Sleepypete's Pillow

I’ve been back in the gaming lately.

I have a few names which I’ve started recycling around characters when I’m gaming. Most of them are girls names, because – hey, given the choice wouldn’t you want to be looking at something gorgeous all game ? That also goes for the voice acting. When it comes to a Mass Effect play through, I’d much rather listen to the silky tones of Jennifer Hale than the alternative, Mark Meer.

One thing about Skyrim is that while there’s quite a bit of voice acting in the game, the main character has no voice. Not in a Gordon Freeman strong but silent hero (from the Half Life games), you can talk to people but it just comes up as text. There’s no sound with it.

Names. What names do I use ? I’ve settled on a small selection :

Mages/Wizards get called Iceangel. I feel that’s a strong but cold name.
Warriors are Bashara. As in, “Bash” plus a bit of trollification. Or “Ba – sher – a” as one Scandinavian accent said it. (Hello Cloudberry!)
Hunter types get called Finlay, after a myth. Thought it was a cool name, it just happened to have an appropriate myth attached to it.
(that’s actually the true test – does it sound cool)
Keela – is the name for my priest/cleric characters. This was chosen randomly by a D&D character creator programme and I liked it enough that it became my Eve character name.

And there’s a couple more character names too. My Sith sorceror got called “Morrd”. Stealthy characters use “Nocimi”.

Wait – this was supposed to be a picture post to tide me over while it was too hot to think straight :

That’s Bashara, deciding whether or not to investigate* a strange outpost in the middle of the Skyrim countryside. Skyrim is a massive game. You’ll be running from A to B or town to next quest location. But on the way … what’s that over there ? Let’s go have a look shall we ? This is no on-the-rails RPG like Deus Ex HR or even Mass Effect. It’s a completely open world filled with :

Curious strongholds to investigate*
Interesting people to say hello to
And lots of dead bodies to loot

*(yes – Investigate is usually followed by “why you try to kill me?” followed by aggressive negotiation a la Jedi. If they don’t want visitors, they should put up “No soliciting” signs !)

I got a little bored with Bashara though. I couldn’t really get into the melee combat system. It’s more player skill orientated than I believe a RPG should be, with it being more luck than judgment too.

Definitely beware. That would be Iceangel, who is an entirely different can of whoop ass. She uses bunnies as target practice. (They’re tricky little critters ! They bounce all over the place)

This scene was a good example of the voice acting. It’s not often that voice acting goes as far as singing. Yet in Skyrim there’s a good few minstrels around that prop up the inns.

Oh and the Skyrim Iceangel also snipes birds off statues.

I’ve been rather enjoying Skyrim since restarting as the mage.

PS Clicking on the pictures will hopefully get them opening bigger (must peek at the settings again). The originals are 1080p and I think highest detail. It’s a very pretty game, which just adds to the sense of immersion. Trudging through a blizzard feels Hard.

Been getting some amusement over the past few days …

I’ve been getting guesses out of people for how old they think I am. It’s usually as a follow on to me saying that I’m too old to be throwing myself around a cricket field.

It’s been good for the soul too, as the age guesses have been placing me at around 28-30. (“Or even younger” as one said today). That’s really good to hear, as about 6 months ago that age guess range was 32-34. It gives a bit of truth to the saying that losing weight can take years off your age, as over that 6 month period, I’ve lost a stone. I haven’t broken through the 13 stone barrier yet (that won’t happen until after the cricket season) but I’m stable there.

Good times.

It must be something in my genes. As it has absolutely nothing to do with me :

Looking after myself properly (outside of snacking less)
Lack of stress (work pushes me and I push myself harder)
Funny chemicals and other “beauty” products
Getting exercise for keep fit stuff (that just seems to wear people out)

I do avoid a lot of the common poisons like drink (prefer taste of cola), nicotine (smoking is a really nasty habit all round) and drugs (of all kinds). I’ve never smoked because I figured early on that it would wreck lungs that are already not great. I avoid alcohol now, except for special occasions, because my IBS is controllable except when I drink. And I very rarely take drugs of any kind, be it medicinal or recreational.

So I don’t really have any magic formula for looking young, except – Keep a positive attitude, avoid the vices.

I don’t feel that young though. I definitely feel my 37 years and then some, with most of my damage being on the inside. Even with the bruising from last week, the spectacular bruise is the one that’s least of a problem. That said though, after yesterday putting myself to “reserve only” (i.e. let someone else have a game) for this week’s cricket, I’m feeling improved today.

Wonder how much of that is down to having the chance to grin at four!* lovely ladies at our contractor’s office today ? It’s not all about the grinning though, we had the chance to talk through and sort out some issues.

*(two because three became four as I remembered a couple more that I’ve known from Way Back on this project. Erm – make it 5 cos of Doreen on the front desk too)

Oh – I have a youtube channel now. I have to admit, I only made it so I could comment on a youtube video. But … you never know. I’ve been enjoying the Dodger Coffeh Time vlogs a lot over the past couple of weeks. They feel like what this blog would be like if I did it with video. It’s become essential viewing, at the end of every Coffeh Time vlog, Dodger will wish us a wonderful day. And you know what ? The day feels so much brighter for that.

So – dunno if I’ll post any webcammy type videos to that youtube channel (if I do, I’ll add a link to the list). It won’t be gameplay video as I tend to fade in and out of games. Could be an occasional vlog as that would let me show what I mean with some of the cricket stuff. But something I would inflict people with – karaoke !

Now there’s a threat that’ll make people run away screaming. MUAHAHA.

This one’s spotted from the Facebook feed 🙂 And from the TBB blog (post linked here) too. The theme of the meme is “What’s in your cd wallet ?” and asks :

Name a cd you own that no one else on your friends list does. (This will get linked on to my Facebook as soon as I post)

That sets the boundaries as things like – no mainstream, unusual albums and avoiding everyone else’s favourites.

First on the list and my banker has to be Attic Vaults 1 by Alisha’s Attic. I’ve mentioned this one before, it’s a collection of half finished demos and songs that never made B-side or album. And honestly, they should have. It’s an ultra rare album and it still has some excellent songs on it. Oh ! Here’s one of the best on Youtube.

Michelle Shocked – Texas Campfire Tapes
Gene Roddenberry & Co – Star Trek Motion Picture convention tapes
(it came as a freebie with the Motion Picture soundtrack)
Cardigans – iTunes original collection
(think greatest hits but with interviews that make it more than just a track collection)
Norah Jones – iTunes original collection
(and I am cheating with that last pair)

Ennio Morricone soundtracks – The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. I have this movie recorded and need to watch it again soon. Watched it first as a kid with my dad, brother and sister and we were transfixed from start to finish. Brilliant movie.
Basil Poledouris ain’t bad either – the Conan The Barbarian (with Arnie, not Jason) soundtrack is special.

Duffy – Rockferry. No. Not the main album, the bonus disc 🙂
Everything But The Girl – Baby, the Stars Shine Tonight. And there’s a good reason no one else will have this
Pink Floyd – Animals.
Bix Beiderbecke – The Beiderbecke Affair. Soundtrack from a brilliant series from the 80s.
The Best Rock Ballads … Ever – collection disc
Morcheeba – Blood Like Lemonade (this is one of the new ones)
T’Pau – Rage. Probably a better album than their first but with less stand-out tracks.

Hannah Peel – The Broken Wave. If you like female vocals and haven’t got this ? Check it out NOW.

Seasonal :
Elaine Paige – Christmas
Joan Baez – Noel
Hannah Peel – Hey Santa
(moving swiftly on …)

Chopin’s Preludes
Elgar’s Pomp & Circumstance marches (am a sucker for singing along to Last Night of the Proms)
2001 soundtrack
Peer Gynt by Grieg

Cults by the Cults – another new one but I don’t think they got as trendy as fast as The XX.
Little Boots – Hands. If you don’t have this in your collection, it’s a tragedy.
Voice of The Beehive – Honey Lingers. This has the track “I’m Shooting Cupid” and sometimes lately, I feel like shooting him too !
Sleeper – Smart. I have all their albums now.
Dubstar – Pleased to Meet You. Same with Dubstar 🙂 Sarah Makes It Better.
All About Eve – Return To Eden. To be honest, the only thing that makes this raid into the AAE back catalogue worth it is the Devil Woman cover. Grab the live albums instead if you want a collection.

Buffy – Once More With Feeling. Ok, I know at least one friend will have this (RCA!)
Star Wars soundtracks – Ep1 and the old movies. 7 cds.
Sucker Punch soundtrack – surprisingly well matched to a movie I must watch again after the latest Star Wars rewatching.
Mindy Gledhill – The Sum Of All Grace. Open, honest, personal religion can be very beautiful.

And I’ll close with an Edie Brickell album that I grew up with and got close to wearing out : Ghost Of A Dog.

PS RIP Robin Gibb – sadly I have no Bee Gees in my collection … at all !

Managed to sneak the following exclamation out of someone at work a couple of days ago :

“Pete – weren’t you wearing protection ?”

With the mucky parts of my mind immediately going to naughty connotations of that instead of the innocent explanation of showing off the bruises. (They’re far more spectacular now too than they were Thursday)

I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about the protection cricketers wear before (and after I’m done here, I may go peeking to remember what I wrote) and it had this picture with it :

That’s the protective gear I currently have and, if you also include shoes and knee pads, it’s all I use. There’s a fine balance between having too little protection and having so much that it gets in your way.

There’s a fair bit of other kit available for batting, things like chest guards, arm guards, thigh pads. But I don’t use them. I’ve used an arm guard in the past and been hit heavily on the arm twice. But all the arm guard did was get in the way. Both times I was hit, it missed the arm guard :

Wrist – it hit my watch and smashed it (cheap n nasty Timex)
Elbow – numbed the lower arm, possibly chipped the bone

A thigh pad (a cushion stuffed down your trousers) may have been handy but with my chunky legs … it ain’t gonna fit. At least not with some of the pairs of whites I have. I’ve always rejected chest protectors because they’d interfere with my breathing too much.

The best protection is always : “Get outta the way”. And wearing too much gear will slow you down to the point where you will get hit when you’d have otherwise got out of the way.

Fielding is a bit different. I’ve always had weak knees (legacy of rugby at school and muscles that developed before joints) so I wear knee protection. I think this is actually one of the causes of the leg infection last year, because the new ones were too tight. The knee pads are also there to give padding when I let cricket balls bounce off my knees. Trouble is, for the two hits Wednesday and Thursday, the padding wasn’t in the right place.

That’s the “too much” vs “just enough” again – you could go out there like the Michelin man but if you can’t run, you’re no good. Because of the damage to my shoulder, the only advantage I have on the field now is my speed. Too much protection would slow me down to the point of being useless out there.

Helmets are similar – the first batting helmets were effectively motorcycle helmets. For cricket, that’s no good because you need to be able to hear the calling for runs. I.e. miss the “yes”, miss the “no”, miss the inevitable “sorry”.

Think that’s enough for today. I’d consider wearing shin pads on the field and they may just have saved the superficial (but spectacular) bruise on my right leg. But for the one on my left leg, it would have hit between shin pad and boot. I.e. too much protection for too little benefit.

And seeing the autocomplete come up for that title, I’m about to hunt through the archives (657 posts) to see where I used it before …

First games of the season are always tough for me physically, even before I get in the way of the ball and hurt myself. I’ve appreciated the chance to do very little today except watch the cricket while simultaneously watching videos from the gamer people.

One thing that struck me during the TGS podcast was the difference between what gamers look for in their fun and what gym people look for in their chosen past time. They were criticizing Diablo 3 not for being cursed by a daft always-online restriction but for being too samey. In a lot of games (I can’t talk for Diablo 3 because I don’t intend to buy it) the game suffers due to repetition. The gameplay life of the game is extended by repeating the same maps over and over again but with only very subtle differences.

Yawn. I gave up on Diablo 1 early due to that. Random map ? Annoying. Same enemies ? Yawn. Different colour but exact same enemies just tougher ? Watupwidat ?

Mass Effect 1 suffered from this a bit by the side quest missions being set in prefab buildings. Which makes sense for the setting but it’s incredibly boring going into Prefab Garage 89 after Prefab Garage 1,2,3,4etc, with the variation being Underground Bunker Prefab or Standard Space Freighter. That didn’t make Mass Effect 1 a bad game but it did make it somewhat Grindy. (Where the game duration is extended through repetition)

Ok – what makes that comparable to gym people ?

I don’t go to a gym. Never have. Although I can run Very Fast, I’ve never done jogging training either (I should do). The reason is that I can’t stand that repetition thing. If the aim of the session is to do 50 push ups, 30 sit ups, 100 reps on Equipment A, 100 reps on Equipment B, 10km on the bike – that to me is boring as hell. Apart from “I want to get fitter”, there is no real aim to it.

Sport is much better than Exercise for the sake of it. I’d like to be as good as I can be on a cricket field. I have the potential to be a very effective batsman at my level and the core speed to be a better fielder. It doesn’t come out at the moment. So my aim is to unlock that potential and prove to myself that I can still get runouts. I’m a harder person to please than the rest of the two teams I’m involved in.

When I look back at the two games this week, I can see all sorts of ways I could improve in terms of skill. If I’d spent that time in a gym, all I could improve is number of reps or time taken. I’m stiff as hell at the moment but I feel like I’ve earned it.

And through that, I’ve earned the opportunity to have a chill out.

Wait – games vs exercise. Exercise is solely against yourself. Games (both sport and online multiplayer) are all about being up against other people. Your skill vs their skill. If you win, you feel like you’ve earned it. (But don’t forget to remember a “yeah, we lost to better opponents, we’ll try harder next time”)

Cricket’s over for the day now so the music’s gone on. I owe you guys a music post sometime soon but before that, what new stuff has appeared ?

Maroon 5 – I’ve been pleasantly surprised by these guys. Their Songs About Jane was an excellent album and their Hands All Over is pretty good too. I just picked up their “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long”. It’s not my favourite Female Vocal + Band type theme but the variation makes them great to listen to.

Morcheeba – is more variation in the way that Portishead is variation. They’re both very different and with a brain that works like mine (great memory can be a bitch sometimes for avoiding boredom) that variation makes me sit up, listen and sing along.

Air – Pocket Symphony came along at the same time as the Maroon 5 album (2 for £10!). It’s more variation.

Saying “variation is good” though, I’m looking forward to listening to some Cardigans, Alisha’s Attic, All About Eve and Kate Bush (old ones, the new ones suck) albums again.

PS Physically ? I think I’m about to start improving there. Thighs still feel like iron but I think tomorrow they’ll start to forgive me. Hands are bruised, as are the legs. Right shin has spectacular bruising. Back and shoulder are sore (snafu). Will I make Wednesday’s game with all that ? Should do 🙂

Wariness of being an early adopter is appropriate to all things but the tech world in particular.

Tech tends to be all about getting the shiniest devices or the flashiest games to the market as quickly as possible, so money can be made from the latest iGadget. Speed is vital because if the iPhone 67 comes out before Android v34, iPhone 67 gets all the attention and all the sales.

And that’s how it’s been with the phones and tablets recently – the iPad and iPhone got to the market early and got seen as The Item to have. To be fair to Apple there, they got it bang on with their early devices and it’s only on the more recent ones (iPhone 4 Antenna-gate, 4g support etc) that they’ve got caught out from rushing a device to market before it’s truly ready as Apple’s software and design quality control has dropped.

The game world gets hit very badly by this too. On my shelf, there’s a game called Master of Orion 3. There were 7 long years before the essential and incredible Moo2 got its sequel Moo3. But when Moo3 did come out, it was a massive letdown in both gameplay (which was atrocious – it played itself with no input possible from the player) and stability. Even worse was Championship Manager 3, which was a bug ridden pile of filth. To show what I think of CM3, I will break my no swearing rule :

CM3 was an abomination that the developers should have been ashamed of. Out of the box, it was barely playable through half a season if you were lucky. It was a steaming pile of crap, which was followed by the developers throwing even more manure at us through full price sequels that fixed hardly any of the bugs in the original CM3. It was a disgrace to gaming and the developers are very lucky they’re still in business.

Yes – I wasted my cash on several of those sequels in the hope I’d finally get a playable game. Didn’t happen.

What makes it worse is that the magazine reviews said it was awesome. I’m a firm believer that the magazines don’t actually play the same games as the ones that end up on the shelf. Or they’re so much in the pocket of the publishers that they suppress the bad points. This is what makes the opinion of people like Totalbiscuit ever more important, as he’s honest about what he thinks about a game. If it’s a stinker, he lets us know. If it’s really bad, he’ll rant which can be hilarious.

Yet we still see people going down the early adopter route.

Sticking to the game world – Diablo 3 came out this week and people will have been seeing it hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The developer, Blizzard, have a mantra “we shall release when it’s ready”. In Diablo 3’s case, that appears to have been replaced by “we shall beat the competition to release date”. The game isn’t finished and the infrastructure wasn’t up to the release loading :

Missing pvp – I wouldn’t be bothered by this but I know others see it as essential
Missing auction house – this was a major feature
Inability to play – it’s an online only game and the servers weren’t letting people in

That “inability to play” is something where the pirates have spoiled our fun by the way. It’s an anti-copy mechanism that is aimed at stopping people freeloading. But that’s me getting sidetracked.

Early adoption syndrome hits all sorts of things.

The early hybrid cars weren’t particularly worth having as they didn’t have enough power. It’s only on Gen3 Prius (which forms the basis mechanically for my Lexus CT) where they got enough power to get great economy and great flexibility. People who switched early to HD tellies got tellies that don’t have all the dots to let them be sharp. Similar with my amp, early adopters wouldn’t have got HD quality sound.

And you’ll see people all the time get caught out by rushing to buy the latest and greatest new gadget. Take care when you see Shinies, waiting before jumping will :

Let you get it cheaper
Let you sensibly think – will I actually use this ?
Often get you something more polished
Allows other people to find out it’s a stinker before you open your wallet

But then again, we are talking Shinies here … and Shiny Gadgets are very tempting indeed.

PS I’m getting the stiffness after the games now. May not be able to move much over the weekend (not a problem – cricket’s on telly). Thighs and hamstrings feel like they’re on fire, bruise on right shin now extends over 9 inches. Bruise on left shin hasn’t come out yet. Will I be fit for Wednesday’s game ? We shall see. Fingers crossed.

Excellent start to the season so far.

Second game was tonight and despite a shaky start, our bowlers came through by taking wickets at steady intervals which keeps the scoring rate down nicely.

My fielding was again : average but enthusiastic. A little too enthusiastic as I’m rushing the fielding and snatching at the ball. That ends up in :

Me getting hurt (yep – I’m broken again)
Missing good chances to get wickets (by fumbling the ball when I should be throwing in)

What I should be able to do is swoop in, pick up the ball one handed and get the release away. Doesn’t have to be a hard throw (cos I can’t do that no more) but accuracy and fast release save a lot of time and get you wickets. Still, I saved a few runs by looking as if I knew what I was doing plus I have grass stains where some people don’t have places. (I’m lighter and have Speed again but I’m still tubby)

How did I get hurt ?

I don’t count superficial stuff there, outside bruises being great to show off. The leg/knee shiner from yesterday doesn’t really count, as I still had full running power available. I got hit on the shin again. 2 years ago, that was Very Bad News as I suspect I had it caused a crack in my shin bone. It was a similar hit again tonight, a solid shot going through my hands and on to the shin bone.

I was able to continue fielding and did a short amount of batting later but I’m worried by it again. 2 years ago it blighted most of that season as I just couldn’t put any power through my left leg. (Run, walk but not sprint) We’ll see how it goes. Yesterday’s bruise came up quickly, tonight’s hasn’t developed yet.

Batting was … different.

Yesterday’s problem was that I was thinking too much. I had thoughts rushing around my head as the bowler came in for what I was going to do with the ball. That doesn’t help. Instead of playing an appropriate shot, I was picking a shot before the bowler let the ball go. Bad news.

Tonight, I managed to follow one plan – “Empty my head, think of nothing”. Which worked. Everything was working much better for the short time I was out there. But … main plan was – “nudge singles, play yourself in”. Our star batsman was in at the other end whacking boundaries, so the nudge singles plan would have been awesome for the team and had me at Position A for watching the fun.

What happened ? The bowling was so juicy that instead of nudging singles, I was going to whack every ball (and connecting) but popped one up fairly early for a decent catch. Waste of an opportunity.

But my own performance isn’t really that important (although I would like to be the star player like how it used to be when I bowled). What matters is the team scoreline and it’s : 2 games played, 2 games won.

I’m quite stiff and sore now, I’ll be in work tomorrow but I’m looking forward to some chill out over the weekend watching England in the test match. Cross fingers for no rain.

And the thought running through my head right now is : I’m too old for this !

Beautiful day today, if a little cold. Lots of sunshine, no rain. Great conditions for cricket. (The sunshine takes some of the squishiness out of the pitch by drying it up). Pitch was pretty good, if a little variable in bounce. Not much evidence of all the rain, although the bits of the pitch that were down the hill were still a bit squishy. I wouldn’t want to play on the BAWA pitch (the one where my legs always explode) at the moment, it’s probably unplayable.

As a quick aside – with all the hate against Google+ at the moment, you’d have thought Facebook would have its act together ? Far too many posts (including all of mine and a few others) disappear from a News Feed that is supposed to show everything.

One thing I’ll say right now – a lot of this will read depressive, even though we won because I’m tired, didn’t play great and I’ve got a lot to work on.

We batted first, with me being one of the opening pair. I need to work a lot on my technique – shot selection was great. I scratched out 7 runs, plus a few sharp singles for the other guy. I seem to have a lot of my speed back again, which is awesome. But I still need to work on that shot selection and the trigger movements that get everything started.

How did I get out ? This is embarassing. I got bowled (ball gets past me and hits the stumps). But I stood there … cos I was thinking : “they’re not celebrating” and “that was too high wasn’t it ?” and I thought the noise from behind was the ball going into the keeper’s gloves. Oh well 🙂 Maybe they weren’t celebrating cos they wanted me to stay there !

That’s the way my seasons tend to start, I get desperately in need of having the cobwebs dusted off. My breathing wasn’t great and will hopefully improve over the next few weeks.

I didn’t catch the full score but we got just over a hundred, with lots of banter going on. Next up – fielding.

I got consigned to the outfield, which I really don’t enjoy because you’re waiting for big shots instead of anticipating the batsmen dropping the ball down and attempting quick singles. I just love to swoop in on those and try and get run outs. Keeps the Sleepy One awake as well. I didn’t keep wicket, which was good because the fella who had the gloves for us did an excellent job behind the stumps.

Good display by us in the field, despite the cold there was a lot of energy going in. Lots of catches taken held up the opposition enough for us to sneak a very tight win.

I appear to have my speed back, which is great. However … (and this is the source of the depressive mood) the damage is triggering thoughts of “you’re too old for this”

Groin tear/strain is still there. But it doesn’t stop me running at top speed.
Shoulder is down to maybe 1 good throw in a game.
I’ll have a massive shiner on my right shin where I stopped a boundary.
Not damage but my fielding technique needs a lot of work. I appear to have a few trained in faults (actually good technique for a left hander …) that I need to work on.

That’s adding to an awful lot of rustiness.

Anyway – had me shower. Had a very late dinner, caught myself nearly flaking out due to energy debt (was training today so didn’t eat as much in prep as I should have) and I know that when I eventually hit the sack, it’ll be a struggle to get up those stairs.

Another game tomorrow ! Hopefully a similar result to tonight’s game.

PS The Pink Cap is escaping the pyre of a ritual sacrifice. It did ok tonight and a firm brim is better for looking into low sun than the floppy brim of a sun hat.

I have a habit of seeing patterns in things I read or see or hear and making connections that are so tenuous, you’d not believe them.

It can be handy, so I’ll make logic leaps that get us the info we need. Or it’ll let me figure out answers to problems. Trouble is, I can miss the obvious.

That’s enough about me – what’s the latest unconnected stories that I’ve spotted ?

The one that started me thinking was : USPS will not ship Li-ion batteries internationally any more. (Tomshardware link). The worry is that a certain type of rechargeable battery has more likelihood to catch fire or explode. I think the issue from the article is with batteries that aren’t an integral part of the device. My Android phone would escape because you can’t separate it from its battery.

Should you be worried ?

There’s 3 main types of rechargeable battery :
NiCAD – the original rechargeable. Had a really limited life and low energy density (less hours with the torch lit).
Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) – the mk2. Higher energy density and lasts far longer.
Lithium Ion – best current tech. Far better energy density for the same life.

What’s energy density ? My car uses a NiMH battery pack that lets it go a mile or so at 40mph without the engine on. There’s a Prius coming that uses a Li-Ion battery that could go tens of miles at the same speed.

Ok – should you be worried ? Electronic Engineer says : No. (But don’t sue me on that !) Every bit of consumer electronics that you use has gone through extensive testing to make sure it’s safe. So the chances of that iPhone brewing up are slim to remote (unless the stories really have been suppressed).

And now for the Join The Dots – Chevy Volt buyers spooked by fires. (BBC link)

This one was a little scary when I read it originally. It wasn’t a fire that started at the original crash (which is scary in itself), it was a fire that happened on a crash test car several weeks after the crash testing. That shouldn’t happen.

If you’re looking at the Volt or Vauxhall Ampera, I’d raise my eyebrows. But I wouldn’t strike it off the “potential next car” list. Stuff like this can happen, it’s best to predict it and anticipate it out of the design but when it does happen, manufacturers will sort it out quickly. Or their customers run away screaming which is really bad for business. That said, I avoided the Volt/Ampera because – it was taking too long to arrive, I distrust Vauxhall and the Lexus was shinier.

This weekend saw story number 3 : Fire in the Williams garage at Spanish Grand Prix. (BBC link)

Formula 1 cars these days are hybrids, where they have the engine assisted by an electric motor for up to 7 seconds a lap. What they think caused the fire was a spark from the KERS (hybrid motor thing) battery igniting fuel. Potentially very nasty. They got away with it in the pitlane fire, only one person was hospitalised.

Makes you think though – the car I’m driving around at the moment has a hybrid motor as powerful as the Formula 1 KERS motor (60kW). The batteries are bigger and are located behind and below the back seats, close to the petrol tank. In theory, there should be no risk as both fuel tank and battery are sealed.

But … then you remember what we’re driving now and what we used to drive – safety’s not a problem. Hybrid doesn’t add any risk that wasn’t already there :
High voltage spark plugs – I’ve seen huge sparkage when we fired up a damp engine. It was like christmas lights going off.
Extremely flammable petrol
Batteries that can generate lot of hydrogen when charging. Hydrogen + Oxygen = KABOOM

Now I’ve scared everyone … time for me to run to the bomb shelter.

As an update – it's not cables or bluray player … Same audio blip was happening with different cables and different bluray player. So it's either :

Amplifier (likely as Onkyo have known issue with HDMI)
Telly (unlikely)

Anyway – dvd playback is working fine with Xbox360 -> Amp, it's just when blurays only have Dolby D soundtracks (instead of HD) where I now have a problem.