David Morris – brassedoff.net

…so the French have gone on strike. Any excuse eh?! It’s a large number of public sector and transport workers. Fortunately, I’m travelling home tomorrow and by all accounts Eurostar isn’t affected. However, they might at the last minute do a British Rail thing and claim all the trains are at the wrong end of the tunnel!
For some reason, my blog masthead image appears to have resurrected itself (unless it’s just a cached version I’m looking at). I really do want to try and get this theme updated to support Wordpress widgets though. I suppose I’ll get to test it out on mine (and go through the break-fix cycle a few times) before I get let loose on Mrs Woolforbrains’ blog.

It looks like my blog theme also has a problem. I tried to add a tag cloud widget last night and by the looks of it, I’ve broken the masthead image. That’s a little job for tonight. I do like the dashboard though. Much better!

If you should notice the odd strange sequence of characters in some of the older posts, fear not. It looks like the update of the blog software from 2.0.something-or-other to the latest, greatest 2.7.something-else has had a less than desirable effect on some of the “£” and “€” symbols that might have crept in to the postings. It’s probably also affected Mrs Woolforbrains blog because I’ve updated that as well. Truly, a blog software updating frenzy has been had.

The new Mini has the Harmon Kardon (HK) sound system upgrade with the Mini Boost radio. There’s not a hell of a lot of detailed information about the upgrade. the manual is next to useless, but this guy did a review from a sound system engineer’s point of view:  http://www.in2guitar.com/minihkreview.html

In fact, this guy LIKES his Cooper S: http://www.in2guitar.com/minimenu.html

Ok, he’s in the US, so it’s a left-hand drive, but what the hell!

I’ll explain later: http://www.in2guitar.com/minihkreview.html

So, I’m in Paris at the moment, just outside Versaille at the Hotel National du Golf which is a 5 minute walk from our offices over here. I’ve come across on the Eurostar. It’s the second time I’ve used Eurostar to Paris and it’s definitely the way to get here. It beats the hell out of being shepherded like cattle (sheep?) at airports.

The title refers to the fact that a ping of un-named lager is €7/pint, which with an exchange rate of near as dammit £1=€1 means that that large glass of lager is £7. Even onexpenses, it’s a ripoff, especially when I’ve got stuff in the garage at home at £0.25/pint!

I got the Mini yesterday and already, as far as it’s possible to fall in love with an inanimate object, I have done. It’s great fun!

I’ve finished two books on my eBook reader. I wrapped up the last dozen or so pages in Ben Elton’s BlindFaith before I got as far as London on the train this morning, having completely given up on trying to do any work on the train that required an Internet connection, simplybecause the 3G/GPRS signal was up and down that often to be completely unworkable

Blind Faith was OK, but I felt that the tone of the book changed very quickly about 50 pages from the end after Caitlin… no… I’m not going to give the story away. It was a sad ending tinged with a hoep for the future though. A recommended read.

The second book (which completed the trip into London) I finished just as the train drew into Gare du Nord in Paris and was clearly inspired by Dan Brown’s Da Vinci code. aving said that, it was still a good read (although I can’t remember the name – check back later for that). It’s a good job I bought two books the other day, so I’ve got some reading matter for the trip home.

The Scimitars are also going through what sounds like a tense game. At the end of the second against Telford, a Simon Butterworth goal was the only goal in teh game, scored at 00:23.

Todays Internet access courtesy of a €15 pass for 10 hours access in 30 days from Orange / France Telecom, only because I couldn’t get my UK BT Openzone accout to roam.

Christmas is over and done with. The tree’s been put away for another year and the house looks like a house rather than an offshoot to Santa’s grotto once more…. so we now turn our attention to…

NEW CAR!!!

…or more precisely, a Mini Cooper S, 0-60 in 7.4s, 170bhp. The picture was taken with my mobile, just as the salesman who’d brought it to work so I could test drive it was leaving. I pick the little beast up on Saturday morning. Daniel will be delighted. He’s wanted a Mini for some time. It will be with mixed feelings that I say goodbye to the 2-litre 206CC. It’s been nice having a convertible; I did consider a Mini Cooper convertible until I sat in one (too dark), but I won’t miss the random dribbles of water from the roof seals in heavy rain, I won’t miss the wind noise or the tempremental climate control system. I will try to enjoy the 2.5s faster 0-60 performance, the extra 40bhp, the handling and the uprated stereo and speaker system. I’ve had Peugeot 206s throughout the life of the model – they’d only been on the go a few months when I first got my black eight valve 1.6XS from new (the model was replaced pretty quickly with a 16 valve version) . I used to get people coming up to me in car parks wondering if they could have a look around the new distinctive car. The second one was a black 2.0l 206GTI, followed three years on by a black 2.0l convertible. Now the 206 has been replaced by the 207, perhaps Peugeot have told me it’s time for a change and grey is the new black? Ask me again on Saturday!

It’s been nigh on three weeks since I blogged – last year in fact, so after an extremely pleasant Christmas and New Year, I thought I’d catch up on a few bits and pieces. Firstly, some Christmas presents.

Mrs Woolforbrains and the Young Master conspired to get me a new Sony PRS-505 eBook reader for Christmas, despite me unknowingly saying to Daniel that I didn’t want or need one a few days before Santa arrived. Having got one though, I’m very impressed by the build quality and user interface as well as the ‘reading experience’ and can see that the device will be a great boon when travelling.

The two images above show the reader in detail including a screen closeup. It’s an extremely easy deive to sue. There are two lots of page turn buttons and facilities for bookmarks (shown as turned don page corners – despite my Mum telling me I should never turn down the corners of pages). Once you’re engrossed with the book, it’s easy to forget that it’s not a paper book. In fact, on several occasions, I’ve found myself wanting to turn the pages rather than clicking on a button.

The device also plays MP3’s, but I’ve got an iPod for that, so I’m unlikely to be exercising that feature; it has a headphone port on the bottom next to the charger and mini USB ports. It doesn’t come with a charger, but will charge from the USB. On the top are MS and SD card slots to permit the on-board storage to be expanded.

Before books can be put on the reader, the usual pile of software has to be installed (Mac / PC only). The Sony software isn’t too bad (a bit fancy when a straightforward WinXP look and feel would have done, but c’est la vie). Before protected eBooks can be installed, the Adobe Digital Editions software must be installed. This allows protected eBooks to be transferred between PC and reader. I’ve tested out the system with a purchase of Ben Elton’s Blind Faith from Waterstones and the process was relatively trouble-free unless you have a violent objection to all the DRM stuff that goes along with protected formats.

The second “toy” actually isn’t one of mine – it’s one we bought for Daniel in the hope it would kick-start the association of notes to keyboard (bear in mind he only plays brass at the moment). What was it? Can you tell what it is yet?

Yep, a good old traditional stylophone, complete with vibrato and three octave settings. Concessions to a more modern era are an MP3 input so you can play along to your favourite tracks. Anyone for “Tie my kangaroo down, sport”?

Finally for today (it was always going to be a big catchup), there’s the prospect of a new car on the horizon. I currently drive a 2.0l Peugeot 206CC convertible, but an upgrade is on the cards. It’s highly likely to be a Mini Cooper S. I’ve got an option on one on an 06 plate. I’ve driven a similar car and am waiting on the car in question being moved from its current location down South up the dealers at Chesterfield. No doubt you’ll hear more soon!