in my back. (Hopefully that’ll get better !)

So for me – it’s about learning how to move to protect my body from legs that got too powerful and to avoid causing further damage to the damage I already carry.

For other people – I can’t but help notice how some people move. Some look trained, some look absolutely totally natural. The natural ones can be dangerously compelling to watch. Why dangerous ? Lol – cos standing there with the slackjawed expression can lead to a damn good slappin’.

And I’m a) running out of things to say and b) written a lot already.

I’ll be trying to :
Stay being efficient and precise in my movements
(cos it helps me in other ways)
Continue confusing people who are taking things off me
Keep looking for moves I can adopt
And attempting to avoid those slappings

But first … the Cunning Plan.

I have a disappointment with the new Macbook. It’s more susceptible to the network interference that means my audio streaming breaks up. This is the way my network is built :

Internet comes in to the modem router. I’m on cable internet so my options there are a little limited. I have the Virgin Media Superhub, which has served me well so far.
Desktop – is connected to the superhub by a wire for best performance in games.
Macbook – connects to the superhub over wifi
Airport Express – also connects via wifi and sends audio to my hifi

The wifi used to operate on the old 802.11g (don’t worry about the arcane stuff) at a frequency of 2.4GHz. Every wifi device should support that, it’s the oldest protocol. Trouble is, that means every devices uses it so in built up areas there can be lots of interference. To make matters worse, other electronic wireless devices (phones, baby monitors) use the frequency band making even more interference. And it’s the interference which breaks the audio streaming, making me a Sad Panda.

I actually have 2 Panda’s but I’ve barely played them, I’ve concentrated on Seraphice the mage instead. (Slight longitudinal shift into Warcraft!)

The Cunning Plan has involved me throwing hardware at the problem. My old laptop and Airport Express device had old wifi and couldn’t support the newer 802.11n (again, don’t worry about the arcane stuff). The new Macbook has far Shinier Wifi. So – cunning plan – set up the devices so they avoid the interference.

That’s the plan at least. I’ll wait and see if my new Littlewhitebox (the Airport Express) device that arrived today sorts out the problem. If it doesn’t … I’ll throw more money at it by investing in Powerline networking. So instead of the audio being broadcast over the air, it’ll partly go over the mains cable. Hopefully I won’t need to go that far.

Top 40 !!!!

It’s numbers 11 to 20 today :

At 20 – Dire Straits – Your Latest Trick. This one is from the classic Brothers In Arms album and somehow I’ve listened to it more than the other amazing tracks (Ride Across The River, Brothers In Arms). Why do I like Dire Straits ? Cos Knopfler’s guitar work is incredible and his voice makes mine sound good.

19 – The Cardigans – Holy Love. This one is from their Super Extra Gravity album which will see another couple of tracks appear in the Top 10. It’s one hell of an album, there’s outstanding track after outstanding track on it, although I wouldn’t recommend depressive people listen to it. The tracks are amazing but they deal with some Heavy Stuff. Ok, this one isn’t quite as good as the rest 😉

18 – The Cardigans – For What It’s Worth. This is from the iTunes Original collection. There aren’t many iTunes collection albums (I have the Norah Jones one too). They’re greatest hits albums again, so I wouldn’t recommend them for that because you probably have the tracks already. However, the Originals albums add in interviews with the band in between each track which, in my opinion, makes them worth getting again. This track was originally from the excellent Long Gone Before Daylight album.

Why do I like the Cardigans ? It’s not just about the voice, which has that clipped but perfect Swedish accent. No, it’s about the band as well. Instead of being in the background, quietly supporting, they’re in the foreground being as active a part in the song as the singer.

17 – Bjork’s Violently Happy. Cos I love you. Bjork burst on to the scene with this one and she’s been brightening up pop music since then. It’s been an infinitely more interesting genre with Bjork around, she’s utterly unique and half the time you’re wondering what weirdness she’ll come up next. Gloriously different. And … that’s no way to treat a teddy bear !

16 – Alisha’s Attic – Affected By You Not. This one’s a B-side so no youtube video. One thing I love about Alisha’s Attic is how prolific they were. They only released 3 studio albums plus one which was available only on Ebay. However, each single came with multiple original tracks as B-sides and they are typically incredible. Some are better than the album tracks (I was disappointed with The House We Built). Here’s one I could find – AA are definitely Too Far Forgotten.

15 – Adam & The Ants – Kings of the Wild Frontier. There’s only one Adam Ant. Some would say that’s a good thing (see above about Bjork being more interesting). I don’t think many groups used dominant drums as much as Adam and the Ants.

14 – Abba – Hasta Manana. There’s so many super sweet Abba tracks that could have been on this list but Hasta Manana found its way to the list. Yep. I like Abba and I’m proud of that. Just give them a listen and you will too. Although I’d recommend skipping the Mamma Mia film. You do Not want to be exposed to Pierce Brosnan attempting to sing. It will be with you for life.

13 – Battle Without Honour or Humanity. This one’s from the Kill Bill soundtrack again. Instantly recognisable.

12 – U2 – I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For. This is the Rattle and Hum version and … strangely appropriate cos I haven’t either. I’m not a huge U2 fan (they’re too political and their politics are the nonsensical rantings of those with too much money) but they do make excellent music. But like Tom Cruise and movies, off screen he’s an absolute turd but on screen ? He makes some excellent movies.

11 – Roberta Flack – Killing Me Softly With His Song. Sometimes the old ones are the best. This one shows the new girls how it should be done.

Ok – that’s enough for now 🙂 The Top 10 will come in the next few days 🙂

Someone noticed the reference to the Pretty Contractor Lady which I snuck into yesterday’s post :-).

So I thought – I’ve used a lot of codenames for people over the years, let’s give some of them a mention again. Almost all of them have been awesome friends and colleagues over the years, they deserve their mention again.

So – Pretty Contractor Lady ! Name born out of lack of inspiration for describing this awesome lady. She’s one of the acceptance girls who worked over at our Prime Contractor’s place. My last project had 6 major milestones. Massive milestones. This lady was instrumental in getting the acceptance work done which saw us through not 1 but 5 of those major milestones. Not just a pretty face but a consummate professional who stuck at it producing high quality work despite us not being the best behaved customer at times.

And she was helped out by Ms Warpath (don’t make her angry! nah – she’s great and that’s not a particularly apt name) and the Scottish Go To Girls (definitely an apt name). We’ve been blessed with having outstanding people on the project and it’s a shame they’re gradually bleeding away to the Next Big Thing.

Back home we have the Apprentice, who is so much more than that. She got the name Apprentice because when she joined us, I was trying to pass on as much information and process as I could in a very short time before I got redeployed. And she keeps the boys on the job like a boss too.

There’s another name – The Boss never had staff. (We occasionally think of staff as an infection, to be avoided wherever possible). But her empathy had everyone coming for advice. Why “The Boss” ? Cos she told the team leader what he was doing every day. The Team Leader was God. And The Boss was the one telling God what he was doing. There’s also “Actual Boss” too.

And now I’ve mentioned the old team …

Snow Queen ! That name came from how enchanting she was at one of the Xmas parties. At the same time, there were ads for an adaptation where the Snow Queen steals the heart of the bell boy. I actually feel a bit bad about this one because the Snow Queen adaptation was nigh on unwatchable with the core character being narcissistic and evil, which is the complete opposite of our Snow Queen. We had to leave her behind when our team got rearranged and we miss her terribly. Not just for her indomitable character (yes that’s you ! you’ve just forgotten !) but she’s another one who is a consummate professional. There’s the wrong way, the right way and the perfect SQ way.

And she worked with :
Ms Sunshine – who would walk into a room with a round face framed by sun yellow blonde hair, it would be like the sun walking in and making everything brighter.
Wild Thing – who made a daft comment during one of the team moves which got picked up on by me and Diablo. And yes, the natural unconscious grace she possesses could have turned our bones to water (line nicked from which book ?)
Diablo ? We had a double act going. Both techies, both a little nuts. His nuttiness has been worn off a bit too much by promotion. Anyway, we had pictures on our “who are we?” tallies. Mine was an angel smiley, his was a demon smiley. The demon smiley got spotted by the French teacher consultant we had and El Diablo was born.

We still have the Finance Angels working for us. There’s two of these, both utterly charming (and angelic). The original name got coined because Angel E is one of those people who is unfazed by anything. She was very hard to tease because it just didn’t register. She’s one of those beautiful people who can’t recognise badness. But, again, it’s not how they are which earns the respect, it’s their professionalism.

Noticing a theme there ? We’ve been blessed with the services of some highly professional and highly skilled people. It’s that which gets the respect, not the looks. In fact, something I’ve observed over many years is that the ladies who have the looks tend to spoil their own image by being hostile and unfriendly.

There’s a bunch of other names that appear here, most of which are chosen by other people. Names like Craziequeen, Cyberkitten, Aginoth, BionicDwarf, Ravenwolf, RCA. All fantastic friends (ok, one on that list isn’t a friend of us any more but she was!)

Oh ! I almost forgot a few others.

The Little Canteen Girl was great fun while she was here. She’s now disappeared to have kiddies so isn’t around to sneak extra turkey into my sandwiches.
There were the Axe Girls who tormented me and Diablo when they walked past our desks on their way home. Imagine a pair of meerkats popping up and us both going sigh.
Superspy – cos his name matched someone in the movies. He’s retired now. I spotted him ages ago and he looked the same but lighter, freer, healthier.
Miss F – who listened when I needed a friend to sort out some threads that were getting heavily knotted in my head.
Miss L – who gave me an example that I needed to pull myself out of a deep hole.
Bright Young Thing – who had me utterly besotted at one point but who disappeared out of my life with no thread to follow.

There’s far more people out there who have earned a mention – I tend to struggle for inspiration though. The thing with a codename is that it has to be usable. It has to be positive. It has to be something that doesn’t get me sued or sacked for discrimination. That’s another reason I’m uncomfortable with one or two of them … Partly cos one reminds me of one of my nicknames over the years:

Snowman – yep. I had dandruff 😉
Alisha’s Addict – used this for a while, it was a joke on me finding everything I could that was produced by Alisha’s Attic
Sleepypete – to distinguish me from the other Pete in the gaming group. I got off lightly, he was PGS or Power Gaming Scumbag 🙂
Keela – after my Eve character, it came from a randomly made D&D character which I liked.
Ice or Iceangel – after my Warcraft character

And – last but definitely not least – I am Dwagon Guy.

Random thoughts today 🙂

There was a science experiment in the work kitchen today. And I know what you’re thinking but … It wasn’t me ! Honest ! Actually, I didn’t believe that Scotch Eggs could grow furry, I thought they were fairly inert. I reckon they were left behind by someone who’s now left the team.

It’s a curious thought actually … whatever was growing on those eggs is similar to the drugs I’m taking at the moment. It was one of those wonderful accidents that brought us Penicillin.

I still have a few days of drugs left and I’m hoping that the improvement in my skin keeps going. I have to avoid damaging my arms any more though. Thinking of damage though, my legs are so much better and it was great today to have full power available in them again. Not that I used it but I did push reasonably hard on the walk from the bus to work (it was raining!). It was good while it lasted, the reason I didn’t have that full power available last week was a tight hamstring which is a side effect of how I damaged my back. Oh and a month or so ago, I couldn’t use power in my legs because it would literally split the skin.

Oh the bus … It’s ok having the stress avoidance of the bus. I get on, turn off my sense of time and avoid the stress of coping with Bristol traffic. However … it takes literally 1 hour to get from bus stop to desk. That’s to go just under 3 miles as the crow flies. Not acceptable … I’ll be getting out the door early tomorrow to make a 9am meeting.

Since getting the Macbook, I’ve been enjoying listening to the library again with a fresh ear. I’ve managed to listen to 616 tracks so far (1.4 days worth so Itunes tells me) but that’s just a tiny dent in the library. I’d like to get more music and have my eye on singers like Lucy Spraggan. However … I refuse to spend £8 on an album speculatively. It seems a little sad that music prices are set high and stay high. I and others would buy that album immediately if it were available for £5. Same with the Rachel Sermanni album. It was worth the high cost but you can’t really justify spending that much on someone new. And the cost stayed high months after the initial release.

I firmly believe more revenue would be gained if prices were dropped to “bargain” prices. Even if it’s like occasional quick sales. Some minority items just stay at high prices long after people stopped buying them.

Talking of music. One disappointment with the Macbook is that it’s more susceptible to interference on the wifi. However. I have a Cunning Plan. In a couple of days, I’ll pick up a new Apple Airport Express. This is a device which accepts audio being streamed over a network and sends it to a hifi. Magic and it works effectively. Except … when there’s someone nearby with a jammer.

I haven’t got the pic handy but the jammer was giving a signal strength of about 0dB. My own router was giving about -40dB, neighbourhood routers were about -80dB. So this jammer was producing a signal far stronger than my own router, through walls. I hate to think of what it’s doing to the people who own it. Perhaps it’s a baby monitor (which operate in the same frequency and are anything but cooperative).

Oh – the Cunning Plan – the new Airport Express will let me shift to a different frequency band which should avoid the interference. It’s a necessary buy anyway because my current one is too old for the software to recognise. (I’m buying it on Ebay for half the price it is in the shop).

I’ve made a note about Xmas stuff and can’t figure out why … It’ll be in the shops soon. Oh I remember ! Xmas munchies are popular this year. I’ll be at one with the wider team, one with the project, one with the old project’s acceptance people (will the Pretty Contractor Lady return ?) and there will be a Crazie gathering too.

I’ve been comparing Microsoft and Apple more. They both have their disasters, there’s actually two reported this week. Microsoft have seriously dropped the ball again with Windows 8.1. Apple have a problem with the hard discs in the last generation of Macbook Air and the reason I stumped up for Applecare is because they have issues with display screens.

I’m getting to be more of a fan of Apple now. They make genuinely usable software and the hardware backs it up too. There is that price premium though. However, it’s good to see a genuine minority alternative survive when the big boy in the game tends to knock the little boy out of the market. Especially when the big boy’s products are as bad as they are at the moment.

Talking of stuff that’s a disappointment … I’ve followed gaming for as long as I can remember. There’s highlights and there’s lowlights. One that caught my eye over the weekend was called Dark Matter, it’s a survival game set on a spaceship. Right up my alley you’d think. However … word is it’s not finished. Ouch. Glad I didn’t leap and buy it. We see that a lot at the moment, products being unleashed on the market before they’re ready and the product is effectively left like that. We’ve even seen that on big names like Championship Manager 3, Windows 95 and a bunch of others.

That’s enough randomness for now. Except. I still need to find a TV guide application for the Macbook. I have a workaround but it’s clunky. I can install the TV guide on my desktop and look at it via a web browser running on the Macbook. Or I could install a virtual machine on the Macbook and run the TV guide app through that. That’s clunkier (and would involve running cursed Microsoft software).

Any recommendations for a TV guide application ? I used Digiguide but it doesn’t have a Mac version.

People have been mentioning the annual Movember thing again …

It’s making me remember back just one year. Last year, I had a head start on the whole Movember thing. Because my skin condition had pretty much torn up one side of my jawline, I hadn’t shaved for a fortnight on the run in. So I had something starting to grow ready for the start of Movember.

It was about this time last year that I gave up protesting and sought treatment, which made a good start on repairing the damage. And there was a lot of damage all over. I can’t remember the precise details but I can remember getting through the cricket season last year pretty much intact. It was the rainy conditions that drew participation last year to a close, whereas this year it was my knee getting torn up. I think it was the diet change that initiated the condition getting much, much worse. Instead of it being just on my legs, it spread to arms, shoulders, back, bum, hips, face, ears and more of my legs.

Yep. Lots of damage and I was probably underestimating things (as I do) when I reckon it affected over 30% of me.

The condition now is so much better, although I’m not counting my chickens just yet. And I have to keep exerting that discipline (I’m not doing so good at it actually) to stop worrying the bad bits cos that makes them much worse.

Oh, as well as diet, there was a definite stress trigger as end of summer last year was one of the most stressful periods at work that I can remember. There’s two that come close but not actually this bad. Or are they ? One of those periods had me actively considering driving the car off the road at high speed and what stopped me was what family would think. (This is from a long time ago and before I had a bunch of friends in Bristol I can go to for support).

Incidentally, this is one reason why I’m sensitive about people I know who are struggling. Cos I’ve been there, know how it feels and would do anything I could to help them away from that very dark place.

I wonder if that incident is why I’m so uptight about workplace discrimination ? Because discrimination was at the heart of why I was so low in that bad time.

But enough of that. Too much depression posting makes me start to get low and I don’t want that. What I do want to do is think about going forward.

I wouldn’t pass myself ready (on the outside) to run around just yet. There’s still damage on my arms and the skin is very easily made worse. So when I’d throw myself around and get cuts and scrapes, there’s a good chance those will hang around for a while. However :

Ears – are now perfect, outside of the soreness I’ve always got where my glasses rub.
Face – no Zombiepatch ! And I can shave properly. Still doing Movember this year, although as usual for me and charity – awareness only because I feel bad taking money from people for doing nothing.
Bum – smoooooth.
Hips – there’s still some damage but it’s almost mended.
Arms – hopefully under control, they’re my worst bit and the “hopefully” comes from knowing I’m still being helped by drugs.
Legs – are almost perfect again. Again, smoooth where a few months ago I could split the skin by running.

So – still some damage but it’s repairing nicely. I even have a perverse wish to show off those legs again. Although preferably when they’re in pasty-white mode because they still like to go red occasionally.

And now I’m thinking of a way to close !

I’m improving but there’s a sense of loneliness that being addicted to WoW (again) can’t cover. Now that I’m more intact, I think on a subconscious level I’d like to be getting out more again. There’s a few chances for that coming up with work but I’d kinda like something more intimate. That’s one of my inhibitions though. Or is it knowing who I’d like to treat to a dinner and a movie but being scared of the answer if I asked ?

And on that exposure of stuff strangely more candid for my norm, time to run back into that addiction !

See you later in the week for more of that Top 40. At the moment, the random track of choice is Queen’s Radio Ga Ga. Always an anthem worth listening to.

I’m starting to make a dent in listening to all that 11,000 track library again, although it’s going to take Ages ! to listen to it all again. (I’ve listened to just 399 of them so far and am having a Strictly break because I just had one of those WoW sessions where it goes dark outside without you noticing).

So what were the ones I listened to most of all on the old library ?

Before I kick off, bear in mind that some of the newer discoveries (Rachel Sermanni, Hannah Peel) and releases (Arctic Monkeys AM, Bat For Lashes Haunted Man) have a handicap because they haven’t been in the library as long as the Cardigans, Alisha’s Attic and All About Eves.

As per usual, I’m putting the occasional link in (I may do this later, I have 20 minutes before the dinner bell goes ! And smoke alarms are not my friend) and it’ll be to Youtube videos. As per tradition, they’re in reverse order. It’s 40 to 21 today (cos top 40 would be a Monsta!) :

40 – The xx – Stars. The xx burst on the scene a couple of years ago and were an immediate hit. They’re good but hopefully they’ll find another direction to go because they were also very samey.
39 – Weird Al – Star Trekkin’. Can’t forget that video with the Pizza-Enterprise.
38 – Tori Amos – I Can’t See New York. This has to be one of my most favourite songs of all time.
37 – T’Pau – Taking Time Out. This is from their Rage album. Not bad. But not quite China In Your Hand.
36 – Snow Patrol – Set Down Your Glass. Another who were in danger of getting samey but they keep coming up with something new.

35 – Simon and Garfunkel – The Sound of Silence. Come on ! You know this one, it’d be in anyone’s Top 40 if they thought of it 🙂
34 – Shivaree – Goodnight Moon. This one’s from the Kill Bill soundtrack, which is brimfull of classic tracks.
33 – River City People – Home and Dry. This one closes out their brilliant first album.
32 – Paramore – The Only Exception. Flowing, bouncing melody, lyrics you would die to have sung to you.
31 – Doctor’s Theme from Series 4 – I’ve been a lifelong Doctor Who fan and the music from Murray Gold since the return has been stellar.

30 – Michelle Shocked – Vx Fx Dx. Love the humour in this one and it’s backed up by Michelle Shocked’s distinctive voice.
29 – Fossiles – Carnival of the Animals. This whole album is full of music that’s been robbed for many adverts and bits of incidental music and this one puts that picture of skeletons dancing into the head.
28 – Lene Marlin – Unforgiveable Sinner. Not her best but it’s the one that started it off. It’s from her first album, it shows off her voice in a modern enough track to pull the attention. Ms Marlin is on my list of people I buy albums for immediately … and there’s not many on that list.
27 – Katie Melua – Nine Million Bicycles. I honestly prefer Shy Boy but this track has that soft melody and perfect voice that I love to croak along to.
26 – Forever Autumn from War of the Worlds, sung by Justin Haywood. Singing like this doesn’t come along every day. And it comes at a place in the War of the Worlds that makes it all the more poignant. I’m avoiding the new generation of WotW but this original takes some beating.

(and oh no ! I’m running out of adjectives !)

25 – Goldfrapp – Eat Yourself. After hearing their cover of It’s Not Over Yet, this is from the Seventh Tree album. Goldfrapp either do soft or disco and their soft is absolutely gorgeous. This is their soft at their best. Almost …
24 – Goldfrapp – Road to Somewhere. There’s a lot of incredible tracks on Road to Somewhere (still their best album) and this is the pick of the lot. I feel an early listen coming on.
23 – Edie Brickell – One Last Time. Edie’s been around for a very long time, this is one of the more recent. She’s been consistently interesting to listen to over her whole career, this is no exception.
22 – Edie Brickell – Lost in the Moment. And going back to nearer the start, this track stands out because it tells a story as it goes through. True, it’s a sad story but so oh so beautifully sung.
21 – Duffy – I’m Scared. Sadly Duffy seems to be burning out early. She’s got a strange, distinctive voice, it matches this song extremely well.

That’s it for now, dinner bell is about to go off, shortly followed by the smoke alarm.

Wait … where’s the Cardigans, the Alisha’s Attic, the Kate Bush and the All About Eve ? That’ll start in Parts 2 and 3 😉 Along with a few more too.

PS I may revisit and add Youtube links later when I have more time …

Accessorise !

First blog post on the new Macbook 🙂

I thought I’d say a few things about the migration process. I have to be honest and say that in some ways, it’s actually easier than going from one Windows PC to another Windows PC. As part of the first time setup, there’s a Migration Tool that runs which can grab all of your info from your old machine and will copy it across to the new one. So, all my documents and pictures have come across without me having to do much. My email accounts are set up, although they needed the passwords putting back in (this is not a Bad Thing).

I’m quietly impressed with Firefox too, it has a facility called Firefox Sync which transfers bookmarks, history and addons across to any other machine. So I’m back to a reasonably familiar browser and tab set up (VR forum, Blogger, Facebook!) and the others that I look through like once a day (Register, Tomshardware and a few others) are there through the history.

One thing about the Migration wizard however – it takes time (can be lots of hours) and you only get the option to do it once (it may still be available, not gone looking !). It’s worth preparing ahead of time, deleting stuff you don’t want from the old machine before you start the process.

The Macbook (which desperately needs a name to join Nighthawk and Pumpkin) was pretty good about be taking off Itunes 11 and replacing it with the superior iTunes 10.7 (the removal of DJ was a crime). I’m just finishing off transferring the library (yep – it’s taken a couple of evenings!) using a feature called Homeshare. If you’ve not used it before, this is an exceptional tool built into iTunes that allows you to back up your library simply.

Applications wise, I have no complaints. There’s a built in Mail client which appears superior to the very weak Windows equivalent (the Windows one was cripple-ware). And MS Office will not be touching this system, even though I can still get it cheap from work. Don’t know what’s happening there, we got an announcement a couple of weeks ago saying that the arrangement was coming to a close, that we were no longer permitted to use it and could we kindly uninstall it ? (Ha ! Likely ? Not) But anyway, MS Office turned into an unusable piece of trash a few versions ago and has been digging downwards since. I’ll look at an opensource alternative.

Keyboard … Hmm. It’s an Ultrabook, which means it’s missing a bunch of keys. Apple also use just one button, there’s supposed to be a context menu like the right-click but I’ve not intentionally found how to get it yet. For the context commands, it’s off you go to the menus and that means a lot of mouse movement which can be bad for an RSI sufferer. Things like page-up/page-down and using the cursors to move and select word by word are different and take some getting used to.

It’s early days so far but I’m definitely appreciating the change. It’s a lot more responsive, which has a lot to do with the SSD hard disc that it’s built on. These devices will speed up any machine because they remove all the wait time.

Hold on.

Accessories ????

I need ’em.

My old laptop travelled in a fairly big bag that could hold its 17″, 4.5kg frame. If I put the Macbook in there, it’ll rattle and disappear into the void. However … I will also need space for :
Airport Express (want to upgrade)
HDMI cable – need an adaptor
Monitor cable – need an adaptor
Audio cable – to plug into the Airport Express
Power cable – 12 hours battery life is great but it’s not infinite
Cables for iPhone and iPod Nano

I also need to play with apps. I’ve made a little selection which I will need to check out but any ideas ? Drop in a comment 🙂