Archives
May 31, 2005
Snap!
That's what happens when a 2-year-old jumps up and down on your toilet.
May 29, 2005
Sweet Menu
The puddings list at the Traherne Arms, Cardiff, and they're all excellent.
Wow.
May 25, 2005
Pen & Paper
I'm sticking to working from pen & paper today (and my PDA, of course). I'm running out of computers...
May 24, 2005
Aura
Jo says my aura has altered so as to affect the computers around me. Evidence for this?
- My iBook died last night.
- My spare PC (which I'm now lowered to using as my main work station) was monkeying around today.
- Jo's PC (same office) was playing up today. (But hey, it usually does).
- A PC laptop in the next office had its fonts screwed up today.
Doesn't sound like much, right?
- But then I get home, and the living room PC dies, right in front of me. It won't boot from the hard disk any more.
Garh! What the f&£$?
(You'll notice that even under today's levels of extreme annoyance multiple exclamation marks and question marks are not acceptable - pay heed).
I am now wrapping myself in bubble wrap to insulate myself from the surviving computers in my house. *pop*pop*pop*
May 23, 2005
Dead iBook
I spoke too soon. My iBook just died. This is because of the crash on Wednesday. (I hadn't used it all weekend).
Shit. I'm really pissed off now.
May 20, 2005
ROTS
I really, really enjoyed Revenge of the Sith last night. Some people like it, some people don't (Kim fell asleep - well, they *were* comfy chairs). I for one was very nervous before the start, and was never able to relax back into my chair.
I don't understand why so many people go to see the new Star Wars films, particularly ROTS. It must be the hype, or they believe that maybe, just maybe, this time they'll get it. And that's part of the problem. The film wasn't for you, it was for me. It tied the links in my mind, set up the future, laid down the past, completing the story. If you don't know the rest of the story in some detail, how can you appreciate these films? You wonder why we forgive so much, and the truth is because we are glad to be given what we are given. Because we've always wanted more, and now we have it.
To complain about these films you must first watch them all, more than once, and try to stay awake. But then, there's that same problem again: these films are not for you. We all like different things, and we like these films. But only the Sith deal in absolutes.
Waiting for Star Wars
And I've got a guy with spikey hair in front of me.
May 19, 2005
The Morning After
I'm feeling a bit sore today. Elbows, shoulders, arse, lower back, wrists, shins, etc. The usual post-crash stuff. It's daft you get all these aches with even just a low speed crash.
The bike's screwed: the frame's bent and the wheels are bent (plus some other bits), so they'll need replacing. I really, really liked that frame. Shit. This is going to be expensive, to the point where it'll probably be cheaper to buy a new bike.
My laptop seems to have survived this time!
May 18, 2005
Off Again
I just got knocked off my bike by a car. Again. I still haven't sorted out the insurance claim from last time.
See that bend in the seat stay? That's supposed to be straight.
What was I doing? I was crossing at a pelican crossing (green man & everything) & the guy just drove over me. He was stopped, at his red light, & just drove over me. I really wonder sometimes. I think he was just looking at the sea. Ow. I saw he started & sped up, but couldn't get out of the way. My back wheel ended up under his front wheel, my bike ripped off his number plate & bits of his bumper, & I ended up in a heap.
I'm running out of spare wheels.
Cranial Nerves
It's head anatomy time, so for all of the students trying to get to grips with the cranial nerves, try these 2 links:
A University of Manchester Cranial Nerves CAL Package (introductory).
The University of Michigan Anatomy Tables (detailed).
The University of Michigan Anatomy teaching site is particularly good, and was profiled on Apple's website as an example of excellent use of Apple IT in education.
May 17, 2005
PS3
Hot on the heels of the Xbox 360 is the press release of official details of the next generation Playstation, due on the shelves Spring 06. It looks incredibly powerful, and Sony are already showing off some game demos. This box *will* have a Blue-Ray high-definition DVD drive, outputting 1080p gaming. It has a load of generic outputs (USB2, Bluetooth, SD, compact flash and Sony memory sticks, 2xHDMI(?)) unlike Microsoft's mean, Xbox specific ports that force you to buy MS branded kit.
Get more information from PSPortal.
More Xbox 360
Here is a detailed article about the Xbox 360. I want to see some games!
It's going to be very powerful, but won't have a hidef DVD drive. Hmmm. That's a shame, as it would have been a way of getting hidef DVD movies into Jo Bloggs' living room.
May 16, 2005
Xbox 360
Did anybody notice the prelaunch of the Xbox 360 (aka Xbox 2)? The actual hardware is supposed to be out in the shops by Christmas, which would be interesting, as the Playstation 3 isn't due on the scene until 2006.
It looks pretty boring and not particularly original in design (just like the first one then), although the specs show some powerful hardware and a watercooling system (probably just vapour driven) inside. It's white and silver, curvy, sits on one end and has rows of ventilation holes punched in the sides. So a cross between the PS2/iPod/G5/XPC Shuttle then? If, like the website, it does have a rotating green circle of light on the front, then surely that's taken from the Sky+ box?
I'm being a bit negative here, but I'm sure the console itself will host some superb games. It's designed with high-definition displays in mind, so resolutions should be approaching the sort of levels we see in PC gaming. I'll just be hiding mine out of the way. The controllers will be wireless, after all.
May 15, 2005
May 13, 2005
Friday
It's a Jameson's evening. I feel really fatigued, like I've picked up a virus, but I'm probably just tired. I haven't really stopped this week, except to sleep.
I submitted a big, multidisciplinary grant application to the Royal Society on Wednesday, we had an anatomy exam resit on Monday, we're finishing the 2 timetables for the 05/06 medicine teaching year, anatomy teaching begins again next week, and I was examining Cardiff medical students by viva today. So it was busy.
On other fronts, the CardiffTri website is getting used well now that race season has begun, & the new gallery is getting photos added to it by members which is good to see. It was some effort to construct. No-one bought any of my prints of Try-a-Tri though! I'm off to the Llandovery Sprint Triathlon tomorrow to take photos of our club members for the web-site.
With more grant application deadlines approaching, lectures & other teaching commitments to deliver, & Kim's birthday on the 27th, it's going to be a busy month. There'll be a lot more early mornings & late nights.
Oh well, at least the new Star Wars film is out next week. It'd better be good.
May 12, 2005
Posted by samwebster at May 10, 2005
There can be only one
Sony and Toshiba have joined together to produce just one high definition DVD format. Sony will make the hardware, Toshiba the software. Blu-ray and HD-DVD will not fight it out like VHS and Betamax, thank crap.
Does this mean that without the format war high-def DVD players will make it into our living rooms sooner, and software will be richly available?
Link.
I think I'll believe it when I see it: link.
May 05, 2005
Voting
I don't know why, but voting makes you feel really good, doesn't it?
May 04, 2005
Ups and Downs
Yesterday I had a tail wind cycling both to and from work. Today they've cut the water off and the tea bag used in my last cupful of hot water had a hole in it, so I've a mug full of tea leaves.
I tell you, life's full of ups and downs.
May 03, 2005
Cameras
Why have I been spending so much money on photographic kit?
(Click the images for larger pictures).
2003:
2005:
The light and conditions were probably better for the 2003 image, too. The Nikon D70 is giving me the control I've been wanting, and I'm getting far sharper images. The camera's faster, letting me take more photos at an event, and of those images, more are keepers: focused and properly exposed. Yey!
Now to buy more lenses and flashes :)
May 02, 2005
May Monday
Wow. Just watched Dr Who on NTL's On Demand service. For one, Dr Who was superb - beautiful reintroduction of the Dalek and more hints at the final time war. But NTL's On Demand service is working brilliantly. In a nutshell, NTL automatically records a bunch of TV programmes which are particularly popular, and you get to watch them at your leisure. You can pause, rewind and so on, like hard disk recording boxes. At the moment it's kind of a trial, and only a few programmes are available. I wonder how wide their net will spread in the future?
BTW, a handful of photos I took at our club's annual novice triathlon have gone up on the photos page. I took about 400, and these are a sample of some of the images I liked. I'll post a couple of hundred on the club's site this week for competitors to buy prints of.
May 01, 2005
Try-a-Tri Day
I've been a busy boy today - up at 5.30 to set up and take photos at our club's novice triathlon, Try-a-Tri. All went well, as far as I know, and I got about 400 reasonable pictures. The light started to go early on, which made life tough: fast shutter speeds are needed to stop the action, preferably with a small aperture to give a long depth of field to make focusing on moving objects easier, but for that you need lots of light. I could have done with either a fast-recycling flash, or a longer lense just one stop faster. But hey, focusing would still have been tough. Sun would have been easier. I did OK.
After that I integrated a new installation of Gallery into the cardifftri.net website. It took a while, but I think it was worth it. I've still a couple of bugs to iron out, but it's working. Go see it and some of my pics here. It looks worth it as we've been picking up lots of hits to the site today, and we're still getting pageviews now.
A long day.