David Morris – brassedoff.net

I got a copy (i.e. bought with money, not acquired through some dubious route involving BitTorrents) the new XBox 360 game ‘Burnout Paradise’ on Friday and Daniel and myself have been giving it a run for its money over the last day or so. I can honestly say it looks pretty cool. The last two Burnout games we had were for the XBox Classic (Classic? Black XBox? Original XBox? XBox One?). We’re a little limited on what games we can play (well, I am). I can’t play the first-person shoot-em-up (FPS) games like Halo etc because they make me nauseous. It’s like travel sickness. I’m ok for about 20 minutes, then I feel like I’m going to throw. but I’m OK with driving games (albeit I’m pretty crap at them :) )

You really didn’t want to know that, did you?

Anyway, back to Paradise City…

Whilst cruisin’ around yesterday, I spotted a couple of the billboards advertising CompUSA and there are also several for Diesel clothing. I also rammed in to a van that was decked out in orange Gillette Fusion razor graphics.

I know game production is an expensive thing to be involved with these days, and all credit to Criterion Games (who are British by the way, based in Surrey) for trying to offset some of the cost of production, but do I really want to be advertised at whilst I’m playing? Or, does the presence of ‘real’ adverts just enhance the experience, because let’s face it, we’re bombarded with ads almost continually as soon as we set foot outside the front door.

How long before, through the auspices of XBox live those billboards become targetted at me? Perhaps they already are. Perhaps someone is telling me I need a shave? It’s possible. The conspiracy theory is that Microsoft have my credit card details (for the XBox Live subscription) and they cross-reference my details on the global marketing and tracking database operated by the “Powers That Be”, find out that I’ve got a Sainsburys’ Nectar Card and zap down the list to see what I’ve not been buying enough of.

In which case, why are they advertising CompUSA at me? I’M BRITISH OR HAVEN’T YOU NOTICED?

Don’t get your hopes up. This IS NOT turning in to a knit-blog. Not no way. Not no how. Not never.

Despite that, I’d like to present two samples of knitting that have been happening in this household over the last week.

One of these bits of yarn-winding wonders was knitted by a knitter. The other was knitted by Mrs Woolforbrains.

Ok. I’ll confess. The really complicated multi-coloured, patterned, beaded creation at the top of the shot was not knitted by me… but you knew that didn’t you? The one at the bottom, the plain, boring scarf-type creation was knitted with my own fair hands. I’m even proud enough to admit that I researched and performed the cast-on all by myself as well.

Why do it? Well, something of a show of solidarity I suppose. When I was nobbut a kid, my Mum showed me how to knit but I’ve not wielded a pair of needles for over 30 years and when the other half is sat the other end of the settee turning out beautiful creation after beautiful creation, I though “I can do that”. Well, maybe not, but I bet I can knit myself a scarf.

So far, I’m up to 50 rows or so and no dropped stitches. I did make one somewhere, but I lost it (intentionally) a row later. The current wool is hand-spun alpaca. I’m informed I’m privileged to be knitting with hand-spun alpaca. Okay…..

I promise that the next posting will be a non-knitting one… unless I make startling progress with the scarf and feel compelled to share it with the world.

I am definitely not going to start spinning. That’s definitely one for the Mrs.

This isn’t a new one – there’s lots on the ‘net about it, but it’s the first time I’ve been hit by it. Fortunately, I suspected a scam so didn’t respond.

We’d just got home from doing a bit of shopping when the phone rang. I answered it. It was a really bad line with someone saying “Hello. Hello. Can you hear me?”. Then the phone went dead. The number on CLI showed an 0703 xxxxxxx number. Now, UK mobile numbers begin 07, but they start at 071, so don’t include 070. 070 numbers are designated ‘personal’ numbers by OFCOM (the UK communications industry watchdog). Guess what? 070 numbers are charged at different rates, and will possibly be less than fixed to mobile line call charges.

Of course, what you’re supposed to do here is think that it’s someone calling from a mobile, possibly a friend, so you call the number back. A bit of research suggests a number of things may happen next. You may hear a recorded ring tone making you think that you’re waiting for someone to answer the phone. You may hear another prerecorded voice. Either way, you can bet that someone is reaping the rewards of you making the call.

So, if you get a missed call from an 070 number, don’t return the call unless you are 100% absolutely sure you know the origin.

So, what’s it got to do with me? Well, this web site is back-ended by it. Most of my web sites are. A fair proportion of the world’s web sites are back-ended by it. What is it? It’s mySQL – the world’s leading open source SQL database. Why is it news?

Sun has just paid $1,000,000 for it (according to The Register).

It’s not often I feel compelled to blog about things in the wider world outside personal, family or local issues, but I’ve just watched a video clip from the BBC web site of Steve Jobs unveiling the new Apple Macbook Air. There’s also a more detailed look at the machine here, again courtesy of the Beeb.

It’s stunning. It’s razor (or should that be RAZR) thin at a gnats over 1.9cm which is probably about the same thickness as my Nintendo DS Lite. Jobs waxes lyrical about the keyboard, and for all us techies that enjoy coding in the dark, it’s got a back-lit keyboard rigged up to the ambient light sensor. I’d kill for one of those. I wonder how long it will be before all the OEM manufacturers jump on the bandwagon?

I think it will be some time before one ends up in my Christmas stocking though at £1200. I can dream though!

Daniel is happy with me. I found an update for his Nintendo R4DS which has fixed the problem with Ben10. He will now be plugged in to this for most of the morning I suspect. I’m idly wondering if this update will fix problems with some of the other ROMs we have that don’t work?

He won’t be plugged in for the day though because we’re off to Telford this afternoon to watch the Scimitars take on the Telford Tigers. Hopefully, Mrs Bong, the lady in my satnav will get us there in one piece.

The Seth Ellis web site is now linked in from the Canal Trust web site, so should hopefully start to pick up a few hits that way. through some judicious choice of keywords, I’ve managed to get it top of the rankings on Google if you search for ‘retford canal trip’, with the Trust web site coming second :)

I bought an iPod Classic last week, and being the type that I am, made a point of not using iTunes to get music on to it, preferring to use Winamp, simply because I’ve been using Winamp for years and upgraded to the Pro version some time ago to get full speed CD ripping amongst other things. The only problem was that the current iPod plugin for Winamp (the one it ships with) doesn’t do a good job of handling cover art. This was annoying, especially after I spent an hour or so the other week getting art for all the albums I’ve ripped myself.

A bit of digging around fetched up the alterative Winamp iPod plugin, ml_ipod which you can use instead of pmp_ipod. Some things it does less well. For instance the transfer queue isn’t implemented in ml_ipod, but cover art does work properly. Consequently, Coverflow looks really cool and when the album is playing, the correct graphic is displayed.

One of the reasons for buying the iPod was to be able to put video on it as well, and by way of an experiment, I downloaded the first episode of the new series of Locks and Quays with presenter Matthew Corbett (of Sooty fame) doing the coast-to-coast via the Trent and Mersey. This was an AVI and wouldn’t transfer to the iPod as is, but a quick run through ffmpeg on one of my Linux machines (it had to be the laptop because the server didn’t have ffmpeg installed and I couldn’t find the SuSE10.2 DVD to install it) get me an mp4 that went straight on to the iPod and plays a treat.

Finally for today, I don’t know whether I mentioned it the other week, but we won the 50/50 at the Scims game at iceSheffield. For those of you that don’t know of these things, you buy raffle tickets and half the proceeds go to the club, the other half go to the winner. Well, it was my turn! The picture (clearly not one of mine) was of Daniel and myself getting presented with the cash from Scims forward Rob Dowd. It’s actually one of the best pictures we have of Daniel and myself because we both look sort of sensible on it (apart from the hat). I don’t know exactly how much we won. I never counted the cash… I gave it back to the club and told them to splash it around the player sponsorship grid. After a bit of thought, we decided to use it to sponsor Tom Squires, one of the U18 lads that’s just made the move into the Scimitars. In a previous life, Mrs Woolforbrains and I used to travel to most of the Steelers games and remember Tom as a little four-year-old (or younger?) on the away travel coaches. Even then, all he ever wanted to do was play hockey like his heroes, and he’s obviously realising his ambitions. The night of the 50/50 win, he scored his first point for the Scimitars and got man of the match… a case of lager which he’s too young to drink! I’m sure some of his team-mates would help him out though.

Gotta go now… I’ve got a laptop to upgrade…

Daniel came home from school yesterday with a note from his Brass teacher. She wants to put him in for Grade One. It’s ironic really, because it was only a day earlier that Mrs Woolforbrains and I were talking about whether he was ready for taking any exams on the euphonium. He’s got to play three pieces (one of which is likely to be the Postman Pat theme!), two one octave scales (C major and A minor (presumably harmonic seeing as that’s what we’ve been practising) and a bit of aural work (which I can practice with him). Mrs W’s downloaded the syllabus from t’Interweb, so we know what we’re shooting for.

It’s evident that Daniel has hit on something he’s good at, and the new instrument is certainly helping. He’s producing a really nice sound. The higher notes still sound a bit strangled, but that’s all due to breathing and air. I squeeze out really high notes, but a D above middle C is high for our Dan, and that’s something else we need to work on over the coming weeks.

For myself, I’m really proud of what he’s achieved so far. It’s probably about time we had a new MP3 of his playing on here so you can judge his progress and see that it’s not just me!

This article is filed well and truly under family and music.

It’s been preying on my mind that I’ve not posted anything substantive for some time, excepting the picture of Daniel with his euph on Christmas morning. There’s been a few things happening lately, so I suppose some form of catch-up is in order.

Firstly, a little allotment news. On Christmas Eve, vandals attacked the Society shed on the site and set fire to it. Over £1000 of seed stock was destroyed which probably represents the seed stock for many of the gardeners for 2008. We hadn’t ordered ours, so we’ve not lost out in that respect, but it’s still a big blow and really akes you wonder what goes through the minds of these little thugs.

My last ‘real’ post was about the Seth Ellis web site. I said that we’d been given the go-ahead for development of the site and I was going to write my own content management system (CMS). I’ve backtracked on that in favour of an open-source CMS. After checking out a couple, I’ve settled on Joomla 1.5. I had a look at Drupal as well, but preferred the facilities available in Joomla. It’s taking some getting to grips with, not least because Joomla 1.5 is the latest, greatest version and most of the documentation and reference material out in the wild is related to 1.1 and there have been a few changes. I’m slowly working my way through it, experimenting as I go. I found a template for the site that I liked the look of and made a few changes to it. It still needs some more work, but it’s getting there. I’ve got the general public and boat crew documents separated so you can only get to the crew sections with a valid logon.

Also on the boat front, I’ve been doing some investigation into prices for magnetic sign boards to fit down the side of the boat above the windows. The general principle is that we want to have some advertising on the boat to try and drum up a bit more custom. Magnetic boards mean we can change them easily to suit the season and what we want to push at any time, and  it looks like we can get them for under £50+VAT.

At the ice hockey, it’s been and up and down sort of Christmas break with some good results and some that were, err, not so good. On the plus side, Daniel and myself won the 50/50 draw at iceSheffield last Sunday. The winnings came out at about £40 and it didn’t take a lot of thought what to do with the winnings… I gave them back to the club. After all, their need is probably greater than mine. The end result is that we’ve splashed it around the player sponsorship grid.

Daniel’s coming on like a house on fire with the new euphonium. He’s developing a much better sound, and once the valves have bedded in, I think he’ll do even better. It’s a nice instrument that will keep him going for a few years.

I’ve started working on a new boat. This time, it’s the Sentinel cutter from Model Slipway. I’ll be documenting the fun as I proceed!

Finally for today, I can report that we’ve all been suffering from Wii injuries caused by excessive play on New Years Eve. the main culprit has been Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, and I suspect, the branch sawing and burping games. I’ve also got Guitar Hero 3 which is great fun, but not injury provoking. Absolutely great fun!