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Ireland vs. England Cricket

By on June 19, 2006 in General

I was at the inaugural one day cricket international last week between Ireland and England. It was held at Stormont which is about 5 minutes walk from my house 🙂 I’ve posted about Stormont before here.The atmosphere was excellent. There where about 7000 people there, including a contingent of the English Barmy Army. When I was playing cricket it was Stormont that I played at. I’ll be back to play again, if not this year then certainly next year.

Steve Harmison can bowl a bit. Very quick! Here are some pictures taken on the day.

MacBook – First Impressions

By on May 25, 2006 in General

Got the MacBook today. Some first impressions:

• It’s black. Really black. The references to Hotblack Desiato’s ship are fully justified. The case seems to absorb all light. I like it 🙂

• The magnetic screen closure. Good strong magnet.

• Screen angle. I can push the screen pack as far as I need. It certainly goes back as far as I ever used the PBG4 display.

• Screen covering. Glossy. Like a mirror when the backlight is off. Seems fine so far in use but all I’ve done is run the initial set-up and allowed it to download all the latest updates.

• Screen size. Nice and wide. It looks a bit to small in height though. 1280 x 800 in size. Be interesting to see if the 800 is limiting.

• Screen image. Very crisp. Very nice colours.

• Keyboard feel. Typed a few paragraphs to test it. Good feel in that test. Again time will tell. I’m not writing this message on it.

• Keys. It looks like the characters on the keys are offset to the right. In reality they are in the centre of the keys. This is a bit distracting. Probably get used to it.

• Keyboard position. The keyboard is sunken into the case. Hopefully it won’t touch the screen with the lid closed. Can’t close it to check as the software update is in progress.

• Heat. It’s been on for about an hour. The palm rests are room at temperature. There is a warm (not hot yet) bit on the left hand side near the power input and about 2 inches in radius. Goes over to the 2-W-S-Z-alt keys. Not hot. Just warmer than the rest. The right had side of the case feels cool to touch. Bottom is warm in the same area as described above on the left. Middle and right side is cool. Hopefully it’ll stay that way in real use.

• Weight. About the same as my PBG4.

• Fit and finish. Excellent. It’s really well made. Too me it’s like the offspring of a Titanium PowerBook and a Pismo G3. I really like it.

So far: Very nice indeed.

Wasted – Def Leppard

By on May 23, 2006 in General

The Def Leppard song Wasted, from their debut album On Through The Night, has always been one of my favourite rock songs. Probably due to the the context of my life when it was released. Lots of good stuff happening like parties etc. 😉 I bought the album on tape originally. I think it’s still lying in a box somewhere. I’ve been checking the iTMS periodically waiting for it to appear there so I could download it. I know I could have went a got the CD – but I didn’t. Anyway, I noticed tonight that it was available on iTMS UK. Happy days. Listening to it as I type this. An excellent album. Wasted is the best track though. I never liked any of their stuff after this. Went a bit “American rock” for my tastes. Still, they did release a damn fine album as a debut.

WordPress upgrade

By on May 20, 2006 in General

I’ve just upgraded the version of WordPress that is used to deliver this site from version 1.5.2 to version 2.0.2. I think every thing is working okay but if anything breaks use the email link in the sidebar to let me know. Or comment on this entry.

The reason for the upgrade, bearing in mind I’m a fan of the if it ain’t broke broke, don’t fix it maxim, was a result of installing the Akismet anti-spam module. I wanted to make sure I was using the latest version of both to ensure they worked okay. In the last week there has been about 50 or so attempted SPAM comments to various entries here. All have been blocked as I have to approve all comments. I’ve never got any attempted comment SPAM before about a week ago. The start of it is probably related to an influx of twats in uk.comp.sys.mac Usenet group I read and post to. Recently we’ve had an influx of not very intelligent script kiddies who think posting offensive comments and thousands of SPAM posts is smart. Apparently they are not smart enough to know that people just get their software to automatically delete and/or ignore their posts.

New MacBook

By on May 20, 2006 in General

I’ve ordered a new black MacBook (or BlackBook as they are increasingly being referred to). I’m glad I returned my MacBook Pro now. The new BlackBook has everything I need in a portable and from what I’ve read so far the case on these doesn’t get as hot on the top as the MacBook Pro does. This is to be expected as the polycarbonate case is not as good a conductor or heat as the aluminium in the MacBook Pro case. I expect the fans to have to work a bit harder to pump the heat out of the case. I can live with this. The BlackBook is more or less the same size and has the same screen resolution as the titanium PowerBook I use at present. Except the BlackBook will be about 5 times faster. The only concern I have is the glossy screen. We’ll see how that performs. I like the black case with the white glowing Apple logo. I had a PowerBook G3 Pismo before the titanium PowerBook and really like the way it looked.

According to the TNT parcel tracking page my BlackBook left Suzhou in China about an hour ago 🙂

Down the line – BBC Radio 4

By on May 14, 2006 in General

The new BBC Radio 4 comedy Down the Line is well worth a listen. It’s a spoof and parody of talk radio. The 2nd episode takes on religion and how to name a new primary colour. It’s priceless. You can listen online. The 2nd episode will be replaced online by episode 3 on Wednesday 17th May.

MMS 2006 – San Diego

By on April 23, 2006 in General

I’m in San Diego for the Microsoft Management Summit 2006. My first impressions of San Diego are good. It’s a nice modern city. The Gaslamp Quarter is very nice, as is the hotel I’m in. Very Shinny! Here is a picture of the city taken from the floating museum, USS Midway.

Sandiego

Stanislav Evgrafovich Petrov

By on April 16, 2006 in General, Technology

Saw this on Cosmic Variance. We are all still here thanks to the common sense, nerve and intelligence of the Soviet military officer Stanislav Evgrafovich Petrov. See the details on Cosmic Variance, but basically he decided that a computer alert that the USA had launched a few missiles, likely with nuclear warheads, was a computer error rather than a real launch. So he failed to pass the info up the chain of command and therefore most likely averted a retaliation and possibly a full nuclear exchange.

Bugger

By on February 28, 2006 in General

Linda Smith has died. A sad loss. But hey, chin up. She was very, very funny whilst she was alive. Obituary here.