Picture-tastic

Had a great weekend back at M&D's though it did involve a fair bit of lifting and carrying...and the less said about the rugby the better. Got a disc of Lil pics from Rosie, so here's a few samples... :)

Teh Byootifarl Chile

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Teh Ol' Man is 60 Today!


To celebrate, Lil has decided to start sitting up on her own...I'm so proud...she's my little Buddha!

Fraaank!......

.....Paaaat!

That's how I've got the Paris<-->Bristol thing down. Pat!...About 3 1/2 hours door to door.

Metro...Ppppffff (as they say a lot over there)....Bus?....Ppppffff...RER (that's like a british train. Don't get me started on the double-decker trains!...or the TGV!!!)...let me say it again.....PPPpppffff!

All of 'em baby!

Train-Bus-Plane-Train-Metro-Eat-Hotel-Sleep-Eat-Main Station-Metro-Meetings-Bus-Metro-Train-Eat-Plane-(should have been Bus-Train, but)-Taxi-Meet workpeople-Walk-Home!

That's all I remember.

Beard votes? So far: 4 say Keep : 6 say Go : 3 undecided.

...Not asked "that bird" yet either.

Huntley's vote doesn't count! ;)

valdemar Hedgosplunk

No. I don't know what it means either....

In Paris right now, just waiting for some numpties to turn up so I can get on with this meeting.

In the meantime (a bit blurry), but I was trying to stop her falling off my lap at the same time :)

Back tonight with a bit of luck...and so more pics later in the week!

Smaller Things...

So. Had some problems with UPS which resulted in, well basically...me losing it! At them....and then getting home to actually find the parcel I'd accused them of posting through the wrong door under a pile of crap designated "Mr Dave Slade" at my address. Aaahh, the beauty of a shared Inbox.

Anyway. The mini-machine in aforementioned UPS packets is rude. As F*CK!

Pretty much a full 2.6.x linux kernel with SSH and HTTP servers, power over USB, Ethernet, or 5V (battery or wall adapter).

Current plans: a fag-box sized firewall/network manager "in the palm of your hand"....or a wireless "service hub"...

It's the size of a 10-pack of cigarettes!!!

Oh. had a date tonight....I'm in. I think....But could this just be adding more stress?

Small Things

Version 0.3 of the Standalone Stealth Cam


The thing at the top is my other project...a portable media player (based on a P800 + 1Gb Memory card...touch screen...stereo sound...muisc, games & video!...ooohhh baby)

A small semi-guri



Happy Valentines Day!

I have a date tomorrow!!! O.O

Windows? Whats' that?

update: Got MP3 working...how? I used Adept to search for "amaroK engine", found "complete package". Click. Click. Click. Start amaroK change "Engine" in settings to "xine" and....Bobs!

Yay.

So. I am no longer dependent on Bill Gates and his evil empire (there's a minimal hidden install somewhere on the system, but only for "emergencies")...completely Linux at home right now!

Only problem is, I can get everything to play...but in order for MP3 to play nicely I need to get proper MP3 codec installed (it's not exactly free...unlike everything else). And I can't seem to do it. I got VLC working and playing, but amaroK (which is what I want to use for music) is playing hard to get.

So far very few complaints....No need for a firewall (yet), no real need for Virus scanner....all my usual apps are there or similar (and compatible...see OpenOffice). Lots seems to run faster and the "piping" within the OS is way better than XP. No more "judders"!

O.O

Kurrently running KDE (Kubuntu based on "Breezy Badger" Ubuntu...based on Debian....la de la la le laa).

Vee Hickle

Congrats to Lord Buck of Moy...


...on the recent purchase of "teh rudest car" I've ever had the pleasure to be chauffered around in :)

Awesomeness!

Clicky clicky for BIG!


Lots of video here.... and the TT/350Z Shootout is pretty impressive!

If life is a journey....

...let's hope they're not all like this weeks trip to Paree....before I start

Right. 1st off I missed out Temple Meads, but I was busy eating a pasty and the bus turned up.

So....stage 1: Home -> Stapleton Road Station (on Foot, about 10 minutes)



Check that beard!

Next was the bus from Temple Meads to Bristol "International" "Airport" (about 40 minutes in comfort)...

Then a plane to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (about 1 hour 15 minutes...nice sandwich, and a glass of wine!)

Waiting for the bus outside CDG (about 20 minutes...)

Then a bus ride to a stop virtually outside my hotel (about 1 hour, thanks to the parisian traffic).

Lo & behold, I am teh Upgrade! King size bed...it was wider than it was long!!!

Next morning, up with the larks and off to a posh hotel (Residence Maxims) near the Eiffel tower.

There were Pierre Cardin and Christian LaCroix boutiques...the presidential "palace"....the "toilets" in the conference suite, were actually real bathrooms!...I took a photo of me in it!
And finally....back to CDG!

Flight delayed an hour....walked back through the front door at 9pm.

Woe Noes!

I think my daughter hates me.

:(

Disturbing.

From The Register:

Tiananmen Square : Images from Google .com
Tiananmen Square : Images from Google .cn (that's China)

All your search are belong to us!

I remember watching that on TV...come to think of it, I saw a lot of violence on the news (OK, so we all do)....Beirut, Tiananmen Square, Ethiopa/Eritrea (the only Italian colony in Africa, folks), erm.....all the IRA shizzle, Maggie....Reagan and "Star Wars"....hell, it's a wonder we're all such a stable generation!

The USA are pussy though, terrorism...Pah!....They're also pushy though...

Enough.

I fear this year may be a trying year...

So. I can't remember what I was writing/thinking last time, but...it had something to do with documenting one of my journeys with pics and "live" updates from phone and stuff. And I even managed to take a photo of the 1st stage.


Teh 1st Stop, after 15 minutes of walking....FREE Orange Bus.

But, then it gradually descended into the usual nightmare of "lounges" (Bristol is officially one of the worst airports in the world (me and an old mate I bumped into there agreed!)), running to make connecting vehicles (I travelled by pretty much everything except horseback today: monorail thingie, metro, bus, train, plane, car, foot....NB. No bicycles (filthy things!)).

So I kinda forgot...then it was just:

"Hello Meeting Room full of European types....my name is Guri...I am the Technical dude with regards Device Management...erm...OK, just carry on talking amongst yourselves...er. This is a highly complex diagram of a massive multi-tiered super-redundandt massively parrerelell system shown really small on a badly focused projector!"

Czech Dude: You cannot say PARALLEL

Me: Sorry Ajkilzhuzkij, I did not mean to mispronounce my words.


This is not him; this is al Zakarwi-Hamid-Habibi-Finflusy

OK. Sorry, back on track now. Anyway, that was that day done (Wednesday)....oh, by the way I was staying at Charles de Gaulle Airport (in "the Novotel"....Noisotel more like) throughout. Couldn't sleep that night (bad prawns at lunch?)...next day I was expecting a pretty easy trip back into Paris (Gaytown)...but no.

Teh gods (great book!....fantastic book...click that link & buy & read!), saw fit to punish me with a gruelling 2 hour trip across "the most beautiful city in Europe" and back again. Their words, not mine. Started out OK at 7 am on the RER (main Paris area train)...then it stopped...in the middle of the banlieue (where they keep warm by burning cars)...for half an hour. Bear in mind I reckon it should take max one hour to do this trip. Get to my stop. The Metro link is closed, grab a roll and a coffee...have to get a bus to another metro station to get the line 13...then walk about a mile to the office. That's a 2 hour commute and I have a 3 hour meeting ahead of me.

I got there first though (on the dot of 9), the consultants next ("bad traffic"), and then various foreign techies....30 minutes later, the actual meeting organisers turned up...who were....both parisians!

I'm not quite sure what I'm trying to say. The french don't know their own traffic system; The more "senior" you are you are deemed "busy" at all times...or what?

So, now I have 1 and a half hours to get back to the airport. I bus it (from Chatillon-Montrouge) back to Porte d-Orleans (which is under massive construction for a new tram system and thus barely navigable for about a square mile), walk for ages through the underground system. Catch the metron to Denfert-Rocherau and transfer to RER (B) to Charles de Gaulle. Which happened to be the slow train; the one that stops every 10 minutes and adds about 30 minutes to the journey...Get to airport...strip (pretty much...it's normal in CDG)...get on plane...seat's good...food's bad. A brilliant family from Cardiff next to me on the plane (maybe more on them another time)....I'm bored of typing now.

Bristol! Yay....Bus.....cancelled....Boo!...Taxi...Yay....Home!!! O.O

That's it!...only baby stuff below...

See, you knew you wanted just scroll down to the baby bit.



Lil went absolutley hysterical as soon as I took her coat off which lasted about 10 minutes until I hit upon the idea of carrying her and waving bright objects in front of her...Genius!...got grumpy towards the end, but then I did play some guitar.



Wow. What a long post, I feel bled dry.

While in Frogsville I've had to book another trip back to Paris next week...catching the last flight out on a friday night!!!! And that's a notorious bugger....sorry ;-)

Keep your ears posted for the cyber-screams!

Goodnight.