Austin… the saving grace of Texas

Now I could go into the history of this City, the capital of Texas – but that is what Wikipedia is for… so go there to read it ;-)

I on the other hand will write of my brief experience of this Oasis of a city and one I’d like to return to. Beyond the complaints of the I-35, a little known parking lot that runs the entire length of Austin. As you approach Austin at night it looks like an oasis of high-tech and modern living. Indeed, Andrew Baron of Rocketboom even called this city “The saving grace of Texas” and for the most part I can see why.

Oh, it is an oasis… but furthermore it’s also a city of culture and has a “cosmopolitan feel” if you like. Like all modern cities though, the concept of skyscrapers in the centre have not escaped Austin, crushing much of it’s history into oblivion. Yet down there in the heart of it is the famed and acclaimed 6th Street and if you add in 4th, 5th and Congress Avenue… then there is more than a heart beat or pulse of this city’s history and entertainment right there.

These days, the area of South Austin seems to have a greater vibe, open parks, restaurants, leafy suburbs and a greater “wellbeing” feel. Something I found very attractive and yes from what I could see, it’s obvious the town planners have long term goals for making the city greener and healthier than most.

Austin like any large city has its good and bad, the first day we walked down 6th Street (2nd Jan) around 2pm and a full on brawl broke out in front of us. Two guys punching the living daylights out of each other without a care in the world of who they bounced into, or where in the world they were from.. No police presence, and while I sidestepped them as they flew past – this blogs buddy @Gabsatrucker got fully barged out of the way by them, just before skulls met the concrete sidewalk. This was certainly, how should I say… interesting… We went to Starbucks and I said “soooo, this is Austin huh?” Gabby on the other hand was really not happy either… This was on the back of the news that on New Years morning 3 people had been shot, one to death and someone was killed trying to cross the I-35… Kinda leaves you with a cheery feel… That and the fact that Austin has oh so many people begging on street corners in the 4th,5th and 6th street areas at night.

But nevertheless… there is a vibe to the city as a whole you can’t quite put your finger on, the south is awesome and the club names like Antone’s, reverberate through the music scene globally. In fact one night in Antone’s made up for a lot of the misgivings we had earlier.

Yes Austin does have it’s many sides, but it’s this mix that probably makes it so intriguing and apart from having to change hotels due to rather unpleasant smell at the first one – it is a city I will definitely spend more time to explore.

Austin also has quite a few interesting slogans “Keep Austin Weird” is something you’ll see just about everywhere and then the “Austin, Live Music Capitol of the World” and it’s fair to say they’re not wrong! It’s a city of modern culture, hi-tech industries, fitness and fresh air – heck they even name the flight between Silicon Valley and Austin the “Nerd Bird”… It also has to be right up there with as one of the biggest conference venues in the world along side cities like Dubai and with it being home to South by South West (SXSW) there are hotels galore – some better than others, but the closer you get to downtown the prices go from reasonable to extortionate.

This is one of the major centres of entrepreneurship in the US and certainly with regards to technology, but it’s frankly stunning that Dell computers does not seem to have anything for the public, nerds and geeks to visit or see… In fact I was seriously surprised there was little in the way of Dell’s visibility at all – certainly an opportunity lost on Dell’s part. A “Dell Technology Showcase” or “Experience” is seriously needed.

With so much going on I think the city will grow, continue cleaning its image. But if you want to enjoy a fitness lifestyle, then look no further than this awesome city with the Lance Armstrong cycle way, large parks and running areas and even a park on the water front with a special area to allow dogs to run freely.

Yes, it’s right to keep Austin weird, but it’s also right to redesign and build for future tourism, future-tech transportation systems and greener more hi-tech lifestyle and I really think Austin will…. Because if it doesn’t, it’ll just grow more monolithic buildings and increase its number of tourist t-shirt shops that will be more about a “has-been” city than the heart and soul of the great state of Texas… I some how doubt that will happen though :-)

Austin is (with insight from; Andrew Baron, Gabsatrucker and Mary Hennig and adored by Dr Sue Black )

100% TWBrit Highly recommended

I guess I should make an actual TWBrit approved logo now then lol…

Published in: on 13 January, 2012 at 02:27  Leave a Comment  
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The 2011 T.W.Brit Christmas List

Yes, it’s this time of year again and strangely, while I dug up the old Christmas logo, I obviously forgot to update the theme with the modern logo style due to the fact I no longer have a working copy of Adobe Creative Suite or better still – Master Suite. This is a shame in itself due to the fact I was to animate the TWBrit logos soon.

This year I’ve been troubled about my wants and wishes… As ever, they’re all crazy, but I thought I would avoid things that require pretence – so membership of Whites Club has been removed. Nevertheless, the taste of all the things I cannot afford grows and lets be honest – is it not that if we refuse to dream, we’ll never make our tomorrow better? This year I will also ply a degree of reasoning with the items on the list. This does not mean there will be logic in that reasoning as in some cases it might come down phrases like “want one” or “me-some” ;-)

Also some things on my list last year I actually got :-) and some things this year maybe left over from last year.

So here it is, the crazy and often regarded insane:

 The 2011 Christmas List

                          

Battenberg Cake

I know, I’ve put it here before, heck Gabsatrucker even made me one once. But Battenberg is a guys cake… It may look pink and yellow, be wayyyy too sweet – but it is the mass production and yet basic engineering concept that makes this baby a geometric marvel that most guys like – me some

Life Time Supply of Coffee

Because last time I did get coffee, but I’m still alive and I’ve run out ;)

A Knighthood:  for services to Britishness, Commonsense and because I’m apparently Legendary :-)

                     

Personalized TWBrit Guitar Picks

Not that I can decide which way to do the artwork as you can see….

                                    

ACDC Wine

:) Toller, Shaker, Blood and Black :)

                                                 

Heavy Duty Footwear = CAT & Dehner

I have no problem with wearing pretty much nothing else than Caterpillar Colorado Boots all the time… Supreme comfort, durability and never a bad smell. I have also been on the look out for a long field boot for ages and without spending thousands, the only one that seems to be tough enough and still to be reasonable are Dehner Boots… the actual benefit of Dehners’ is that while it may look like you’re gonna get your head kicked in by them – it allows me to wade through your sticky, lard like entrails afterwards. This, (if you are unsure) is a good thing! ;-)

Tech…  did you think I had forgotten?? Here they are, the crazy tech items I actually need…

                                 

Dell Alienware M11X, M14X and M17X – yes, all 3

                                  

Then 2 x  XPS 15z with i7 cpu’s

                                                                                                    

Marshall Hand Wired amp and speaker stack.

                                                

Motion Computing J3500

                                                          

A Matrox M9188 16 port Graphic Card with Touch…

                                                                

Adobe Master Edition

I have come to use Adobe software a lot on here and with other work. I used to have the CS2 edition but lost the disc a long time ago. And have been using Trial versions ever since… the trials have expired :( But the reason I love this software is simply the fact you’re limited only by a few things; Imagination! Knowledge of how to use it fully and Cost. Here is the ad vid to the previous version; everything you see here, the detail in the designs, animations and the music was all done with it.

                                                               

Battlefield 3

Because it’s Battlefield 3 and I can’t run Battlefield 2 anymore :( Just for fun, here is the Play Symphony playing the theme music :-)

                                                                                               

Amberley Court

Amberley Court was on last years list… If this house was a few miles east and not on the side of a hill… it would possibly be the best possible house in the world to me. It came up for sale on the Knight Frank website and I have literally spent weeks pawing over the plans and redesigning the Master Bedroom suite, removing the garden and building a huge basement that covers several floors and includes a way out to the pool house and an extensive subterranean garage, not to mention all manner of other things. The general layout is just astounding!! Sadly it was taken off the market… But still, what a house!!

                                                                                              

Free advanced Adobe Training

                                                                    

Private Boeing 787

Yes, yes, I know…. And yes that is a car in the hold. And why? Because it’s the ultimate freedom, and because it’s so wrong and well, I want one :D

But as I did not win the Euro millions Lottery to the tune of £146m ($227,716,200) a few months ago and would have bought a new 737 BBJ (or 2nd hand 777) to whiz myself and my friends about in – I decided to set my fictional goals just that bit higher ;-)

                                                                    

As EVERY year… a Taylor K22ce

 

—————————————————————————————–

As an interlude, I also have a question or two… Person posing as my former neighbour of sorts, who are you and what have you done with my razor-sharp witted, night driving, sledge-hammer owning, house bashing, hard-assed off roading buddy KMA? ;)

It has been a strange year, and I have to say there are several people I miss on the old twitterscape and blogasphere. I guess most don’t know who they are – but from Dave, Annie, Joanne, WKD, Al, and so many others… you’re missed.

Right – back to it…

Again…. The Land Rover 110 CSW… 2.5 TDi and fully equipped if poss ;-)

-

The Wacom Cintiq 24HD

Actually, I would use this every day!! Top tool for doing a top job :-)

                                                                   

A Desktop Solution with a 28 or 30 LED primary screen solution with 2 x22 screen and 6 x 7 touch screens. Sadly the NEC/Alienware 48 inch curved screen is no longer available.

Another Guitar : Gibson Les Paul Dark Fire.

This thing just takes guitar tech to a new level :-)

Gibson still make the Dark Fire, but you need to order it via dealer.

                                                    

A Made By Bob hoody in navy blue with white writing, size XXL

                                                      

Still want an Accuracy International .338

Because it rocks and it’s just a whole loada wrong ;-)

                                                                                          

British Airways – Free bump to business class on every flight I take…. And free trip to Toronto before Christmas please (rtn January) ;-)

                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                 

Theakston’s Old Peculier by the barrel, not the bottle

Whoever you are, where ever you are…. Please, have a great Christmas, drive safely and be safe. For my friends of other religions – know that the spirit and good will of this time extends to you also.

But NOT if you’re a kiddy fiddling priest!!

UPDATE

Regular readers will be thankful of the following image as I’m now too late to purchase these confectionary gifts for you – and yes, this is for real.., as you can see HERE.  I know Hammy will be exceptionally disappointed ;)

Published in: on 5 December, 2011 at 00:17  Comments (5)  
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I’ve something to say about “Spies R Us”… aka Bletchley Park, home of the Hackers, Crackers and Code Breakers

In 1989 I worked for British Telecom (BT)… the role I was initially recruited for was as an underground heavy cabler… As such we had to learn about various skills and dangers and bits and pieces of how to winch, pull, rod, rope and turn cables over huge distances through underground ducting, across bridges, in lakes, dams, coal mines, remote hill top locations and down your street.
As such there were only a few places in the entire world where you could learn this skill and one of them was British Telecom’s Technical College Bletchley Park…

What happened at Bletchley apart from learning a new set of skills of hauling optical fibre and copper cables up to 4800 pair, meeting trainees from the USA, Canada, Asia etc – was finding a fascination with the place…
There wasn’t anything really there to tell you of its history, but for the most part the ornate gardens, grounds and buildings were all operational and well looked after.

Yesterday I stepped foot back on the grounds of Bletchley Park.. once home Mi:1 (later Mi:8) and the true birth place of GCHQ and what ultimately lead to the start of the NSA…

So… What is Bletchley really?
Yes it’s where the code breakers worked… yes, later the code breakers for the US worked there and then began a much deeper US/UK relationship which has continued to at a similar level ever since.

But the most significant thing is what you’re looking at to read this article!! The Computer.. (I say that because you may be from a country that was not involved in WWII)

This issue knows no patriotism, it, while once a technology of utmost secrecy, is now a technology where you and I, the end users, roam about the ether without a visa, at the speed of light and in the realms of the internet are all most members of a reasonably governmentless new world…
Whether we use the computer for work, shopping or simply for communication, it does not take long to understand its pitfalls, gain friends globally and learn it’s abilities and more importantly its strengths…

Now add this to the following information:

Bletchley Park was the home of the world’s first programmable computer (Colossus).
The work carried out there by the Code Breakers, by intellect and by computer is known to have shortened WWII by a minimum of 2 yrs, most likely 6 yrs.
There is actual reason to assume now that without the work of Bletchley, the war would have ended in a stalemate!!
While initially a British only thing, the information was soon shared with our Allies and very quickly the USA came on board and later expanded the work considerably with over 300 US intelligence staff working at Bletchley Park at one point.

What does that mean in real terms…
Well if WWII lasted 6 yrs at the loss of around 84,000,000 lives – shortening the war by any length of time saved a hell of a lot of lives… So many lives in fact that had it have not done its work, some of you reading this would have simply never existed in the first place!!
So in real terms on a pro-rata basis in saving lives =

2 yrs = 28,000,000
3 yrs = 42,000,000
4 yrs = 56,000,000
5 yrs = 70,000,000
6 yrs = 84,000,000

Staggering isn’t it…. Of course we’ll never actually know….

But what we do know about Bletchley Park and only more recently seem to realize is that while its work on the war effort was one thing, huge infact – the relevance to our lives today is immense…
You see, the old cliché of “The first casualty of war is the truth” is very real… and with every single industrial revolution of modern history – we forget the true roots of it all..
Yes, from the work that has become legend of modern pioneers like Steve Jobs, Paul Allen, Bill Gates and so many others – little homage has been paid to where it all truly started.

And Bletchley Park isn’t the only site to have made a significant break through in history – and these places need preserving also. But what of Bletchley today and more over – what are the multi billion dollar companies doing to preserve this level of modern history?

Bletchley today is open to the public, its assets decimated by BT when it relinquished control of the site with the shameful selling off of assets in the most disgusting example of cut-n-run you’re likely to ever see and something they should be made to do something about or at least be held accountable for.

It is run mainly by volunteers with an affinity with the place, but in order to keep its doors open it has almost reached the point of soul selling – and that isn’t pretty!!
The displays are based on what they can afford and that isn’t much.  Even the gift shop is a sad cry for sell anything if people will buy it!!
To me it is not in anyway a family site, it is historic geekdom… Infact talk to several people who have been, other than the odd item to do with the code breaking and the worlds first programmable computer – the rest can strike boredom even in the most intellectual of minds!  Frankly, while that remark pains me to even hear it – it is nonetheless a point of view given to me… However, talk to someone else and they said their entire family went and loved it to bits… So it really is up to you to make your mind up.

Bletchley Park IS NOT and should not be a WWII theme park, it is and should be only about Code Breaking, its impact, what was achieved there, what was innovated and where the world is today because of computers and how they came into being.

Can it be improved – YES!!! But that’d take cash and a lot of it – and a real road map to what should be there…
It should on the outside look just like it did in the days it was operational… but underneath it should be an advanced learning centre… yes the introduction to the Enigma, yes, learn about the code-breakers and what they did…
But then it needs to turn uber geek and have a tech centre built in a secluded spot whereby the entire history of computing can be shown – but NOT as a set of static displays… unused computer equipment is simply static junk – it all needs to work and have a degree of “hands-on” ability. But when you drive up to the gate, you should see guards dressed and armed as they were back in the day, and the windows should be taped etc. The public should feel as they’ve genuinely walked into another world, the world of the Code Breakers themselves.

It is here where real networking started, where the computer made it’s first leap forward and it’s here where there should be the greatest collection of this industrial revolution!!
Not piles of old junk, not modernising a site to modern health and safety laws – but a real living breathing reproduction of its heyday.

So what has our multi billion dollar “do anything to make a buck” computer, IT, and software companies done to help (other than the odd one like Google)?

NOTHING!!!

Don’t get me wrong here, I back anyone who did it for themselves, I respect their innovation and guts to do all they have achieved… But when is enough money enough??
Yup, all these CEO’s can enjoy their earned lifestyles etc – but to not honour in any way the thing that ultimately made them their money??? It’s a bit like the baby who has just been born jumping up and head butting it’s mother in the face.

Bletchley Park should to all intents and purposes be made a UN World Heritage Site, it has to be restored, protected and also become the ultimate learning resource… the site needs innovation, conceptual design that is hidden away. It needs to be hands on and have enough money to pay its staff.
It needs the greater industry to donate 50% of one day’s bank interest from their fortunes so that this site can be honoured developed and set its history in stone..

No, there are no national and BS patriotic issues here, it needs its greedy fat assed off spring to stand up and be counted, to stand with some level of courage, commitment and more over – the self respect to step up to the plate.

It needs physical help too!! Yes from the companies who have staff who worked or developed modern super computers to be on-site to show the world what they did, how they took and industry forward through their own innovation.
IBM, Apple, Dell, Microsoft, Adobe, Samsung, Texas Instruments – and this list could go on and on…. But Bletchley should be the home of not only the Code Breakers – but the site of a global industry show case and meeting point.
A place of collaboration, innovation and a place the entire world can see where it came from and marvel at the concepts of where it’ll go.

I’m ashamed of the lack of investment, the lack of enterprise and more over the complete and utter lack of organization and imagination of industry into the place, a place I actually like! The people at Bletchley Park, well they’re working hard, but with hands tied behind there backs. As for the overall real vision, cutting the wheat from the chaff and remaining focussed, I don’t know – it’s hard to achieve as much that needs to be done with little more than a shoe string.
I will say that NOTHING makes me more appalled than the gutless  blind eye turned to an industries roots and birthplace  – by the very industry itself and one I’ve worked in most of my life.
So, if the industry has ANY level of self-respect, has ANY balls…. Feel free to apply yourselves, offer 50% of – or better still, a whole days company bank interest, – use this as an opportunity of show casing yourselves…

The hard work and dedication of the team at Bletchley and Dr Sue Black is a testament to how important this work truly is… these people have my respect and their hard work, enthusiasm is, while outstanding,  an immense wake up call of people striving to do something, to work against impossible odds for the benefit of us all.

So… is there anything “we” can do? Yes be there for the weekend of the 21-22 May to show your support…

One final note:

Contrary to the Bletchley Park website  image below…. the cost of an adult visit is NOT 10 pounds – it is 12… and while I have now scrolled about to find the parking fee – there is one and it’s 3 pounds

To be clear about this, this is the first Bletchley Park Google result link… the Site has been updated and you should (until previous cache’s have been cleared) go through the website main portal to gain the latest information in order to prevent confusion and possible frustration:  http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/. Clicking HERE or on the image below will take you to the present prices page and the most accurate information at the time of writing.

 

Published in: on 6 May, 2011 at 19:44  Comments (2)  
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The TWBrit 2010 Christmas list

Yes a possible annual event whereby I post all the things that no one will buy me and are predominantly boys toys :)
So, lets get down to it (in no particular order)

Amberley Court

Battenberg Cake

Tac 15i Crossbow

Land Rover 110 County Station Wagon in full Camel Trophy spec. but in TWBrit decals and colour scheme.

Accuracy International’s .338 with a x24 Schmitt und Bender scope ( I would say an AS50, but they’re not legal in the UK)

Taylor K22ce Guitar made of Hawian Koa

A Dell Adamo XPS

A life time supply of Coffee

 

A guaranteed way of giving up smoking

Motion Computing J3500 Table

A Dentist

An invite to become a member of White’s

Logitech HD pro webcam C910

Published in: on 2 December, 2010 at 17:56  Comments (6)  
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Cloud Computing and why the UK and most of the world isn’t ready…

So, rolling back to 2004 and I’m sitting in a meeting… We’re talking about the design and build of the next generation data centre and what we can offer with the most cutting edge tech at our disposal.
So I said we should get on to Microsoft and offer pay-as-you go or ‘in with your contract’ Microsoft Office applications as a web-based entity…
You may notice that Microsoft now offer this service free of charge with Hotmail etc.

Well this is what is now termed as the “Virtualization” part of Cloud Computing.  And has effectively been the missing link. What I mean is, outside of your Windows, Mac or Linux based operating systems you have no need to actually own multi hundred-dollar software items on the volatile platform of your PC or laptop – they’re all online and you pay a $1 or 2 every time you use them.
This saves you the user a fortune, yet the software is always the very latest available. You then store and back up your work online so by default you have a complete disaster recover system – irrespective of the state of your home/end-user equipment, or if your house/office burns down or something.

So basically all you require is the personal device, pc, tablet, laptop or phone to access everything you need on the web without requiring tons of software etc. The simplest way is to say the difference between ordinary email and webased email like Google Mail, Hotmail and Yahoo etc. It does not mater where you are in the world, you can access everything online that is yours.  Likewise, companies simply don’t require tons of data storage infrastructure with regards non-sensitive information. That, like your web-based emails etc are all online – or, in the Cloud… As such, main software applications will and in some cases all ready do appear inside your web brouser.

HOWEVER…. It recent years we have all been fooled into believes that ultra fast broadband is vital to the future… Well the only reason it is, is because all future TV and entertainment will be web-based and High Def, takes a lot of bandwidth to watch in realtime.
But the bandwidth isn’t the real issue here – what is, is data centre capacity… And right now most ISP’s have over subscribed their systems and they can’t cope with demand.
As such they’re bringing in, and in most cases have brought in ‘Fair Usage Policies” which is their way of flaunting their inability to provide unlimited usage that they advertised and sold to you – the customer.
The benchmark usage figure is 40 gigabytes of allowable downloads a month… And that figure is simply not conducive for now, the near future – and most certainly not for Cloud Computing….
And then the mobile operators who are limiting the mobile internet to around 500 mb per month… yet as we finally start the roll out both WiMax and 4G products… we’re looking at a limitless amount of bandwidth which our ISP’s simply can’t handle….

Yes I can sit here and whinge about ISP’s and how I perpetually have ground breaking ideas in meetings that others make a fortune from and I don’t due to my inability to communicate in the right way, to the right level – or by the fact that everyone likes milking your ideas and sticking their names on it…. But the reality is, companies like Dell now have off the shelf plug-in and go, all-in-one Data Centre solutions ready for nationwide and global deployment – so why are we being screwed with fair usage limits???
It’s basically money for old rope – they limit us, cutting down their overheads and making a greater profit while we suffer crap from customer service teams.

Cloud Computing is ready, but it’s time governments started kicking the butts of the ISP/Telco’s

Published in: on 25 November, 2010 at 14:28  Leave a Comment  
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What an odd few days

So over on the left of the pond, BP is taking a lot of flak as we know from a lot of people. What strikes me as odd about all this is that, well I think I’d like to be contracted to do a job and face no liability what so ever!!
It just seems odd (not that I know the first thing about drilling for oil or what Black & Decker you would need to do it) is that Transocean get contracted to come along with their own equipment and workforce to drill a bloody great hole in the sea bed no less that 1 mile from the rig itself and when it goes wrong – the client gets shot – not the people who did the job…
On top of this, I don’t think there has been a time in history when so much money has been put up by anyone to get it all sorted out.
Oddly this isn’t so far the biggest oil spill in history – that was done by Saddam Hussein in the first gulf war, and having stood on the beaches or the Arabian Gulf, you simply don’t see any sign of it because nature does infact take care of such things.
However, while an awful lot of critics appear to be standing around doing nothing other than complaining rather than getting their sleeves rolled up and helping out, the Obama administration has been doing one hell of a lot of sabre rattling. This part is actually hilarious simply because there is absolutely nothing they can do… After all, they’re still taking revenue from the oil products being sold by BP, so there seems to be a conflict of interest of sorts going on.
On top of all of this the BP CEO has been dragged over the hot coals with everyone demanding reasons, answers and above all else – action on something the likes of which has never happened before…
After this, the CEO rightly hands over control of the entire operation to his man on the ground that is in charge of the operation, makes $20Bn available to residents of the gulf of Mexico and leaves the whole thing to the experts.
The following weekend he goes to support his son in a yacht race and gets damned for it… I’m sorry, a father can’t go and support his son now?
This rhetoric came straight out of the White House who have basically done F**k all about any of this other than take time for photo shoots and mouthing off. An irony when BP could simply just say, stuff it – we’re off!! Or maybe someone might want to send a little Viagra to the Oval office, to help cure things in some way.

Further BS from the White House came this week with regards a Rolling Stone magazine article about General Stanley McChrystal and the war in Afghanistan. You can read it HERE, and frankly – I didn’t see a problem with the article at all.
But alas, the reality is that either we commit every single member of all our armed forces – or we get the hell out of Dodge!!

This week in the UK we had the promised emergency budget from our new government. And quite honestly, I didn’t think it was anywhere as near as harsh as it could have been.
Personally I would prefer a hard 3yrs and get it over with, but that may also have a dire effect on business.
It is what it is, and it isn’t bad at all… Not that you would believe it if you listened to the former govt. who got us into the mess in the first place…
In fact the week before the same party had all it’s new prospective leaders in a TV debate which turned into the biggest direct show of a complete lack of unity, ideas and frankly was a bit like watching headless chickens running about – I stopped watching it was so embarrassing… I think it was the part when they all agreed that govt. should have and the people want them to have more control… doh!!! Hello! Why do you think you’re not in power anymore?!

Other news in a New York Times article and followed up by CBS and others is about the fact that Apple is becoming the worlds most hated company due to their overt control of applications and persistent product updated replacements and lack of user control… Hmmm, wonder where I’ve heard that before…
There isn’t anything wrong with a Mac per se and yes, if you want Mac OS, you can indeed just buy it for your PC, but it’ll only come with drivers for Mac hardware… Ironically, a modern Mac is a PC format but only people with way too much money and lack of intelligence tend to go that route unless of course you need a dedicated hardware for editing applications – then Mac is ok. That is assuming you are okay with people being beaten into working on making Mac products does not effect you’re conscience – especially as their workers have the highest suicide rate and are often disappeared by Chinese police if they fail a metal detector test when leaving work.
The difference in Windows and other OS is that you the user get to play about with everything (hence people whinge when they screw up what they don’t know about).
But there are folks who while successful in previous employment and hired spokes persons for our present govt in IT things that do advocate these products and frankly prove which end of there body there head is really at!! Odd really as the field they were from was web related and nothing at all to do with IT…
PC is still the world business platform, if you want a good laptop – buy a damn Dell and if you want a proper tablet – go to Motion Computing, which is also oddly owned by Dell. But as the CEO says, “We’re not in the business of Disposable tablets” so don’t expect a fully functional Win7 computer tablet that is also ruggedized to be as cheap as the glitzy, but somewhat useless iPad.

Actually, here is a vid by an artist who bought an iPad as a form of digital sketch blook only to find that the moment you rest your hand on the screen as well as the pen – the hand also leaves a mark. The Motion products reconise the difference the moment you the systems Wacom pen on it. The latest versions while expense operate multi touch and ped. The Ls800 is available for around $200 2nd hand on ebay (introduced 4yrs ago).

Published in: on 24 June, 2010 at 10:49  Comments (1)  
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Funny Few Days…

Over in Sioux Falls, South Dakota BigDog aka Dave has been a busy chap… He’s just been upgrading and swapping out his IT solution. Oddly enough he’s opted for a 17” Dell laptop… and good for him.
It’s funny really, my Dell Inspiron has a Centrino T2050 possessor and is still more than capable of anything I wish to use this laptop for – and this includes playing Battlefield2 with all the video settings to max!
However, looking at the release of Battlefield Bad Company 2 on PC a couple of days ago – I wonder if I actually have the power to even start that game… I must look up the specs… BigDog – buy that game – so Iz can whoop yo sorry ass!!

Other stuff…

My new camera is unbelievably outstanding – I’m simply stunned at the pictures it takes!!
I left my previous camera to my mate in Chepstow, and frankly I’m glad I had to buy another. It’s a Samsung ST500 bought from Camerbox.co.uk for a fraction of what Amazon charge for it.

I have continued my ruthless cutting of people I follow on Twitter. Some of whom are even friends of sorts, but this is not to say I’m falling out with anyone as we can still communicate on twitter without the following thing. It actually stops ‘extra’ followers appearing which had become a hassle… This is, except for one UK follower who has turned out to be a stunning and insightful individual whom I won’t mention (other than they get larger by the day).

The big spring clean is under way here as I rip through my place throwing out EVERYTHING I don’t use. I’ve always travelled light, and always have the need to live light – but rarely succeed… Until now (I’m hoping). Besides, I live alone and if anything were to happen to me it’d make the job of clearing me out of the way much easier (I’m laughing here – yeah, good luck with that!!) :D

Most admin has been carried out other than requiring a medical for my truck licence…(£113). So I’m simply cracking on with life and looking forward to warmer weather.

News also this week is that they’re gonna release a load of new bugs into the UK. These weird mite-like critters suck the life out of a plant called the Japanese Knot Weed which has become a real problem in the UK. While it can grow a meter in 3 weeks, what you see is a bit like the tip of an Iceberg – the root structure is vast!!
I guess we’ll end up being over run with those too at some point..

Work colleague and Farmerist WKD and hubby ‘C’ have been preparing for lambing. I had no idea just how hard work this is until JK of all people started lecturing me about it.
This (for those who may read this blog) is a bit of a concern… I can’t be having JK learning more about this farmerist business!!
Hopefully WKD will furnish us with pictures of the whole process and lots of ickle lambs… (hint!)  ;)

My cousin’s lad and friend ‘Matt’ has been having an odd year.. Matt is an avid climber of sorts. I say ‘of sorts’ because he’s into ‘Bouldering’ (no, not blundering as the this spell checker would have me write). While he does the odd rock face, he loves nothing more than to wrap himself around large oversized pebbles! This sounds ok until you realise Matt is around 40 ft tall and has the wing span of a 747!!
This last year he’s had the misfortune of having his Land Rover stolen and as such getting to he most favoured places of the Peak District curtailed. This however did not stop him legging it to India to do some climbing a few weeks ago.
Matt is at a place in his life I know all too well as I’ve actually been where he is now – and I’m sorely envious of him.
If Matt is anything like me, he’ll probably head off and work his way around Europe at some point. The only thing I would recommend to him is to get his HGV class 1 – because love it or hate it, it’s one hell of a fall back income.
However, Matt is very much his own man! He’ll do what he wants and he’ll do it his way – and I of all people get that.
I do of course hate him for it :) lol

twb-button

Published in: on 9 March, 2010 at 13:49  Comments (4)  
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Dell’s new Adamo XPS

If it wasn’t enough for Dell to produce the Adamo a few months ago, they were obviously working on something for quite some time that Apple appeared to beat them to the punch, well that’s not quite true.
I say appeared, but as many know, the most powerful laptops in the world are Dell’s XPS range, well with the advent of Apple releasing the ‘Air’, Dell released the Adamo XPS, the worlds thinnest laptop – and further more, they gave it the extreme power of XPS.

Published in: on 18 November, 2009 at 18:23  Leave a Comment  
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Finally!!

Well this morning (after a very long sleep) a knock at the front door revealed a chap brandishing a box. That box of course was my replacement laptop screen (the first being DOA).

So while on the phone to my sister talking about the company she works for, I popped out the old monitor and slung in the new one – and….

here’s the old and new

Old

Image(174)

New

Image(263)

Ironically, while this has an annoying glossy finish, the screen quality is much better than the old one – Result!!

Published in: on 10 November, 2009 at 13:12  Comments (6)  
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I Swear….

Well, the run to Oakthorpe was a bit arduous and typical of a SundaArlay night, albeit that traffic was slow on the M3 due to a serious car fire.
Arriving tired, I was greeted by Arla dairy hand Dave who was bright, and just the right level of ‘cheery’ to lift the burden of the drive into London – that was very much appreciated and I hadn’t seen him for months either.

I parked close – very close to WKD’s red missile when I got to work and hadn’t realised just how long her car doors were. Expecting a grimWKD icon1acing email later, I actually got a kinda humorous one with a mild declaration of war against the TWB Car of Character (CofC). This I can handle, though I’m not sure the CofC can. The bit that was a huge disappointment is that WKD is actually slim enough to have got into her car without bashing her door against mine. Odd, when I came to this work nearly 3 years ago, I thought everyone was fat! And there was simply no excuse for it – I am now bigger than many of the other drivers and this just isn’t good.  Any way, as long as she keeps sending farmerist pictures, I know we’re good – well there are farmerist pictures that might not be so good, but hey! LOL

DriverCPCThe 10th September looms close now and for truck drivers in the UK, this means the requirement for the Driver CPC (certificate of professional competence), a thing once only required by transport managers and owner drivers. But alas, if you wish to retain the ability of professional driving, you’ll be required to retain a CPC in an ongoing training capacity….. (sigh)
I’ll write more on this subject in the future.

Other news…

The Boeing 787:
The 787 is almost ready to fly! (YAY!) and Boeing say it will be airborne boeing_787before the years end with first deliveries being made throughout 2010.
I did try to get all the latest news via the Boeing webcast, but sadly it does not appear to be working. If you would like to watch the Boeing videos of the evolution of the 787 and the cool stuff going into it – you can watch them HERE

Dell…
Dell HellWhat can I say about a company I’ve spent millions with? (not my millions, company money). Basically, I am my warranty!! And there will be more on this subject later! I have though, used Michael Dell’s own business model for fixing the issues I had.

Yesterday while driving back down the M4 towards home, I had a sudden wish to have been having a chat’n’chill with SEC, I haven’t seen her for 4 year (?), which is kinda weird to me really. I rarely miss anything or anyone other than my old Irish Setter.

If I’m not working on Friday, I’m going to Tuttles in London!!

Published in: on 7 September, 2009 at 17:33  Comments (3)  
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