Archives
February 29, 2004
Shuttle Mod
I had my work PC home for the weekend between changing jobs, so I gave it a quick mod.
Before:
After:
New Shoes
More new shoes! Jack's first proper outdoor walking shoes, and shoes for my new job.
February 28, 2004
Train
Catching the train to work in the snow on my last day at work in Cardiff yesterday.
Snow Yesterday!
Hey, Ele, see the snow! We only had a light dusting in Cardiff, but everyone else had a ton.
February 27, 2004
iSight
I can't believe it! The guys at work have all bought me an iSight as a leaving present! I think they want me to keep in touch from my new job :)
Hungover
I'm rather hungover this morning after my leaving do yesterday. My burps taste of Scotch. I'm attempting to remedy this by eating a pie.
February 26, 2004
Snow
How the hell is there so much snow everywhere else in Wales that you can't even get on the motorway by Swansea, but not a single flake in Cardiff?
February 25, 2004
Hanging fruit
With huge bits of fuit hanging from the ceiling. Which is a bit ironic, as you probably couldn't get a piece of fruit from any of these junk food outlets...
Going out
We're going out for the day! Off to Up and Under for a new climbing harness, and then swimming in Llantrisant with Jack!
February 24, 2004
Packing up
I started packing up my stuff at work today. I start my new job in Swansea on Monday. I've actually done as much lab work as I can do, so I'm not too busy this week. Nice. Time to catch up on my emails.
February 23, 2004
Walking on the docks
Down to the bay for some food and a stroll.
Visitors
Visitors this afternoon (my mum, dad and brother).
Playtime Palace
I'm off work today. First stop: Playtime Palace for softplay fun with Jack.
February 22, 2004
Jack at the park
I didn't post yesterday because I was out all day, at work, then the Bristol Hifi Show, and then an evening meal at a mate's. I really should sort out a mobile blogging solution before I go to Spain at the end of March.
To make up for it, I've made a video of Kim, Jack and me at the park. Download it from this link (5MB).
February 20, 2004
Monkey
Which one is the monkey? He's trying to get into the cupboard to cause havoc.
Nice lino, huh?
Rich and Roberta
I haven't been posting many photos, have I? Here's one of Rich and Roberta with Jack the other weekend:
Off to the Bristol Hifi Show tomorrow with Rich (plus 1 geek point). Coincidentally his CD player broke this week, and so did my iPod. Bizarre.
XP vs OS X
Sorry, I haven't got a hard link, but this is from Furo and Lockergnome's IT Professional newsletter:
"Apple is called out for spending $1 billion to develop Mac OS X for a relatively small number of potential users, while Microsoft spent $1 billion on Windows XP, which holds a far greater number of customers. Simple math, right? Sure, if the math is all that is important. We have only to look at the events of the last week and a half to see the difference in how that $1 billion went to work. Windows XP is a virus-ridden security nightmare, while Mac OS X has seen several years of secure, virus-free bliss. Mac OS X continues to gain in functionality, performance and usability with each successive point release. What about Windows XP? The fix list for XP reaches four digits, and counting, has seen no real functionality changes, save for reactionary efforts in response to security disasters or lawsuits, and I still remember the noticeable performance hit that Service Pack 1 introduced. Apple has charged for their major point releases, and I've been happy enough to pay for them. There's no way I'd even think about paying for a Windows XP Service Pack or "Second Edition" sort of release, given the history of downhill performance and security. Perhaps Microsoft should have spent $2 or $3 billion on the initial Windows XP development project."
My point? This is a summation of why I have gone over to the Mac. I advise you all to do the same :)
February 19, 2004
Blogging
Ah. 5 minutes to blog:
Jack's much better. His teeth seem to be settling down, and we had our first full night's sleep last night. And he woke me up perfectly on time this morning. He's very snotty though, and a bit hot, so he seems to have a bit of a cold. He's much happier though.
I'm waiting for a box from Apple to send my iPod back in for warrantied repairs.
I've almost finished all my lab stuff in time for Swansea, but I've had to work like a devil to get it done. It's my last week next week. Leaving do Thursday, I think.
More and more people are sharing their music via iTunes on the Cardiff University network. Me included. Very cool! (You can't download music like this, only listen to it).
There's are university strikes next week. Hmmm.
Back to cataloguing my images.
February 18, 2004
Borrowed
Phew! I've managed to borrow a power supply from a very kind Mac person on the 1st floor.
Power
Crap. I'm having a bad day. I forgot my power supply for my laptop this morning, and I'm giving a presentation from it this afternoon.
Dead again
Yep. It's dead. Back to Apple for my iPod.
February 17, 2004
Its... Alive!
My iPod has revived. After trying everything (reseting, restoring, etc, etc) I just plugged it into the dock at home and it went BEEP - buttons working again.
I don't get it. I had tried plugging it into my iBook at work several times.
A temporary reprieve, I think.
Dead
Oh no! My iPod is dead! What am I going to do? Apart from send it back to Apple, that is.
I'm very upset. Condolences and wreaths by email please.
February 16, 2004
Hayfever
My hayfever has started early this year. Sniff.
Sky One Sucks
I love the programming on Sky One. It's great. I love hours and hours of the Simpsons, Star Trek, and Malcolm in the Middle. But I've always hated the damn logo in the corner of the screen reminding you that you're watching Sky One. Yes. Thank you. I know I'm watching Sky One. And it has been worse recently as they advertise every new f*$king thing by adding to this bloody distracting logo. And everyone is copying them. Stop it!
What I'm really peeved about though, is the stupid amount of advertising in the new series of 24. It's a real-time show, right? So each of the 24 episodes is an hour long, right? No, not any more. On Sky they're an hour and a quarter long because they need to show more advertising.
24 is an amazing piece of TV, largely because of the maker's amazing ability to raise the level of tension to an unbearable level and maintain it, week after week. You finish one episode and absolutely must watch the next episode as soon as humanly possible. This doesn't happen on Sky. Every 10 minutes you have 5 minutes of adverts. So there is no tension.
I'm going to boycott Sky One's 24 and wait for the DVD.
So Tired
Great. It's Monday morning, and the start of a new week, and I can barely keep my eyes open. Jack is still teething, and we haven't slept much since Thursday.
I don't remember being this tired when he was first born and having regular feeds in the night.
February 14, 2004
2 Weeks
Two weeks until I start my new job in Swansea...
February 13, 2004
Passport
Well you try taking his passport photo then.
February 12, 2004
Molars
That didn't last long. The poor little monster must have some serious new molar action going on in his upper jaw. He's hot, his cheeks are bright red, and he has been crying all day long. Bonjella sorts him out, so it must be his teeth. I cut a new wisdom tooth a couple of years ago and I still remember that, so I sympathise. Paracetamol won't touch it, but Bonjella is fantastic.
He's cuddling his monkey in his cot. I think we'll be up a few times tonight.
February 11, 2004
No Pox
Phew. Those spots on Jack have disappeared. They stayed around for a couple of days though. Just a rash?
He's tottering all over the place now. He walks across the living room, carrying his toys, wandering from sofa to table to sideboard. And he can safely lower himself from the sofa or bed onto the floor, i.e. feet first instead of headfirst. This does mean he can leg it over to my toys though! Whatever daddy's playing with, I want.
February 09, 2004
G5
Oh man. I was picking up some stuff from stores today and saw a brand new G5 being delivered with an Apple screen. Nice. I wonder who that was for?
Frankly, this is good motivation for me to write those grant applications I've been thinking about. I think I should get more into bioinformatics too, largely because you can do a lot of it from behind a desk if you have the tools.
From the BBSRC:
"Bioinformatics can be defined as: the development and use of computational and mathematical methods for the acquisition, archiving, analysis and interpretation of biological information to determine biological functions and mechanisms as well as their applications in user communities."
Which is pretty broad. I would like to be able to use a lot of the available bioinformatics tools in my cartilage repair research. Being able to use arraying technologies to compare chondrocyte gene expression profiles in different situations, or to identify and analyse new genes or differentially expressed genes seen during repair, disease or (de)differentiation would be useful. I already have some short gene sequences from my PhD that need chasing up. Oh dear. More work.
February 08, 2004
Pox?
Oh dear. I said it wouldn't take long. Jack has a very light rash over his upper body, and two of his mates have just had chicken pox. Fingers crossed that it's just a rash, eh?
He's had a bit of a wobbly day today. He must have fallen over almost a dozen times, cracking his head on the floor, the stairgate, the coffee table, or to best effect, the brick wall outside the front door. He's got a lovely graze on his cheek/chin. Proper little boy! This walking lark is hard to practice, it seems. His most spectacular tumble was a backflip off the sofa onto his head, which I, in glorious Sunday league goalkeeping style completely failed to catch. He recovers very quickly, but will he have any brain cells left for school?
February 07, 2004
Tottering
I still haven't finished Jack's first year DVD. We seem to have accrued a huge amount of footage (1st time parents, eh?) which I'm sifting through on my Mac. I'm really busy finishing up as much research as possible before I go to Swansea, so I'm not having the spare time to get on and do the video. Ah, I'll get it done. Maybe by the end of March (my birthday)!
After getting him ready for bed this evening I showed him a big, framed picture of him, Kim and me at Andy's wedding last year. He started pointing at the picture of me and saying, "dada, dada!". Clever boy! He also kept turning over the picture to see what was behind it. I wonder what that was all about? He was very animated, and very excited about it.
Other words in Jack's vocabulary: wack, wack (ducks); oggy (dog); mumumumum; dadadadadad; bumbumbum; dirty; uh-oh.
February 06, 2004
Spymac
I just posted this on Spymac. How messy is my desk? It's never normally that bad, honest.
February 05, 2004
Hits
Ha! My website is getting more regular, daily hits than the news page on the www.cardiffjif.com website!
I don't know why I'm laughing. It took me a hell of a lot of effort to develop that website. And I'm paying out of my own pocket for it's hosting because of the PHP fiasco. Oh well. I won't waste my time in future.
February 04, 2004
24 Season 2
We just finished watching the second season of 24 on DVD, in time for the start of the third season next week. I'm so glad it's over, in a good way. I can almost feel an ulcer coming on from the constant stress in each episode.
If I feel like this God knows how Jack Bauer must feel. Jack's the man!
February 03, 2004
Balls
Here's a video of Jack and Kim playing. You've got to play it with sound!
February 02, 2004
Even More Wireless
I've been buying more kit! I'm planning to use my iBook as my primary work computer for Swansea to make mobile computing easier. I've ordered an Apple bluetooth (wireless) keyboard myself, and been bought the matching mouse as comission for building a PC in Cardiff before I leave. Sweet!
Crash
You know how you always try and get through the amber light during rush hour just before it goes red? Because you don't want to wait? And sometimes it turns red? Not a good idea, because this happens:
(Not me, by the way!)
February 01, 2004
Walking
Jack's been doing lots of walking now that he's better again. Today his teething pains had died down so he was a very happy boy!
Nemo
Round at Rich & Roberta's yesterday afternoon Jack was glued to Finding Nemo. He loved it! We didn't have time to watch all of it, but this means I get to buy the Pixar/Disney back catalogue!
Monsters Inc first, I think.