When I start Google Earth, it centres my view over the United Kingdom. If I don’t tilt, turn or otherwise move the view and just zoom in, I eventually get down to an altitude of about 411 Metres. At the exact centre of my view is an advert for a McDonnalds restaurant at 517 Bourne… Continue reading Google Earth’s Centre of the UK
Miserable Politics
The term of the current UK government expires on 10th May 2010, about six months from now. Following that, a General Election has to be held on or before the 3rd June 2010. For me it’s a pretty sorry state of affairs as I have no faith in either of the main parties, one of… Continue reading Miserable Politics
Understanding the X-Factor
What is it about the X-Factor that makes it so attractive to the British public? At this time every year I find myself obsessing over it, getting angry with who stays and who gets voted out. Ranting about the silly comments I read on web forums and generally getting worked up about something that will… Continue reading Understanding the X-Factor
Breakdown Cover – Tip of the Iceburg
I feel compelled to do a quick Blog after yet another pressure call from The AA. This time they were offering me accident insurance, last time it was car repair insurance and in between there’s all the emails telling about their latest great schemes to part me from my money. At the time I took… Continue reading Breakdown Cover – Tip of the Iceburg
0845 4585632
Just had a phone call from this number asking to speak to my partner Lou. They got her name wrong for starters which tends to make one suspicious and it went downhill from there. There was something inexplicably sinister about this caller, the tone of voice, wanting to know who I was and needing to… Continue reading 0845 4585632
Bye bye Wimble Womble
This morning Lou discovered that our ferret, “Womble” had died in the night. She’s been looking weak lately and old age was taking its toll on her. Lou thinks she was about 11 years old. We got her from the RSPCA‘s Little Valley Animal Shelter in June 2005 after seeing an advert on the BBC… Continue reading Bye bye Wimble Womble
Speeding Ticket
If you own a powerful motorcycle, I think speeding tickets are an almost inevitable eventuality. I did quite well and rode my current bike for over five years before I got caught and even then it was on the A4174 Bristol Ring Road which is apparently one of the highest revenue generating roads in the… Continue reading Speeding Ticket
RTM Disco Kayak
I guess it’s time I created a Kayak category on my Blog. There’s likely to be a lot of posts to it during my current period of obsessiveness. Last Saturday (8th Aug 2009), Lou and I went Kayaking on the river Camel. We started from Wadebridge and paddled upstream to Polbrock. Despite a few problems… Continue reading RTM Disco Kayak
The ways of the Web
It’s certainly fair to say that I’m an impulsive person. The smallest trigger will instantly turn me in the direction of a new hobby, most of which are short-lived and expensive. The latest interest is Kayaking which, as it turns out is expensive even by my standards. Then again, a combination of equipment from forgotten… Continue reading The ways of the Web
The Half Blood Prince
Yesterday Lou and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince at the Vue Cinema in Plymouth. The film was pretty good although inevitably some chunks had to be cut out to squeeze the 768 page book into an acceptable length. Even so, the film runs for 153 minutes plus the inevitable… Continue reading The Half Blood Prince
Why is profit not enough?
A couple of recent news reports and a company email have got me pondering about profit. It seems to be a modern culture that making a profit is simply not good enough. The margin of profit must grow, year upon year. The reason frequently expressed is that unless the profit keeps going up, the shareholders… Continue reading Why is profit not enough?
Why Windows 7?
A few days ago I pre-ordered Microsoft Windows v7. This was quite a milestone event for me as I’d decided that after the flop of Vista, my next desktop upgrade from XP would be to Debian Linux. Not only is Linux free, I’m also very familiar with it. All my machines except the desktop already… Continue reading Why Windows 7?
Broad Rock
A few weeks ago I did a long walk on Dartmoor with my dogs. We started from Sheepstor and took the path to Ditsworthy Warren House. From there we walked up the Plym to Plym Steps and across to Broad Rock. The problem was that I couldn’t actually find Broad Rock! This nagged at me… Continue reading Broad Rock
Cotswold Canals
Following the success our Narrow Boat holiday, I got a bit obsessive and started looking up other good circular routes. Living where we do in Cornwall, one annoyance is the currently unnavigable old Stroudwater Canal and the Thames & Severn Canal. Both of which are in the process of being restored and renamed as the… Continue reading Cotswold Canals
First ever narrowboat holiday
Lou and I did our first ever narrowboat holiday last week and it was a great success. We were accompanied by Kieran and his girlfriend Becky and my parents for a total of six with an age span of almost 65 years. For such a disparate group to all have a good time is a… Continue reading First ever narrowboat holiday
The wonderful Western way
Time for a rant on a subject I know nothing about. I’m sure I’m not the only person in the UK this week who feels quite strongly about the Sir Fred Goodwin issue. To the layman it seems as though Sir Fred, the chairman of The Royal Bank of Scotland steered his great company into… Continue reading The wonderful Western way
What’s Up Net?
Since converting my home network to DHCP, I’ve been struggling to keep track of what devices/addresses are in use. Not because I’m poor at record keeping but rather because three teenage kids in the house like messing about with their PC / Hecksbox / Wii configurations. The following command came to my rescue. nmap -sP… Continue reading What’s Up Net?
Nine Dart Finishes
I felt a need for distraction from work for an hour so I wrote a Python program to calculate the possible ways to do a nine dart finish in a standard game of 501. There are 3944 possible ways to do it so I won’t list them here. The initial code attempt required 4,585,142,217,282,816 iterations,… Continue reading Nine Dart Finishes
Thanks to new government legislation…
At the moment I seem to get at least one call a day from companies claiming they can help me with my debts because new government legislation means they can freeze what I owe. To begin with, I don’t believe this. If it was that simple, everyone with a credit card would jump on the… Continue reading Thanks to new government legislation…
Garmin GPS
Last year I treated myself to a Garmin GPS. Being someone who is often trying to find a city-centre hotel in the dark, in the rain, during rush-hour, this device quickly proved to be heaven sent. Being a bit of a geek for gadgets, I installed all the associated Garmin software on my PC and… Continue reading Garmin GPS