I was reading in the Evening Times that some lowlife had stolen Playstations from a children’s ward at Yorkhill Hospital. Bastards. What next. One of my friends nephews is critically ill in Yorkhill at the moment and it really hits home what a service they provide when someone close to you is affected.
My PS2 has now found a new home and hopefully it will be getting used by one of those kids in the next few days. If you can help then contact the Yorkhill Children’s Foundation.
Today saw the launch of HMS Daring from the Scotstoun yard in Glasgow. This meant a half day for me (as I work there) and a chance to see the largest ever ship launched from Scotstoun. So me and my camera went to Braehead to hopefully get a good view of the launch.
Thankfully everything went smoothly. Looking at the official video on type45.com there seems to have been some delay before she finally slipped into the river. The main challenge was launching a 154m ship into a river who’s width is just over 165m at that point. A combination of pointing down river and also drag chains to stop and pull her round did the job – it was great to see and a proud moment for all of us who have been involved in her design and build. Video and picture links below.
My Flickr album of the launch
BBC News article which has video’s of the build up and launch
Type45.com for info on the ship and a launch video
Scotland Today which announced a successful launch an hour and a half before it took place – pre launch video too
The IE7 Beta 2 Preview is now available to the masses – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/ie7/ie7betaredirect.mspx. While many of the new features have been available for the last 2 or 3 years in Firefox or Opera it’s good to see the Windows O/S default browser catching up and becoming a much better tool for the average user who would never think of changing from IE.
So – whats new? The list below are the main features (links to Flickr piccies where possible)
These features alone should have been added to IE a long time ago. It’s only thanks to the in-roads that Firefox has made that has forced Microsoft to release an updated browser. Thank heavens for competition especially as it’s the majority of users not in the ‘know’ that will benefit most from the final IE7 release.
The first lag free fighting game I’ve played. Not taxing, but great fun. Get a roomful of friends and it’s just like being at the arcades from 15 years ago but with better graphics.
Sony have made a good job of patching their firmware and forcing newer games to use it to try and beat the hackers but no all versions can play homebrew – follow the guide at PSPUpdates. It was inevitable. Now – wheres that 360 chip?
I’ve been tagged by Gordon so without further ado…
Four jobs that I’ve had
Four movies I can watch over and over
Four places I have lived
Four TV shows I like to watch
Four foods that I like
Four websites I visit daily
Four things I want to do before I die
Four places I would rather be right now
Four people I’m tagging
Article on BBC News highlights how much electricity is wasted by having devices constantly in stand-by. For the UK alone it’s the equivalent of the output of two power stations a year – that’s amazingly high and a lot more than I expected. I’m bad at leaving things on for convenience but more and more I’m switching things off, not just to standby but actually at the mains socket as well. The energy that we waste would only be brought into focus if we went through some of the power blips that California suffered over the last two years or the threat to our gas supplied turned into reality – who’ll know what Russia will do next?
It’s time that a sliding scale for paying for our gas and electricity came into use. Like the proposed new road tax where the more you drive the more you pay we should introduce higher unit costs for those that use and abuse energy. There would need to be a scale of when this kicked in i.e. a guy living on his own should use less than a family of four hence their increased unit charge would kick in at a higher level. Awareness alone doesn’t make a difference – hitting people in their pocket certainly would especially when most of the waste is due to our convenience led society.
One of my favourite shows is coming to an end. It’s been announced that the last show of Season 7 of the West Wing will be a series rather than season finale. Probably best to come to an end as it’s not got the same impact as the first three series did. Still, if your watching in the UK (and not downloading) you’ve still got a season and a half to go.
I laughed while watching the weather yesterday – not only was it to be a dry day in Glasgow but the presenter who was Scottish had a fun poke at Rangers by saying “wrap up warm if they are heading for Castle Grayskull”. For those not in the know this has been the slang term for Ibrox stadium for a long time. Pretty funny – nice one Kirsty.
I should have know there would be those who can’t see the funny side. Sunday Mail, page 5, outraged Gers fans. Twats – get a grip. Whats worse is the shoddy Sunday Mail reporting. Firstly it’s Grayskull not Greyskull. Secondly, and something I always thought was a bit odd – Castle Grayskull is where the hero’s are based in the He-Man cartoon, not the baddies. So whats the big deal? I’m more concerned about being 4th in the league than a throwaway comment on a weather report.
I do love my Pronto remote but it takes ages to update. I had three new devices to add – new tele, new Freeview box and the 360. Thankfully I managed to find discrete off and on codes for the TV (Philips 32pf9830) and the Freeview box (Sony VTX-D800U) which means I’m now in macro heaven. One touch and all the devices will switch on and off as I please – the ultimate in couch potato laziness. The ccf file for the Pronto can be found below – I would upload to Remotecentral but I’ve set things up just so for me so I feel it’s a bit of a waste dumping it on their site.
While I was updating the Pronto it struck me I would hate to replace this remote – it’s had a few knocks and mishaps but it’s just so expensive for what it is. A PDA with an IR port could do a better job and is more cost effective – just need the right software and a good range on the IR port.
