Have a good one.
Enough said really eh?
Marston Pedigree Six
This limited edition beer is based on the normal pedigree ale, but altered to 6% alcohol. If your familiar with Marston's pedigree, you will notice the extra alcohol kick straight away.
Strong malt aroma. Pale cooper colour. Good clarity with a adequate white head. Tastes like the normal Pedigree. I think its a little lighter but still good body. Biscuity pale malt taste with maybe some caramel. Quite warming.
You can find it at aldi in a white bottle.
Rating: Amazing if not special beer.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: If you like pedigree or Marston beers Id get this quick since its limited supply.
Strong malt aroma. Pale cooper colour. Good clarity with a adequate white head. Tastes like the normal Pedigree. I think its a little lighter but still good body. Biscuity pale malt taste with maybe some caramel. Quite warming.
You can find it at aldi in a white bottle.
Rating: Amazing if not special beer.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: If you like pedigree or Marston beers Id get this quick since its limited supply.
My Pale Wheat Beer
A mellow malt wheat taste with caramel hints. Fuggle hop aroma. Refreshing when chilled. Would be good in the summer.
Last orders for Guinness? What! Wait! Hang on
I managed to miss 25 minutes of the money program (the horror, a show about business and finance). I noticed the word 'Guinness', which I have a talent for, in the sky TV guide. Curious why the program was called 'Last orders for Guinness?' I pressed to view.
Interestingly it was pointing out that Ireland and the UK Guinness sales have dropped over the years. So their introduction the much talked about Guinness Red.
From the BBC article:
In the UK you can find a pub with the pub finder on the Guinness Red website
www.guinness.com/gb_en/guinness_red/home.htm
Interestingly it was pointing out that Ireland and the UK Guinness sales have dropped over the years. So their introduction the much talked about Guinness Red.
From the BBC article:
Guinness is one of Britain's best loved brands, yet sales of the famous black stout have been falling year after year both in the UK and Ireland.
But with nearly 250 years of history behind it, Guinness is not about to go quietly.
It has launched a fight back with a new lighter, sweeter version, Guinness Red, and a much hyped multi-million pound advertising campaign.
Will it be enough to reverse the decline?
Aimed at lager and bitter drinkers, it's a sort of cross between bitter and stout (or maybe a Irish Red cream ale?). Claiming to be somehow more smoother, which is hard to believe since Guinness is smooth as hell compared to most commercial drinks. I'm looking forward to trying the Red. Guinness is my favorite beer and it always has been (I think Guinness Original was my first real beer) so I don't think ill drop the black for the red.
In the UK you can find a pub with the pub finder on the Guinness Red website
www.guinness.com/gb_en/guinness_red/home.htm
This isn't a sports blog right?
After watching england lose to Croatia. I thought I would write a short post about the state of English football. I wont be mean, or negative, or even write several hundred lines of curse words damning Steve McClaren to the depths of hell and beyond (like most blog posts iv seen). But, a BIG BUT, I didn't know Steve McClaren was that useless. All he had to do is win or draw. Thats all!
I know he's overrated. Not that it's his fault. The media seems to hype up any, and I mean any win. The F.A would be stupid to keep him in the job. Jose Mourinho is the bookies favorite at 5/1. Now that would be interesting! The man is a football genius. Martin O' Neil at 11/2 would also be interesting.
In england there is a lot of discussion (mainly pointless) about capping foreign players. The idea being that the england team needs improving and theres a lot of worrying about the lack of players coming through the "system". I haven't made my mind up yet. Maybe the F.A cup should have so many English players?
I know he's overrated. Not that it's his fault. The media seems to hype up any, and I mean any win. The F.A would be stupid to keep him in the job. Jose Mourinho is the bookies favorite at 5/1. Now that would be interesting! The man is a football genius. Martin O' Neil at 11/2 would also be interesting.
In england there is a lot of discussion (mainly pointless) about capping foreign players. The idea being that the england team needs improving and theres a lot of worrying about the lack of players coming through the "system". I haven't made my mind up yet. Maybe the F.A cup should have so many English players?
Brewed A Wheat Beer
Brewed a 3 gallon all grain. A wheat beer for family (me, myself and I) at Christmas. 1kg of maris otter, 1kg wheat malt, some carahell malt (German lager malt), bit of rice and barley. Fuggle hops.
The original gravity was 1080 (10.7%) with the finished gravity around 1020 (2.6%) so it should be around 8% strength.
Ill upload a picture when its done bottle conditioning.
The original gravity was 1080 (10.7%) with the finished gravity around 1020 (2.6%) so it should be around 8% strength.
Ill upload a picture when its done bottle conditioning.
Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier
Made in Freising, Oberbayern, Germany by Weihenstephan.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Classic example of a wheat beer.
Note: My favourite wheat beer is by the schneider-weisse brewery.
Pours really well with a nice head that just seems to last forever. It's a golden yellow colour. Like most wheat beers, the body is cloudy/hazy. Aroma is sweet clover and a little floral hops. Has a complex wheat taste but not overwhelming with its light and smooth body. 5.4% strength. Very German styled beer. I like it.
Brewey website: www.brauerei-weihenstephan.de
Rating: Very good.Brewey website: www.brauerei-weihenstephan.de
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: Classic example of a wheat beer.
Note: My favourite wheat beer is by the schneider-weisse brewery.
Blade Runner Final Cut
Finally, finally, finally, finally there is a Blade Runner final cut with extras and commentary. After 25 years and 1 re-release, Ridley Scott has put together the FINAL CUT.If you haven't seen it. Its a dark neo-noir sci-fi about a cop hunting replicants (genetically manufactured human like beings).
I don't mind the directors cut. It is better than the original with there being no voice over narration. Deckard's dream of the unicorn in the directors cut obviously shows he is a replicant himself. Also, to back that up, when Rachael asks Deckard if has took the test himself there is a pause to make you think.
After years of debate, Ridley Scott in 2000, ended all debate when he finally revealed that Deckard is a replicant.
It comes out on DVD on 3rd of December. With a new trailer. If you haven't seen this film were have you been?
Have a look at the trailer...
Bye bye ubuntu
I happily loaded ubuntu gutsy gibbon until it came to start x. Nothing happened with no error. Okay I thought, ill try the alternative text install. Installed fine but still the same problem as the live cd. I even tried the fluxubuntu spin-off. After hours of playing with xorg with different settings I gave up.
No linux on the hard drive I set out to look for a new distribution to try out. What I really want is debian but its 3 cds (I cant be bothered). So I put it down to debian based. In the end though I just burned a cd of SimplyMepis 6.5 which is ubuntu/debian based, using some ubuntu repositories. It comes with KDE 3.5, bundled with beryl. No offense to the kubuntu team, the mepis KDE is much better. Iv noticed its faster too.
Its not bleeding edge using the dapper repositories yet it just works. I wish it had the debian repositories. I don't know much about it but I understand that mepis 7.0 will be using the debian cycle. In that case I would be very happy to use mepis 7.0 over ubuntu.
The default blue SimplyMEPIS KDE desktop:
No linux on the hard drive I set out to look for a new distribution to try out. What I really want is debian but its 3 cds (I cant be bothered). So I put it down to debian based. In the end though I just burned a cd of SimplyMepis 6.5 which is ubuntu/debian based, using some ubuntu repositories. It comes with KDE 3.5, bundled with beryl. No offense to the kubuntu team, the mepis KDE is much better. Iv noticed its faster too.
Its not bleeding edge using the dapper repositories yet it just works. I wish it had the debian repositories. I don't know much about it but I understand that mepis 7.0 will be using the debian cycle. In that case I would be very happy to use mepis 7.0 over ubuntu.
The default blue SimplyMEPIS KDE desktop:
Beer after sport is good
A beer after playing a game of football, a long run, or a strenuous round of golf can be good for the body, scientists say.Full story at telegraph.co.uk
In a rare piece of good news for those who like a pint, Spanish researchers say beer can help someone who is dehydrated retain liquid better than water.
Prof Manuel Garzon, of Granada University, also claimed the bubbles in beer help to quench the thirst and that its carbohydrate content can help to replace lost calories.
Prof Garzon asked a group of students to do strenuous exercise in temperatures of around 40ºC (104ºF). Half were given a pint of beer, while the others received the same volume of water.
All hail the 'Spanish researchers'. To the track! Or maybe run (or at least get a taxi and say I did) to the pub!
Halloween
I was watching most haunted live until I couldn't laugh any more. The show sometimes shows things that are unexplained but a lot of things are quite obviously acted out. They only film it with one camera. Which more often or not, when turned away, allows the crew to make funny noises or kick a table. Always with the camera turned away something moves and Yvette Fielding screams with horror.
They do have web cams which are poor quality. Some how people contact the show saying they see ghosts on them. The show never replays footage from web cams because there is nothing there. Really you need several wireless inferred cameras for each corner of a room to record paranormal activity.
Iv walked through a graveyard at night (On a walk thing, don't ask.) not seeing anything but some how they find something to scream at within the first 5 minutes of the camera rolling.
I think it was around 11:45 ish the adverts finished and the program came back on. Within a 1 minute a bloke goes crazy and falls to the ground. Why didn't that happen in between the 5 minute break? Quite convenient too that the camera turns a way a second before he goes nuts. Also I have noticed the camera man focuses on a individual a while before he or she says "I feel sick" or "Something hit me". It gets predictable.
Oh gees I could write all night about this show, but I wont. Ciarán O'Keeffe proved Derek Acorah is a fake a few years ago. He was the main medium on the show. Somehow hes still making rubbish.
They do have web cams which are poor quality. Some how people contact the show saying they see ghosts on them. The show never replays footage from web cams because there is nothing there. Really you need several wireless inferred cameras for each corner of a room to record paranormal activity.
Iv walked through a graveyard at night (On a walk thing, don't ask.) not seeing anything but some how they find something to scream at within the first 5 minutes of the camera rolling.
I think it was around 11:45 ish the adverts finished and the program came back on. Within a 1 minute a bloke goes crazy and falls to the ground. Why didn't that happen in between the 5 minute break? Quite convenient too that the camera turns a way a second before he goes nuts. Also I have noticed the camera man focuses on a individual a while before he or she says "I feel sick" or "Something hit me". It gets predictable.
Oh gees I could write all night about this show, but I wont. Ciarán O'Keeffe proved Derek Acorah is a fake a few years ago. He was the main medium on the show. Somehow hes still making rubbish.
DOSBox on ubuntu
You can play old dos games on linux with DOSBox. DOSBox is a gpl cross platform DOS emulator. It has also been ported to psp and gp2x hardware.
Ubuntu users can download & install with:
sudo apt-get install dosbox
To play games first you need to mount a directory to the emulators C drive. I do this by 'mount c /home/username/games'. Type c: to open the folder (this is a DOS emulator after all) then enter the filename of the game like game.exe. If your looking for auto mounting read ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=171970.
Runs Discworld fine...
You can download discworld at www.abandonia.com/games/878/download/Discworld.htm.
I also tried a game I use to play years ago on DOS.
Thats rights its Electro Man. Your amazed at the graphics right? It doesn't really have anything to do with electric. You play some sort of tin man or robocop and shoot at alien things. Well it was shit then and its still shit now. What a crap game.
Ubuntu users can download & install with:
sudo apt-get install dosbox
To play games first you need to mount a directory to the emulators C drive. I do this by 'mount c /home/
Thats rights its Electro Man. Your amazed at the graphics right? It doesn't really have anything to do with electric. You play some sort of tin man or robocop and shoot at alien things. Well it was shit then and its still shit now. What a crap game.
The Colour of Magic tv movie
It seems after the success of the hogfather sky one is going to back another discworld tv movie with Vadim Jean directing and Terry Pratchett on hand. I didn't even know it was planned. But apparently its in the "filming" status with David Jason playing Rincewind and Sean Astin (one of the lord of the rings hobbits) playing Twoflower. I cant wait to see how they going to do the librarian.
The production website is at www.skyoneonline.co.uk/tcom/.
Imdb www.imdb.com/title/tt1079959/.
The production website is at www.skyoneonline.co.uk/tcom/.
Imdb www.imdb.com/title/tt1079959/.
Going Postal
Started and finished reading Terry Pratchett's Going postal in a few hours. It's one of the better Discworld books I have read. The amusing characters, the cat tiddles (which is more of a description), references to the uk post office, GNU and crackers.The Smoking GNU is probably the most geeky joke in the series. A group of 3 men that are clacks (a series of semaphore towers) crackers. Cracking into the towers with their own portable tower. The group of men resemble 'The Lone Gunman' a x files spin-off about a group of computer hackers.
Why are they called the Smoking GNU? Well not sure really. No direct mention of open source but it does say that GNU is a magic message header packet on the clacks, with G indicating a message that goes on, N indicating not logged and U indicating that the message is to be turned around at the end of the line.
Cant wait to read 'making money'.
Open links in a tab with a left click
A little hack for firefox with greasemonkey.
If you want to open a link in a new tab on a laptop you may find it hard. No middle button! You have to spend time right clicking and going to 'open link in a new tab'. However there is a simple greasemonkey script to open links in a new tab with a short half a second hold. You can also hold control + left click.
To download the greasemonkey add on visit:
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
For the script visit userscripts at
userscripts.org/scripts/show/3458
If you want to open a link in a new tab on a laptop you may find it hard. No middle button! You have to spend time right clicking and going to 'open link in a new tab'. However there is a simple greasemonkey script to open links in a new tab with a short half a second hold. You can also hold control + left click.
To download the greasemonkey add on visit:
addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
For the script visit userscripts at
userscripts.org/scripts/show/3458
Wont run out of fruit
...At least not for a while.
These all came from one pear tree. Had to take some down before since the weight was pulling the tree down. What to do with pears?
These all came from one pear tree. Had to take some down before since the weight was pulling the tree down. What to do with pears?
Adnams Explorer
This a beer from Adnams from Southwold, Suffolk, England.Brewers description:
Adnams Explorer is a light and refreshing blonde beer, with some citrus notes and grapefruit aromas. Fantastic served chilled. Adnams Explorer captures the spirit of discovery by blending Chinook and Columbus hops from the New World. The best in traditional brewing with a contemporary edge.
It pours with no head. Clear amber colour. A nice 5.5% strength. Aroma is similar to a IPA, lots of floral hops but with a slight fruit sent. Taste slightly roasted malted and caramel with small citrus tang to it. More than adverage carbonation. Watery feel to it but it does say LIGHT on the bottle so im not going to expect guinness out of this am I now? Not really had to many blonde ales but this ale fits the description.
Rating: It's okay.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: A decent light ale from Adnams. Non ale drinkers are going to like it.
Fullers 1845
Fullers do make some great beers. They always go down well at festivals. So I thought I would try this strong ale, 1845.It's a dark brown orange colour with a nice thin smooth head. The aroma is a strong alcohol sent, well it is 6.3%, fruity marmalade hints. The taste is a complex fruity, citrus orange with a nice bitterness and little spiciness from goldings hops to balance it nicely. Has a lot of warming citrus aftertaste. Its quite unique and its quite amazing. On the bottle it says it's won 2 camra gold awards and I can believe it. It also has the camra real ale stamp of approval.
Rating: Very good.
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: A nice unique ale.
Youngs Waggle dance
Not tried any new beers lately so lets dig in. This is a youngs bottled beer from Bedford, Bedfordshire, England. Can be found in tescos.Brewers description:
Waggle Dance is brewed with a touch of honey which gives it a taste of summer no matter when you raise a glass. This is balanced by a healthy does of hops to provide the bitterness that gives a wonderfully delictae flavour. The overall result is beautifully balanced and sneakily seductive.
Pale ale and crystal malt, Fuggle and Golding hops together with South American honey create this delicious golden ale with a superb honey aroma.
The colour is a clear amber orange. Little if at all no head. Sadly it doesn't last long. The aroma is a sweet malty honey sent. I first taste the sweet malt and then I taste the honey. Its not a rich tick taste, but more a smooth thing. Slight bitterness but it doesn't balance well. A sweet summer beer at 5%.
Rating: Not bad
As you can see am a professional at rating beer
Overall: You might like if you like sweet beers otherwise get a pale ale.
Hop seeds
I got some hop seeds in the post this morning.
I'm quite green fingered so why not grow the greatest plant of them all. Its supposedly really difficult but not impossible to propagate them, taking 6 or more months.
I have seen seeds in numbers of 50 on ebay for several pounds. Which is ridiculous when you sometimes find a few seeds in packs of brewing hops. I found Greenchronicle.com / Greenchronicle.co.uk sells them at a nice price. P&P is only 90p too. The uk website sells them in packs of 75. I may get some rhizomes (hop roots) sometime if I find some to make life easier.
Last year I found a website selling rhizome for £10 a plant. Fair enough it will save me money over a few years with it providing hops but the plant might not grow so well in my area, soil types ect. In the Joe Fisher & Dennis Fisher book, 'The homebrewers garden', it says to try out different varieties to find a type that grows well. A lot of money for trial and error.
Reading instructions on how to grow them on the web I found you have to plant them in the autumn in pots of sand and grit. Others say to put them in the fridge (simulate winter I guess) for six weeks then plant... After all this maybe ill grow a beard and start pipe smoking.
I'm quite green fingered so why not grow the greatest plant of them all. Its supposedly really difficult but not impossible to propagate them, taking 6 or more months.
I have seen seeds in numbers of 50 on ebay for several pounds. Which is ridiculous when you sometimes find a few seeds in packs of brewing hops. I found Greenchronicle.com / Greenchronicle.co.uk sells them at a nice price. P&P is only 90p too. The uk website sells them in packs of 75. I may get some rhizomes (hop roots) sometime if I find some to make life easier.
Last year I found a website selling rhizome for £10 a plant. Fair enough it will save me money over a few years with it providing hops but the plant might not grow so well in my area, soil types ect. In the Joe Fisher & Dennis Fisher book, 'The homebrewers garden', it says to try out different varieties to find a type that grows well. A lot of money for trial and error.
Reading instructions on how to grow them on the web I found you have to plant them in the autumn in pots of sand and grit. Others say to put them in the fridge (simulate winter I guess) for six weeks then plant... After all this maybe ill grow a beard and start pipe smoking.
Resize images from nautilus
This is already popular with ubuntu blogs however theres no harm blogging it. It adds a image resize and rotator to the right click menu.
Install:
sudo apt-get install nautilus-image-converter
Restart gnome (log out and then log back in).
Use by right clicking a image and then select resize or rotate.
Install:
sudo apt-get install nautilus-image-converter
Restart gnome (log out and then log back in).
Use by right clicking a image and then select resize or rotate.
A Gerbil?
Because I keep rats, I seem to be qualified to keep a gerbil. The owners didn't want it because it ate its cage. So we offered to take it. It doesn't like being touched. Its also hyperactive. Within an hour it chewed up a toilet roll tube, chewed partly another 5 and put a hole through its little cardboard box. Its very active. I mean my rats just sleep most of the day.
28 weeks later is a surprise
I wasn't to sure about it before I sat down and watched it. I didn't go see it at the cinema because, well, squeals are generally rubbish and I avoid them at all costs. It's always going to be hard to top a Danny Boyle film. The man is a film making genius. Trainspotting, the beach, 28 days later and sunshine are all amazing films. My favorites being Sunshine, a true sci-fi film. I enjoyed it a lot. Then theres Trainspotting being more iconic than the rest and probably one of the best British films.
28 weeks later is directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. I don't know much about him but he did a good job. Danny Boyle was a producer. The film builds on tension and ultimately anyone can die. How horror films should be unlike Resident Evil, a poor predictable zombie romp. I think the budget was higher than that of 28 days, but it didn't ruin it. It still has a slight indie feel to it. Although thats lost more or well when you see london being bombed by the American army.
28 weeks later is directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. I don't know much about him but he did a good job. Danny Boyle was a producer. The film builds on tension and ultimately anyone can die. How horror films should be unlike Resident Evil, a poor predictable zombie romp. I think the budget was higher than that of 28 days, but it didn't ruin it. It still has a slight indie feel to it. Although thats lost more or well when you see london being bombed by the American army.
The Magic SysRq key
I read an article on fosswire about reisub via digg. Refreshing my memory on this kernel trick. The Magic SysRq key allows you to input basic low level commands. So if somehow your desktop froze you don't need to hit the power button. The kernel will still be alive under all those programs/processes. By holding Alt and SysRq, thats the print screen button, and typing REISUB. You can restart your pc.
REISUB is actually several low level commands:
REISUB is actually several low level commands:
- Alt + SysRq + R – takes the keyboard out of raw mode.
- Alt + SysRq + E – terminates all processes (except init).
- Alt + SysRq + I – kills all processes (except init).
- Alt + SysRq + S – synchronizes the disk.
- Alt + SysRq + U – remounts all filesystems read-only.
- Alt + SysRq + B – reboots the machine.
What happened to American Adventure?
On the edge of Ilkeston, Derbyshire, there use to be a theme park called American adventure. I remember going a few times when I was little. As I got older I completely forgot about it. Not really my fault. No one talked about it. In Britain if you want to goto a theme park you goto something like alton towers, spend all day in queues, get on about 5 rides and go home happy.I looked up American Adventure on wikipedia and I was shocked to find it had closed. It's even near 2 large cities Nottingham and Derby, but as it turns out it closed after "a period of difficult trading".
The website is now down, however the google cache reveals:
The American Adventure Theme Park has announced with regret that following a period of difficult trading it has taken the decision to close the American Adventure Theme Park near Shipley, Derbyshire. As a result American Adventure will not re-open for the 2007 season. All rides are currently being marketed for sale and the remaining staff are assisting with these disposals. It is anticipated that this exercise will be completed during this year when the leasehold for the park will revert to Derbyshire County Council.
The American Adventure Theme Park states that it has invested considerably in trying to make the Park a commercial success but a fall in attendances, which has been experienced across the UK theme park market, has proved impossible to overcome. The company would like to thank all of its staff and customers who over the years have contributed to making American Adventure a fun family experience.
The theme park has a funny history...
For example, in order of events:
- It was originally the Britannia park started by Peter Kellard in 1985.
- It was opened by a boxer called Henry Cooper (one of the greatest British heavyweights of all time).
- Supposedly it rained a lot on the opening day. (not a great start)
- Britannia closed 10 weeks after opening with a huge £9.5 million debt.
- Henry Cooper and various other people were never paid.
- Peter Kellard was sentenced 4 years in prison for fraud.
- The County Council bought the park for £2.5 million in 1986.
- It was sold to Grenada and finally called American Adventure in 1987.
Later additions included:
- Missile roller coaster (which was the best roller coaster in the uk for sometime)
- Rocky Mountain Rapids
- Iron Wolf rollercoaster (gladiator tv show themed ride, oh the joy!)
The park went from something like this: Crazy Cowboys and Indians...
...To something like this: Super happy family park thing
In 2005 some of the rides closed due to just generally being run down and the missile, not fitting in with super happy family park image, was put to bits and sold to Pleasurewood Hills as 'Wipeout'. In January of this year the park officially closed.
The park is now like a ghost town. Check out picasaweb.google.co.uk/gazandflyss/AmericanAdventureGoneButNotForgotten. Some great pictures showing how run down and empty (without people and most of the rides) it looks now.
Btw. I dont own any of these images used in this post, all rights belong to their rightful owners; Ventureworld.
Brewing yet another stout
I got another stout kit, this time one I have used before. The edme dry stout kit. I used the same ingredients as my last brew expect no chocolate malt. Less oats more roasted malt. Lots of hops. Fuggle, willamette and cascade for finishing.
I used a sieve to keep everything in to steep. Makes things more easy. Less messing around to.
Will upload pictures sometime.
I used a sieve to keep everything in to steep. Makes things more easy. Less messing around to.
Will upload pictures sometime.
Godzilla vs the blue tack
Found a few Godzilla toys in the attic. The one from the American Godzilla film. So heres a 5 second stop motion.
Exaile player
I was looking for a gtk+ music player. Because Amarok is really slow on a default install of ubuntu even with a decent spec machine. Some users might go with banshee, rhythmbox or even the great songbird. However the best I have come across (although songbird when out of beta should kick some ass) is exaile. It's aimed to be like amarok but with gtk+. It has last.fm support that works. You can sort your music with the Library functions, search your library music and look through files. All the features you would expect are there.
To download it (Repository):
www.exaile.org/downloads
Thoughts on ISPs warning BBC
" The explosion in popularity of online video could lead to increases in the cost of broadband for UK consumers.
The way I see it is that the "network" is already congested with uk ISPs gaining more and more new users than they can handle. Instead of raising the already high prices compared to the rest of Europe, why not invest in "network" instead of being greedy?
The fact is most, if not all, ISPs in the uk advertise speeds such as 2mb and 8mb when there service comes no where near those advertised speeds. Although no one will get an exact advertised speed there is no need for a 3 figured number (mb) loss of speed that your paying for.
If the BBC goes ahead with its iPlayer video service its not going to make a difference to an already poor network.
Internet services providers, such as Tiscali, say that the raft of recently launched on-demand services will "undoubtedly" congest the network. "
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6944176.stmThe way I see it is that the "network" is already congested with uk ISPs gaining more and more new users than they can handle. Instead of raising the already high prices compared to the rest of Europe, why not invest in "network" instead of being greedy?
The fact is most, if not all, ISPs in the uk advertise speeds such as 2mb and 8mb when there service comes no where near those advertised speeds. Although no one will get an exact advertised speed there is no need for a 3 figured number (mb) loss of speed that your paying for.
If the BBC goes ahead with its iPlayer video service its not going to make a difference to an already poor network.
My beer is a success
The stout is really good. Its only 4 days old and it tastes great. Its kinda like a Mackeson meets a Murphys. Dead smooth, chocolaty, sweet and nutty. I'm surprised how good it is only 4 days old. I put some in bottles too. I not to sure how good they will be since the rest is in a keg. Ill get a chance to compare them. If there any good I have like 6 500ml a few small ones.
So ill see how it goes. 2 weeks it should be great. Ill be making a lighter beer next.
So ill see how it goes. 2 weeks it should be great. Ill be making a lighter beer next.
Will I move back to KDE?
After using KDE on and off over a few years it's not really changed. I find the artists are obsessed with blue. Icons, panels, window borders, backgrounds, all blue. Blue, blue, blue, lots of blue. That's fine if you like that kind of thing or just blue. I also dislike the way konqueror works too. So I have stuck with beryl/gnome or fluxbox for a while now.
Though after seeing kde4 screenshots with plasma, KDE's new desktop shell, I think I might be tempted to try it out again. Kwin has supposedly been given composite effects like Compiz Fusion.
Since I don't like konqueror there is now an alternative file manager called Dolphin.
It looks promising. Defiantly better looking than vista. Makes me wonder what all the fuss was about longhorn/vista screenshots. Windows XP with a black theme and a few effects. Yeah amazing. It has nothing original unlike this project. At the moment its still in beta, but runs well on top of kde4 desktop.
Check out some other screencasts on youtube
youtube.com/results?search_query=plasma+kde
If you want to try it out, try the kde live cd
home.kde.org/~binner/kde-four-live/
Though after seeing kde4 screenshots with plasma, KDE's new desktop shell, I think I might be tempted to try it out again. Kwin has supposedly been given composite effects like Compiz Fusion.
Since I don't like konqueror there is now an alternative file manager called Dolphin.
It looks promising. Defiantly better looking than vista. Makes me wonder what all the fuss was about longhorn/vista screenshots. Windows XP with a black theme and a few effects. Yeah amazing. It has nothing original unlike this project. At the moment its still in beta, but runs well on top of kde4 desktop.
Check out some other screencasts on youtube
youtube.com/results?search_query=plasma+kde
If you want to try it out, try the kde live cd
home.kde.org/~binner/kde-four-live/
Brewing a big style stout
Today I spent just about all day in the kitchen trying to brew a huge stout. It started with a john bull stout kit with some barley for a nice head, oats to make it smooth, crystal malt for added body, fuggle, cascade, willamette hops. Was a very big brew. I think I should have added less oats and more crystal malt but we will see when its finished. When I finally got all the wort in and the must done, the colour was opaque black. I didn't use an Irish yeast like normal I went for the Scottish yeast since it worked well with my barley wine.
The must O.G was 1.025, seems a bit light?
The must O.G was 1.025, seems a bit light?
Epiphany web browser
I love Firefox just as much as any other open source geek, I like the Mozilla gecko engine, it renders pages fast and properly unlike IE. A few days ago I noticed a blog post on some blog (cant remember it) calling Mozilla for there to be a Firefox lite. Well if anyone really wants a lite Firefox there is Epiphany. Of course you will need gnome. Though I run it within fluxbox with gnome installed. I have used it once before along time ago and I wasn't impressed by it all. I guess I was stuck in my ways with Mozilla and Netscape navigator. After trying it today I am confidant to say I like it.Its the fastest GUI browser I have working on a 1ghz, 256mb celeron. I think its a little quicker than Firefox to load but it defiantly beats Firefox on loading pages.
It features
- Gecko engine (used by FireFox)
- Smart address bar / Google search
- FireFox 2 like tabs
- Security / privacy options
- Extensions such as ad blocking and smart bookmarks
- Nice zoom feature
- Customizable toolbar
To install it look for the epiphany-browser package or
sudo apt-get install epiphany-browser
FreeCol
A free Colonization clone. If you like freeCiv you like this. A nice turn based game. Its a addictive and I am hooked on it.
For debian/ubuntu users you can get it from:
www.getdeb.net/app.php?name=FreeCol
On ubuntu the deb package handler will install java if you don't have it already. So keep in mind you might have to keep the internet connection alive to install a few extra things if need be.
FreeCol website: www.freecol.org
For debian/ubuntu users you can get it from:
www.getdeb.net/app.php?name=FreeCol
On ubuntu the deb package handler will install java if you don't have it already. So keep in mind you might have to keep the internet connection alive to install a few extra things if need be.
FreeCol website: www.freecol.org
I'm on Fotolia
Well I signed up on Friday and started uploading pictures since, I have a around 10 ready to be verified. So let the sales being...
You can view them here:
http://en.fotolia.com/p/200381538
You can view them here:
http://en.fotolia.com/p/200381538
Webcam server with ubuntu
Last night I was playing around with a webcam motion detector program incidentally called motion. Very fast and lots of features. Its completely command line operated so its great for scripts. I had an idea to create a simple webcam page. Soooo I did. The great things about linux is the free spirit. A linux box can be just about anything you want it to. Hey if you want to check on the house with a webcam, a linux box and a ftp server you can! Or in my case if you want some sort of fun pointless webcam page hosted on your box you can! ect ect
To install motion on ubuntu
sudo apt-get install motion
It is important to note that motion by its almighty goodness does have a small server built into it. Check out www.lavrsen.dk/twiki/bin/view/Motion/WebcamServer if you want help with that. I am not using it since I was hoping to keep things simple and have a html page on my box. Sticking to what I know :).
I used lighthttpd to publish the webcam image. Lighthttpd is a simple, small, fast server that can allows you a server in less than 5 mins. It starts as soon as you install.
To install it run:
sudo apt-get install lighthttpd
I set motion up to save every image to the same file. So it just overwrites the old image with a new one from the cam. Editing the motion.conf in /ect/motion. I made a few adjustments.
To get motion to save the images in /var/www/ I based my .conf file on this tutorial infectedproject.wordpress.com, making a few changes:
target_dir /var/www/
snapshot_filename image
jpeg_filename image
So now (with motion having permission with sudo) motion will save the image in the www directory. All I needed to do is make a index.html and have some javascript to refresh the image.
To start motion I just run sudo motion. About it, done.
To install motion on ubuntu
sudo apt-get install motion
It is important to note that motion by its almighty goodness does have a small server built into it. Check out www.lavrsen.dk/twiki/bin/view/Motion/WebcamServer if you want help with that. I am not using it since I was hoping to keep things simple and have a html page on my box. Sticking to what I know :).
I used lighthttpd to publish the webcam image. Lighthttpd is a simple, small, fast server that can allows you a server in less than 5 mins. It starts as soon as you install.
To install it run:
sudo apt-get install lighthttpd
I set motion up to save every image to the same file. So it just overwrites the old image with a new one from the cam. Editing the motion.conf in /ect/motion. I made a few adjustments.
To get motion to save the images in /var/www/ I based my .conf file on this tutorial infectedproject.wordpress.com, making a few changes:
target_dir /var/www/
snapshot_filename image
jpeg_filename image
So now (with motion having permission with sudo) motion will save the image in the www directory. All I needed to do is make a index.html and have some javascript to refresh the image.
To start motion I just run sudo motion. About it, done.
Cam viewing with Camorama
Camorama can view and take pictures with a webcam or a Video4Linux device. Its a little neat tool. Don't know if its installed the right stuff for my webcam to work on say something like amsn cam feature, but it works fine. I have a logitech quickcam pro 4000, its like one the old, yet iconic logitech models.
On ubuntu you can install it with the package camorama
sudo apt-get install camorama
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