"There are no connected users" makes baby Jesus Cry!
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Lunch time gaming
Really, I can't think of a better way of breaking up the day than a good session of Multiplayer gaming during your lunch break. There isn't much better than the ability to take out the frustrations of the morning in a few rounds. Valavien and I managed a good session of Metroid Prime: Hunters today, the only real problem now is I want to keep playing!
"There are no connected users" makes baby Jesus Cry!
"There are no connected users" makes baby Jesus Cry!
How do I get this car!?
Until today I was completely in love with the new MX-5 Hardtop convertible that is going on sale. That was until I saw this, I don't know how much it is (except I know I couldn't possibly afford one... ever), what I do know is I want it!
Cut from the same cloth as the Caparo T1 exotic, the Formula 1-inspired Hulme supercar went its U.K. rival one better this month, debuting a pre-production model at both the Goodwood Festival of Speed and London's exclusive Salon Privé exotic car show. A prototype of the car was first unveiled in New Zealand last year.
With its brand name inspired by New Zealand's 1967 Formula 1 world champion Denny Hulme, the long-time teammate of legendary New Zealand racecar designer/driver Bruce McLaren, the Hulme supercar draws on the composite construction expertise that has made New Zealand a powerhouse in international yacht racing circles.
The car will begin production in 2008, with only 20 to 30 units produced each year. The company is initially targeting customers in the U.K. and Germany.
The show car carries the orange livery of the McLaren racecars of the '60s and early '70s in which Denny Hulme rose to prominence in Formula 1 and the Can-Am sports car series. The Hulme supercar has more in common with the Caparo T1 than its extreme styling - the Caparo's designers worked in the modern-day incarnation of McLaren Cars before leaving to develop their version of an F1 car for the street.
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New Zealand-built Hulme supercar debuts
Jul 27, 2006 - Show original item
Filed under: Supercars, Misc. Auto Shows
Cut from the same cloth as the Caparo T1 exotic, the Formula 1-inspired Hulme supercar went its U.K. rival one better this month, debuting a pre-production model at both the Goodwood Festival of Speed and London's exclusive Salon Privé exotic car show. A prototype of the car was first unveiled in New Zealand last year.
With its brand name inspired by New Zealand's 1967 Formula 1 world champion Denny Hulme, the long-time teammate of legendary New Zealand racecar designer/driver Bruce McLaren, the Hulme supercar draws on the composite construction expertise that has made New Zealand a powerhouse in international yacht racing circles.
The car will begin production in 2008, with only 20 to 30 units produced each year. The company is initially targeting customers in the U.K. and Germany.
The show car carries the orange livery of the McLaren racecars of the '60s and early '70s in which Denny Hulme rose to prominence in Formula 1 and the Can-Am sports car series. The Hulme supercar has more in common with the Caparo T1 than its extreme styling - the Caparo's designers worked in the modern-day incarnation of McLaren Cars before leaving to develop their version of an F1 car for the street.
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A successor to the DVD chair
For ages the best bit of furniture I had was "The DVD chair". Wasn't a great chair really, but it reclined had a foot stool and made watching DVDs very relaxing. After our last move and entering the realms of real furniture the DVD chair was put out to pasture. However with the iChair by PBteen the DVD chair could be making a come back! (from ecoustics)
iChair lets you sit down, tune out
July 26, 2006 3:18 PM PDTIt's been a long day at work, and all you want to do is sit down and listen to some soothing Norah Jones. Or, alternately, some obscure indie band. Either way, you don't want to jam headphones into your ears at the risk of damaging your hearing and having to handle another annoying wire.
Introducing the iChair by PBteen. Simply plug your iPod (or another music player or game device) into the jack and experience "surround sound" and comfort at once. Sitting in the chair, you can see the two high-quality speakers by your ears. If you're in the mood for some serious music, a subwoofer under the seat will add some major bass. You can change the volume with controls to the right of the chair, and place your iPod in a convenient little pocket, ensuring that you almost never have to get out of your seat.
The iChair is a piece of technology that doesn't look like technology. Coming in two colors, sky blue and charcoal gray, it can camouflage into any decor or make a statement on its own. The artificial suede exterior also adds to the look. The $400 price tag doesn't seem like a great bargain, but then again, this isn't an average piece of furniture. And considering what you paid for the iPod itself, dishing out a little extra to enjoy your MP3 player probably couldn't hurt.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Service makes such a difference.
As previously stipulated I'm in Toowoomba this week, which means eating out. I've been eating at the hotel, which is where this post comes from. Last night's meal wasn't bad, decent steak, friendly and fast service made it a fairly pleasant experience. Tonight was a completely different story, basically the same meal but the service was terrible.
Tonight I watched as one staff single handedly enraged 5 or 6 customers. Ignored requests, forgot orders and wasa generally absent. I've had bad service before so I wasn't particularly perplexed and it wasn't like I had anywhere else to be. I did get a bit annoyed after the 2nd time they lost my order and forgot my drink. At least I didn't resort to yelling and storming out.
Tonight I watched as one staff single handedly enraged 5 or 6 customers. Ignored requests, forgot orders and wasa generally absent. I've had bad service before so I wasn't particularly perplexed and it wasn't like I had anywhere else to be. I did get a bit annoyed after the 2nd time they lost my order and forgot my drink. At least I didn't resort to yelling and storming out.
Time for some gadgets!
Cyclone Charger Stand for Nintendo DS Lite
Friday, July 21, 2006
Minx just like new!
It didn't start out too well for Minx after taking her in to get her rear window fixed, I managed shread the side wall of the front drivers side tyre. So it was two trips out for fix ups for Minx today.
The rear window looks great. We managed to break it pretty well on close inspection, breaking the section that held the window in. On the up side that meant that the whole rear section could be replaced with a new window and a much better rear view with the top up.
The next trip was for 4 new shoes. It did look pretty ridiculous riding around on the bicycle sized space saving spare. With All Rounder about the best tyre on there and something different on every corner we went the whole hog and replaced the lot. Due to the urgency of tyre need I went with the recommendation from the Bridgestone centre and got some Firestone Wide Ovals.
So after a big day out for the Minx it drives like a new car... It's just a pity I can't drop the top for the rest of the weekend while the new window settles in.
The rear window looks great. We managed to break it pretty well on close inspection, breaking the section that held the window in. On the up side that meant that the whole rear section could be replaced with a new window and a much better rear view with the top up.
The next trip was for 4 new shoes. It did look pretty ridiculous riding around on the bicycle sized space saving spare. With All Rounder about the best tyre on there and something different on every corner we went the whole hog and replaced the lot. Due to the urgency of tyre need I went with the recommendation from the Bridgestone centre and got some Firestone Wide Ovals.
So after a big day out for the Minx it drives like a new car... It's just a pity I can't drop the top for the rest of the weekend while the new window settles in.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
State of busyness
I'm not complaining about being busy, I quickly get bored when I have nothing to do, it just reduces my time for blogging.
The weekend was especially packed with what seemed to be a continual progression from event to event.
Work (Friday) -> Belgian -> Dinner -> Brew House -> Hang over -> Rehearsal -> Friends Dinner -> Singing -> God Son's Birthday -> Soccer -> Work Meeting -> Family Dinner -> Work (Monday)
Was great though, dinner on Saturday night was heaps of fun and I managed to get a fair bit of DSing in (although I did lose one race in Mario Kart, stupid blue shells and lending my copy of Metroid to Valavien to play against Andrew wasn't the best thing for my stats) the highlight (apart from company) was Tom's cheesecake!
Some more mercenary singing on the weekend was heaps of fun, some more renaissance music with Jesu, dulcis memoria by Tomás Luis de Victoria, Sacerdotes Domini by William Byrd and Sicut cervus by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina mainly because I like the tenor lines in renaissance pieces.
Anyway got to head off as there is a gang of turkeys making a b-line for my table.
The weekend was especially packed with what seemed to be a continual progression from event to event.
Work (Friday) -> Belgian -> Dinner -> Brew House -> Hang over -> Rehearsal -> Friends Dinner -> Singing -> God Son's Birthday -> Soccer -> Work Meeting -> Family Dinner -> Work (Monday)
Was great though, dinner on Saturday night was heaps of fun and I managed to get a fair bit of DSing in (although I did lose one race in Mario Kart, stupid blue shells and lending my copy of Metroid to Valavien to play against Andrew wasn't the best thing for my stats) the highlight (apart from company) was Tom's cheesecake!
Some more mercenary singing on the weekend was heaps of fun, some more renaissance music with Jesu, dulcis memoria by Tomás Luis de Victoria, Sacerdotes Domini by William Byrd and Sicut cervus by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina mainly because I like the tenor lines in renaissance pieces.
Anyway got to head off as there is a gang of turkeys making a b-line for my table.
Friday, July 14, 2006
The weekend at last
The end of another week. Fortunately the deadline for the project I've been working on has slipped out by a few days, which means I will actually get a weekend. Heading out for a big-ish one tonight and after everything this week it's long overdue. The only problem is that despite the deadline lapse I've still stayed late and as a result will be quite a few behind. In fact it looks like it's going to be a big weekend with something on every night. Hopefully i'll get around to some gaming on the weekend as it's been patchy at best for the last couple of weeks. Even the gaming night this week didn't really go as planned. However with about 5 DS making to my place tomorrow i'm sure i'll fit some in!
Friday, already!
It's Friday again. I can't really work out where the week went. A combination of long days and late nights have really made the week fly past, although I sat in the most frustrating meeting ever which by no means flew by.
Work is very crazy at the moment with 3 projects at the tail end, one going live on Monday (in the shortest and scariest project) and 3 more starting. Today looks like it's going to be a long day with it being the last chance to change anything before the go live.
Retail therapy hasn't even been as helpful as I would have liked. I finally tried to buy a pair of Tron Shoes from adidas but discovered that they are sold out in my size in Brisbane, and being a limited edition they are all but gone. Even a trip out yesterday failed to give me retail therapy for my retail therapy!
Work is very crazy at the moment with 3 projects at the tail end, one going live on Monday (in the shortest and scariest project) and 3 more starting. Today looks like it's going to be a long day with it being the last chance to change anything before the go live.
Retail therapy hasn't even been as helpful as I would have liked. I finally tried to buy a pair of Tron Shoes from adidas but discovered that they are sold out in my size in Brisbane, and being a limited edition they are all but gone. Even a trip out yesterday failed to give me retail therapy for my retail therapy!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Monday, July 10, 2006
Back to some normality (sleep wise)
Well that's it for the World Cup. Italy managed against one of the greatest set backs (Ness picking them to win) to beat France to take the World Cup in a penatly shoot out.
The best news from this is that it's the last 4 or 5am start I have to get through for at least for the near future.
The best news from this is that it's the last 4 or 5am start I have to get through for at least for the near future.
Some work around the house.
I haven't reall done much in the way of bits and pieces around the house since we moved. A couple of weeks ago we managed to get lots of wedding photos up on the wall but other than that we haven't done much. I decided that this weekend we should get some of our art up on the wall. The priority was the awesome wall hangings that Mandy and Tom gave us as wedding presents.
We also mounted up a new blind to cover off the study as a psuedo door. Seems to work really well although doesn't really look much from the photos I could take.
My only (real) problem is now the art is up on the wall is it makes the TV look just a bit small... Easily fixed though...
End sarcasm here.... (as I run for my life!)
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Which File Extension are You?
After Amy's post I thought I'd finally do this quiz, after the result I thought it was worth posting.
Which File Extension are You?
Which File Extension are You?
How to identify you're becoming the fall guy for a project
- The Development team call you in for an extra day on the day they are demoing the system
- Asking the development team 2 hours before the demo if they need a hand getting it ready they respond, "Haven't really looked into it yet"
- Asking the development team 1 hour before the demo if they have a outline of what is being demoed they respond, "Haven't really looked into it, we're not going to be able to do the demo, you'll have to do it"
- Running through the required functionality for the demo and discovering that half of the "Completed" tasks aren't done.
- Developers tell you they hope for a failed system demo so the project manager looks bad.
- Madly developing the system to meet requirements for the demo.
- Attendees for the demo are 5 times the number you were informed.
- Attendees for the demo are all stake holders.
- Attendees for the demo are less than receptive to the system.
- Most of the Attendees expect to see functionality that is not a requirement in any phase let alone phase 1
- Discovering the Requirements gathered by the client haven't covered the requirements for the stakeholders.
- All the developers huddle over one side of the room for safety in numbers.
I have a sinking feeling about the rest of this project.... And I thought being a technical consultant would reduce my responsibility.
Another heavy coffee day...
It really is the season of sport at the moment, The State of Origin last night (Go Queenslander!) and the other Semi Final (not quarter as I said yesterday... think I left my brain at home) of France and Portugal (Viva la France) this morning has left me a little on the sleep deprived side.
To Ness's credit though she's made it through both early matches with only a little 'nanna nap' in the second half of the Italy game yesterday.
So I'm out for another coffee (in what I imagine to be a quite a few) before another late start at this weeks client (it's great when the client suggests that you should start at 10 because that's when they start).
Unfortunately that has meant I have been spending the few hours before hand keeping up with everything else workly, which hasn't left much time for anything else gaming or otherwise. In an effort to get more Xbox Live time, I've tried to organise a fortnightly session... not sure if we'll ever get there but at least it's in everyone's diary!
The next Pirates movie is out today which looks great (well great as far as the last one was great.... switch you mind off at the door fun). Johnny Depp seems to be in the same form as he was in the first movie... Hoping to check it out tomorrow night and see..
And continuing my unhealthy obsession with all things Nintendo, this is the Mario themed bear (which Ness thinks looks like a mouse) I got last week.
To Ness's credit though she's made it through both early matches with only a little 'nanna nap' in the second half of the Italy game yesterday.
So I'm out for another coffee (in what I imagine to be a quite a few) before another late start at this weeks client (it's great when the client suggests that you should start at 10 because that's when they start).
Unfortunately that has meant I have been spending the few hours before hand keeping up with everything else workly, which hasn't left much time for anything else gaming or otherwise. In an effort to get more Xbox Live time, I've tried to organise a fortnightly session... not sure if we'll ever get there but at least it's in everyone's diary!
The next Pirates movie is out today which looks great (well great as far as the last one was great.... switch you mind off at the door fun). Johnny Depp seems to be in the same form as he was in the first movie... Hoping to check it out tomorrow night and see..
And continuing my unhealthy obsession with all things Nintendo, this is the Mario themed bear (which Ness thinks looks like a mouse) I got last week.
The Mario Bear (mouse)
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Italy 2 - Germany 0
Now it's the quarter finals of The Cup, we're making the effort and watching the remaining matches. It was a 5am start but it was well worth it. A great attacking first half from both teams with Italy having the better chances. The second half was a different story with Germany dominating but still unable to break the 0-0 deadlock. Extra time saw Italy come out firing with twoa shots rattling the wood work in the first few minutes.
Although with 5 minutes to go it looked like the pair were headed to penalites and on past history it would be Italy out and the home side would be through to the final. Grosso had different ideas on the subject and curled a beautiful ball around the German Keeper to just slip in on the far post. As Germany pushed forward for the equaliser an Italian counter attack saw Del Piero put the result beyond doubt.
A great game to watch (even if it was at 5am). I'm on to my 3rd coffee of the day (and it's only 10am) althought the third one looked fairly good to a bush turkey at Wordsmiths Cafe and almost endded in disaster.
I'm looking forward to tomorrows match and hope that both teams are out to play with their attacking flair. With the disappointment of Ronaldinho I'm hopping Cristiano Ronaldo or Thierry Henry will come through with some magic, although I'm still looking for a France v Italy final.
Although with 5 minutes to go it looked like the pair were headed to penalites and on past history it would be Italy out and the home side would be through to the final. Grosso had different ideas on the subject and curled a beautiful ball around the German Keeper to just slip in on the far post. As Germany pushed forward for the equaliser an Italian counter attack saw Del Piero put the result beyond doubt.
A great game to watch (even if it was at 5am). I'm on to my 3rd coffee of the day (and it's only 10am) althought the third one looked fairly good to a bush turkey at Wordsmiths Cafe and almost endded in disaster.
I'm looking forward to tomorrows match and hope that both teams are out to play with their attacking flair. With the disappointment of Ronaldinho I'm hopping Cristiano Ronaldo or Thierry Henry will come through with some magic, although I'm still looking for a France v Italy final.
PVR Clear!
After all the world cup action the PVR has slowly but surely reaching it's limit. However, over the last few days (while I've generally been feeling sick and sorry for myself) we've managed to power through the numerous episodes of Spicks and Specks and The Glass House along with all the other odds and sods we're now back to an empty PVR.
I've been toying with the idea of upgrading the HDD in the Topfield now it is out of warranty. The current thought is something only the lines of 320GB Western Digital drive. The upgrade seems to be a fairly simple process. There is a complete guide on the process in the Topfield forums.
At the moment however I still haven't managed to find the time to upgrade the firmware I downloaded a weeks or so ago so I don't see it's going to be done in the short term.
I've been toying with the idea of upgrading the HDD in the Topfield now it is out of warranty. The current thought is something only the lines of 320GB Western Digital drive. The upgrade seems to be a fairly simple process. There is a complete guide on the process in the Topfield forums.
At the moment however I still haven't managed to find the time to upgrade the firmware I downloaded a weeks or so ago so I don't see it's going to be done in the short term.
Monday, July 03, 2006
Stuck on a bus with no games
What a day to leave my DS at home. I'm on a bus from the western suburbs of Brisbane and despite it being 6:30 we are barely moving along coro drive. In fact we having a race with a runner and they're winning. At this save i would have been able to finished the New Super Mario Bros. before we made it back to the city. Oh well at least i could still blog on my phone.
Minx needs a new rear window :(
Last night on the way home as we threw back the soft on the MX5, as we do everytime we drive it and it's not raining, we heard an unusual sound. The loud snapping sound was a little out of place so after a little investigation, discovered that the rear window had cracked the whole way across. The window has needed replacing since we bought it. Being 12 years old the window wasn't as clear as it first was, not completely opaque but not completely transperent either.
No a great loss, I needed a new one so it's just given me a poke to get it done, but annoying none the less.
No a great loss, I needed a new one so it's just given me a poke to get it done, but annoying none the less.
Week(end) in review.
It's been a bit of a nightmarish week work wise and as a result I haven't managed to get around to posting here yet. So I'm trying for a week in review post, but I'm really sure I'll get much more than the weekend in (as most of the week is just a distant blur now).
Tuesday, hardly started off well with the Socceroos being knocked out of the World Cup. I managed to get almost enough sleep so the day wasn't too stressful in that regard. A late start at work helped a fair bit although the general in-fighting at the client wasn't much fun to sit through and mediate for 8 hours. With Ness heading off to Sydney I tried for some (fairly rare as Metroid occupies most of my online gaming) Xbox Live sessions with Valavien. We managed however to time it perfectly with a scheduled outage so we called it a day and I played Metroid online until I fell asleep on the couch (which didn't help my stats). Much of the same workwise for Wednesday, and a fairly quiet night as I was starting to come down with a cold. Thursday was a nightmare day, I was double booked at work which meant three quarters of a day onsite for one client followed by another 8 hours of work offsite. This was a little hard to get in as I had to sing that night from 5 until 7 then pick up Ness from the airport (which took a little longer than expected with her bags going missing). Still it was nice to have her home again even if it was only to keep me company while I was working. Friday was well and truly welcome, my customer was very cruisy and sent me home early which meant more time at the Belgian Beer Cafe. Ness picked up some great new trinkets from a little shop in the Elizabeth arcade, including a mario themed bear and a new retro styled alarm clock.
Belgian was great, Ben had booked a table for dinner which resulted in lots of Hogardens and chips followed by some great food (the mussels there are about the only time I miss not being able to eat seafood). We spent most Saturday in a very Teneriffe mood, after seeing my parents off on their trip to China and having MinX detailed, we checked out some of the new apartments in London (which felt very small and I hope they work out some way of dealing with the bird problem) and Carson Woolstores just for a bit of a sticky beak punctuated with a bit of lunch at the bottom of our building.
With a bit of inspiration from the new places we set off to Ikea for a few ideas (and nick nacks) before heading back home were I collapse on the couch (still sick) and missed the England match.
Had an uneasy nights sleep while my body wrestled with what ever it is I have, so Sunday saw a bit of a sleep in before I headed off to the Nintendo Connection Tour '06. Heaps of people there but it was a bit dissapointing. There weren't as many free downloads as I was hoping and with all the wireless traffic there was a bit of lag when the DSs were some distance apart. Had a few online games though and got a wrist strap for the DS. Would have loved to get one of the been bags but I wasn't willing to hang around all day to try and win one. Filled in the afternoon with a trip to see Superman, which wasn't a bad movie although all the <references omitted because of spoilers, you can ask me once you've seen it> annoyed me too much to say it was a good movie. Had dinner with Tom, Susan and Valavien before I crashed again and endded up at Monday and work.
Tuesday, hardly started off well with the Socceroos being knocked out of the World Cup. I managed to get almost enough sleep so the day wasn't too stressful in that regard. A late start at work helped a fair bit although the general in-fighting at the client wasn't much fun to sit through and mediate for 8 hours. With Ness heading off to Sydney I tried for some (fairly rare as Metroid occupies most of my online gaming) Xbox Live sessions with Valavien. We managed however to time it perfectly with a scheduled outage so we called it a day and I played Metroid online until I fell asleep on the couch (which didn't help my stats). Much of the same workwise for Wednesday, and a fairly quiet night as I was starting to come down with a cold. Thursday was a nightmare day, I was double booked at work which meant three quarters of a day onsite for one client followed by another 8 hours of work offsite. This was a little hard to get in as I had to sing that night from 5 until 7 then pick up Ness from the airport (which took a little longer than expected with her bags going missing). Still it was nice to have her home again even if it was only to keep me company while I was working. Friday was well and truly welcome, my customer was very cruisy and sent me home early which meant more time at the Belgian Beer Cafe. Ness picked up some great new trinkets from a little shop in the Elizabeth arcade, including a mario themed bear and a new retro styled alarm clock.
Belgian was great, Ben had booked a table for dinner which resulted in lots of Hogardens and chips followed by some great food (the mussels there are about the only time I miss not being able to eat seafood). We spent most Saturday in a very Teneriffe mood, after seeing my parents off on their trip to China and having MinX detailed, we checked out some of the new apartments in London (which felt very small and I hope they work out some way of dealing with the bird problem) and Carson Woolstores just for a bit of a sticky beak punctuated with a bit of lunch at the bottom of our building.
With a bit of inspiration from the new places we set off to Ikea for a few ideas (and nick nacks) before heading back home were I collapse on the couch (still sick) and missed the England match.
Had an uneasy nights sleep while my body wrestled with what ever it is I have, so Sunday saw a bit of a sleep in before I headed off to the Nintendo Connection Tour '06. Heaps of people there but it was a bit dissapointing. There weren't as many free downloads as I was hoping and with all the wireless traffic there was a bit of lag when the DSs were some distance apart. Had a few online games though and got a wrist strap for the DS. Would have loved to get one of the been bags but I wasn't willing to hang around all day to try and win one. Filled in the afternoon with a trip to see Superman, which wasn't a bad movie although all the <references omitted because of spoilers, you can ask me once you've seen it> annoyed me too much to say it was a good movie. Had dinner with Tom, Susan and Valavien before I crashed again and endded up at Monday and work.
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