Thursday 22 February 2007

Box Kids


Joy and Elias's school is trialing a new program that allows busy parents to have their children 'mailed' to school. We decided to give it a try and were pleasantly surprised. Sure it's a little more expense, but you get that 'peace of mind' knowing the kids are getting to and from school without incident. It also beats having to walk 5 minutes to the school and back.

CityLink are the current service providers as UPS couldn't seem to find the school for two days. They provide a box that suits the age of the child and you put whatever you like in with them to amuse them on the journey. Pickup is at 3am and drop off usually around 4pm.

Here are kids returning from school today. They actually got lost for three days being taken to the wrong depot in Dubai. But as you can see they treat it as an adventure.

We're considering sending them ahead of us with the luggage as we take the train to the South of France this Easter.
Posted by Picasa

Balance issues

Bit of a weird and frustrating time for us at the moment.

That last post of mine (referred to by some as "a little boring" and tech-orientated) demonstrates the dark areas of my mind that have been revealed by my recent illness.

It's just a touch of a 'flu like virus that basically knocked the whole family for six over the last week. We're over it now, but the thing that's really frustrating us is the lingering effects. Nikki and the kids have been coughing for a while and I have been falling over.

That's not strictly true. My balance has been thrown off. I'm fine most of the time, then all of a sudden I'll start getting really dizzy or disorientated.

I went to see the doctor yesterday and on the way I had to hold on to walls to steady myself. I have to say that I was quite chuffed with my state when I got there.

You know what it's like. You want to go to the doctor ill. You don't want to turn up with a bit of a sniffle - you want to arrive on a stretcher all pasty, one frail hand raised and a weak smile of apology on your lips to show that you may be at death's door, but far be it from you to waste NHS time and money.

Well, stumbling through the door yesterday I felt tremendous. (Well, quite wobbly actually.) It was that perfect mix of actual illness pity without anything nasty like the pain of a broken leg.

Anyway, cut it down. Turns out it's all connected the ear/nose/throat thing and the virus and will go away in time as I fully recover. But, here's the really annoying thing: I can't drive! So I am here trying to connect to VPNs and remote access portals, etc.

I misunderstood the doctors instructions on some medicine yesterday and ended up falling asleep at my desk. Didn't realise I was supposed to take it before I went to bed.

Anyway, time for another dose... glug, glug... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Tuesday 20 February 2007

Let's Get Vista-ish!

Another one of those 'probably linked everywhere already' posts, but if want to get all Vista on yo' computer's rear-end without investing the hundreds of pounds/dollars/yen to buy the OS then C-Net.tv have a few tips help you go about it.

Judging by some poor people's reactions to Vista this may well be a wise choice.

Been taking a look at the requirements on the MS Vista site and I have to say they look extraordinarily optimistic. I have the advantage of coming from a MS support background so I guess I'm used to apply a factor of two to most official requirements from Microsoft. But 1GB RAM! Come on - no way!

Taking a look at the recommended requirements page made me since wince so hard I almost facially scarred myself. They are recommending 512Mb RAM for Home Basic Edition! This presumably is the new type of RAM made from pixie dust that releases loveliness into the ether whilst enabling us to run several VMware machines and play Half Life 2, Halo and Call of Duty 3 concurrently, repairs the ozone layer and negotiates a never-broken peace agreement in the Middle East?

OK, so take that last OTT statement. I could have used about half the amount of sarcasm, but I doubled it. My advice, do the same with the system recommendations and upgrade your hardware before you upgrade to Vista.

So why are the recommendations so low? Well, probably because Microsoft doesn't want to look like you have to buy a whole new computer before you upgrade. And when you do buy that new computer that it has to be twice the spec your old computer was when you bought it a year ago thinking it was pretty future proof.

To be fair to Microsoft this was pretty much to be expected. I've not seen the new OS yet but if it really is the next step in the evolution of the world's favourite OS then it's going to need a bit of extra power. I use Windows XP to pretty much it's maximum capacity at the moment and I have to say I can't wait for my upgrade (which is coming soon).

From what my brother says about his experiences I may feel differently when it gets here. So we'll see.

Beta News has one of the best articles I have seen on the system requirements. Also, one of the best lines: "It's just Vista, and it needs more processing power just to be Vista."

Digital Ethnography Video

This is just a beautiful video that my brother, Antony, linked to on his blog open.typepad.com (indeed, widely linked to elsewhere).



Further Links:
Interview with the creator, Micheal Wesch (Hat tip to Jackie Danicki) as conducted by John Battelle (whose office I love!).
Digital Ethnography Blog.

More comments from me to come.

Friday 16 February 2007

WiiHAP number 1

Posted by Picasa
A new word has enter the dictionary: WiiHAP.

The definition Wii Have A Problem. To further define, it comes from the site WiiHaveAProblem.com which has dedicated itself to documenting that coolest of Wii bugs (or is it a feature?), Wii Remote damage. People get so into playing on the Wii that they end up causing damage to themselves, loved-ones and property usually with the Remote. Well, on Sunday night Nikki and I experienced the joy of almost putting our lives in danger because of a new console as I put my hand (and the Wii remote) through one of the lounge lights.

They are horrible things that we haven't got around to replacing just yet (the lights that is). Nikki refers to them as pub lights, and she pretty much on the ball. So we were naturally a lot more concerned with clearing the glass away and making sure the Remote still worked. It did but only after a nights rest.

More WiiHAPs to come no doubt. I shall be documenting them probably on my WiiHAPs Picasa Web Folder. After looking at the WiiHaveAProblem.com site ours seems a little tame...

The Console

I will resist.

It would be far to simple to scatter this post with references to urine and double entendres, but that just wouldn't do justice to, what I am going to call: The Console.

Yes, we have one.

Now if you've already read Nikki's blog post on the arrival of The Console you'll know that I wasn't strickly speaking in town to buy it. But I put-my-head-around-the-door and asked on the availabilty of - >ahem< - The Console and was told there was one left in stock. Someone must have jogged me or something - it was a very small shop and very busy - but the next thing I knew I was back at the car with the groceries and Argos products I had been sent for and a brand new, boxed The Console and spare remote. Well, far be it from me to throw a The Console away once it has landed in front of me. So I duely brought the item home and stored in a safe place to be revealed to Nikki when she was old and wise enough to appreciate it. Which turned out to be five minutes later as Joy blurted out something.

Fortunately, Nikki was quickly persuaded to sway the compulsory take-it-back-right-now rule (using some arguements I had recently learnt about the benefits of hand eye co-ordination and Gym membership fees). Once the kids were in bed I carefully set up The Console and she was won over by the excellent gameplay and sweat inducing activities that The Console provides. So the little thing will be staying with The Mayfields for a little while longer.

Just not sure how I'm going to tell that I've also pre-ordered a Playstation 3.

That was a joke....!!

Webcrawl: Cool hunter

BBC7 ListenAgain has William Gibson's Pattern Recognition for you to listen to. Do so before Monday to catch the first episode.

Following a suggestion in the text to "Google 'Cool Hunter'" I came across TheCoolHunter.net, a style-orientated Cool Hunting blog. From there you can pop over to Face Hunter, a curiously interesting blog of some bloke taking pictures of stylish (or not-so) persons-about-Paris. My S-I-L, Anni, would no doubt find this of interest. Can't wait to see her on it.

Friday 9 February 2007

Introducting 'The Aquaskipper'

Rather than talk about my adventures driving to and from work today here's a YouTube about the Aquaskipper from Instructables.com.

Snow!

Surprisingly I didn't manage to get into work yesterday.

Because of my crusade for remote working I was able to continue to work a little. But I'll be very glad when I can get the VPN up and running - that's a remote secure (in theory) network, for all you non-techies.

Have to say I was a little annoyed that I was so prepared to start working straight away. As the kids were straight in the garden enjoying themselves. Not sure how it effected everyone else, though I know that Mark had the day-off as his school was closed (he's a teacher). I have a suspicion - as yet unconfirmed - that Brighton was too groovey for snow, so sibs and mother were spared.

Did take an extended lunch to walk with the kids. Took a tray down to Something Hill where most of the town had congregated to toboggan. Didn't get that far on our tray since the snow was already a bit thin. Also the ergonomics of the tray meant that it seemed to collect snow rather than slide over it. Maybe buy another sled when we get the chance.

Always seem to work much longer hours when working from home. I think it because I don't have to spend so long getting to and from the office. Really not enjoying the commute. Will have to think and talk to all parties about how to improve the situation.