27 Aug 2004
I have just finished reading ‘Eastern Standard Tribe’ by Cory Doctorow. Yet again he has written a book that addresses human morals and ideas of society and how it is developing. It addresses these things as a natural element of the plot and as such you end up with a real understanding of the points being made. The style of writing is easy to read but watch the timeline, it jumps about a bit. Without doubt, the underlying messages will be discussion points for any other person that has read the book and understands it’s significance.
‘Eastern Standard Tribe’ is released under the ‘Creative Commons’ licence and is therefore freely distributable. I for one will place an order for the paperback when I next order from Amazon as I want to feel that I am giving something back. Having read all of Cory’s books… I would like to read more!
Head over to gringod.com to download a copy for yourself
26 Aug 2004
What an adventure. I took the back off of my non-working television set and made a very interesting discovery. I found a screw stuck under a resistor that was just touching another component and apparently shorting itself out. Interestingly, this screw was in very tightly and I am sure it could not have just recently fallen in to that position. It is conceivable that it shifted through vibration or heat though as on Sunday the set had been run for an extended period whilst watching 24. This leads me to believe then that it has been there since it was manufactured 7 years ago and would explain why this has happened previously. Last time though I paid £50 for a repairman to take the set away and fix a ‘Dry Solder’ joint!!! What he meant is that when the set got to his workshop it worked fine because the screw had moved!!! I am not happy about that.. I am very happy though that I don’t need to go and buy a Plasma replacement…. or am I?? :-/
26 Aug 2004
25 Aug 2004
I am mentally preparing for a challenge today… When I get home after work I need to clear some space and start dismantling my 42″ Widescreen rear Projection television! I realise this sounds like an odd thing to do but unfortunately the thing stopped working last night and before I go out and buy that plasma replacement I thought I should probably have a quick look inside. At the point of failure I was getting to the 4th DVD through the first season of 24. The plan was to watch them non-stop till the end of season 3 which would build up a fantastic total of 72 hours of suspense and excitement. The flow was maintained though as I used a laptop and an external amplifier to watch a couple more episodes before I went to sleep. I just hope that the 40,000 Volt capacitors are discharged by the time I stick my screwdriver in… if you hear no more… you know why!
25 Aug 2004
24 Aug 2004
My good friend Gringod now has his webcam up and running again. Although the sea views and weather outlook have gone, I can say that I will regularly check the car park view from his new desk… you never know what you might spy!!!!
24 Aug 2004
24 Aug 2004
Sometimes the wather can be very frustrating. A couple of months ago, I was due to sail to St Malo in a race called the ‘Dinard Race’. Unfortunately, the weather was really bad and our small boat just wasn’t suitable for a F7 passage.
This week-end I am due to be racing to France again… to Carteret on Saturady, to Dielette on Sunday then back to Guernsey on Monday. What is really getting me down is the weather report… Saturday is due to be Heavy rain, Overcast and F3 – F5! I think I will need to keep a close eye on the report. Perhaps even cross my fingers even though it has never helped before!
22 Aug 2004
I am now testing the image file upload part of the site and am using this picture of ‘H’ on the bow of mystere to check that it is working. The system seems to be quite capable but I am having some difficulty getting it to do what I want! I think I will have to look at alternative methods for getting pics in!!
My final result that I am happy with as you see it now was done manually with a custom css class. I think I will have to learn about writing a plugin!
I would also like to maintain the nautical theme and try out a trackback to Gringod because he has an interesting post about Mystere and Summer Points series which we are currently winning!
21 Aug 2004
Finally have my new site up and running. I have chosen this style temporarily whilst I am working on importing the content. It is taking quite a while but I will keep on moving forward and tweaking till it does what I want it to do! I am hoping to finally get a few of my other ideas implemented here so keep an eye open!