So, just a few pics from...

...the last couple of days (by popular demand! ;) - Got to Olympia *rather* early, as I said, and was welcomed by perfect photo weather -

- I followed the handily placed signs, (admittedly, it should have been a clue that I wasn't walking along surrounded by people in suits and ties, rather than women pushing/dragging screaming young children in school uniform, *but*) -

- when I got to the entrance, it was closed...it turns out the exhibtion doesn't open to the visiting public until 10am, so I had an hour to burn...(curse my early rising overenthusiasm)...

The only people allowed in at this time of day were a constant stream of motorbike couriers, arriving hauling piles of forgotten freebies (pens, stress balls etc.) and boxes of leaflets that didn't make it into the back of the salesperson's cars in error and now had to be rushed to the venue at the last minute (and at great expense) -

- anyway, even though I wasn't *hugely* hungry I went to find a cafe for a bite to eat (plus cup of tea) - once there, I settled at the counter and glancing up at the menu I did rather have to stop myself laughing out loud(!) -

- suffice it to say I opted for the "Breakfast courses" rather than the scary ones - the result arrived by dumb waiter after a heeldraggingly long wait of almost 25 minutes (even though I was only the 2nd customer they were rushing to serve...heaven knows what happens when the place is busy!) but it wasn't too bad and was certainly reasonably priced -

- after reading the paper (dull) and eating my fill (average) I wandered back to the entrance, which was now thronging with activity. I was just in time to watch with amazement as the guys from 888.com turned up (in a huge SUV limo liveried with their logo!) which was, actually, quite impressive -

- and after a short wait in the queue access was granted and I was in. Equipped (ready or not) with a large shoulder bag by the welcoming comitee and started on the really important part of the event - grabbing as many mouse mats, pens, sweets, rubber ducks and key rings as I could from every stall possible -

- got quite a good haul too... ;) Less importantly, got to meet a lot of people in "the trade" (even some who I had/will shortly deal/be dealing with) and saw their new products, had a few seminars (for "seminar" read "hard sell to captive audience in exchange for a small plastic gift")...and was generally disapointed that I couldn't get on a few of the sessions for the paying deligates (there were at least 3 that would have been super-relevent to me, but the price tag for those bits of the event was £900...a bit hard to justify)...anyway, it's been one of the better conferences I have attended and I had a great time... ;) I'd certainly go again...

Wow...had a great day...

...met some amazing people, walking round with Whittleman was, I think the perfect pairing, I would say - "Oh look at this, these guy's offer blah blah", he would say "Urm, right, thanks, but quite why is this interesting?" (but none the less) "charm charm charm" *wink* (perhaps at the odd lady), they would say "hehe......(ahem)...tech tech tech tech tech", I would say "Oh, excellent, that's a really innovative approach!" or "Wow!", and then *he* would say (quietly) "what does that mean?", I would (quietly) explain, and *BINGO*, eyes would flash...! Also I found two "out of left field" entries - my photo op of a T-shirt (from spreadshirt.co.uk) I found (geek'ily hilarious) dragged us into an interface that I thought could be a real fireball earner...Geeks love "geek brand" t-shirts...I know this, somehow...("ahem" again...) and my second spot was the company hitwise.co.uk (with a certain person at work in mind (JM)) but in fact it turned out to be a mega agency-convincing tool...perfect teamwork... ;)

You have about 5 minutes...

...to get over here if you want to witness the start of Microsoft spending $100 million on advertising the xbox 360....the count down is in progress... ;)

Two anniversaries today...

...firstly (although not being able to remember the *exact* date) Flyingpops and I are celebrating the anniversary of the day "when it all started" between us, and secondly the occasion of picking up the keys to our house from the Estate agent (1 year ago today, we can be precise about that one!) and began the long, long process of painting all the dark blue wallpaper to a perfect white while listening to a succession of unabridged audiobooks (LOTR, HP5, etc.)...so a double celebration is in order!

Some problems with my salary mean we now aren't going to go away this weekend (for a mini-break - Paris or some such location - as planned...oh well...) so we are settling for a meal at a the "Square Pig & s'wine bar" in Holborn instead, which apparently does rather good burgers (we shall see!)...(menu here... ;)

I'm thinking maybe starting with the olives and chorizo, and then perhaps the blue cheese burger (reminds me of a certain meal in New York... ;)

Anyway, perhaps more on that later - got the London Ad:Tech conference 2005 to look forward to tomorrow (and maybe Thursday if it's *really* good), it looks like some of day one is going to be eaten up by the Google University session in the morning, which kicks off at 0910am, so got to be up super early and on a train to Victoria (pre-6am *groan*)...but it looks like it's going to be a good show... :)

Oh and finished my book about Aushwitz (which was nothing short of *excellent*) and started on "A year in the Merde" (which made me chortle and snort (much to the annoyance of my fellow commuters) all the way into London)...very good... ;)

Finally sat down...

...yesterday to make a concerted effort to get the network up and running again. I had woken up that morning with a possible solution to the problem with the network configuration (that had come to me during the night - damn useful things, dreams - well, sometimes anyway... ;)

My subconcious had helpfully clued me in to the fact that actually, once the router was configured, it wouldn't matter which PC was plugged directly into it, so I ran through the config process using the one machine that did still work, then unplugged that machine, stuck in the wireless PCI card, re-booted and crossed my fingers, and it worked like a dream! It only took 2 re-boots to get the other machine online (to try both the network cards I had in it), the only mishap was managing to break the audio somehow during the process, took ages to find the driver (it was only an Avance AC'97 onboard'er!), but as of about 4pm yesterday I was the proud owner of a (super fast) wireless network at home! Woo!

Amazingly, when I first scanned for available networks I found *three* in the local area! So, rather than risk anyone piggy-backing my connection I turned on 128-bit WEP (which was pretty straightforward) and secured the router config with a strong password...

A very satisfying session, I can strongly recommend Belkin kit, really easy to implement...it virtually installed itself! ;)

Just a super quick...

...update, had an awesome time with Tommo... :)

No Jonks though...well bad! :(

However, first things first - shamefully - our wonderful interface has no doubt been woefully neglected and this now feels like a terrible personal inbalance - this *will* be redressed...

We drank (Stella and some very wonderful plum based "danger"), we ate (spicy Chinese in the end), we primed and test fired highly dangerous weaponry (within the grounds of a catholic seminary, beat that!) and we talked, catching up on the last few...well, years, I guess, comparing wounds and tales of adventure...

Mate, thanks...*again*... ;) (and thanks Flyingpops for driving ;)

Update - the aftermath of lunch -

- and a shot of the garden -

Off to see...

...Tommo and Jonkinson tomorrow at Tommo's country retreat in Wonersh near Guildford...I have done some googling but about the only history I can find about the place is that "LtCol. Edward Gaspard Ponsonby 2nd Baron Sysonby" (who was a descendant of William the Conqueror) lived there for a while...oh and there is a church...and a historical society... ;)

Anyway, it's a lads day, so beer, curry and games (PC/Xbox and otherwise) will be the order of the day (with any luck... ;) Looking forward to it...(and meeting Tommo's remaining woodland chums)...

Foggy day...

...I think someone in authority at "weather control" was reading the blog yesterday...perhaps summer is on the wane after all... :(

Okay, so there...

...was a bit of a nip in the air when I left the house this morning...but (just for the record) summer is not over *officially* until I let it... ;)

Last night I had a really weird dream that I was dreaming about writing a story...so kind of double asleep I guess...it was about a woman called "Jill" who owned a pub in Surrey, she was kind of getting on a bit, living alone, and the pub wasn't doing very well (it was in the middle of nowhere)...so she was short of cash and a bit sad with the way things had turned out. As a result of the financial situation she was selling off bits of the property, most notably the pub sign (which was wonderfully painted-and in my dream at least-fabulously valuable), and some of the other fixtures and fittings (brass, cutlery, pumps etc)...

It was an auto jumble style affair, all the items just laid out by the road where people could stop their cars and peruse...being rather infirm and gullible she was being prayed upon by all sorts of people who were tricking her, paying a pittance for these precious things...meanwhile, the me in the upper dream was monitoring the situation and narrating but was powerless to intervene...

(I know how I interpret it...really odd though, still kind of watching her when my mind slips to "day-dream")

I awoke at 4am and didn't really get back to sleep...

Rik Mayall's...

...autobiography looks absolutely hilarious... ;) Think I'll wait until it comes out in paperback though...£15.99 is just too much...

On the subject of books, (and diametrically opposed to the above although tenuosly related) I have just started on this little number, missed the TV series, but thus far it's totally unputdownable (wow, that word is actually in the dictionary!) I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but with this subject (Auschwitz) it's actually hard at times to believe it isn't made up...at the same time I also bought "A year in the Merde" for full price and then found it shortly afterwards in the Red Cross charity shop for a quid...double "Doh!"> :(

Note to self - remember in future to *look* in the bookshop and buy from Amazon, it's so much cheaper...curse my impulsive wallet!

New bit of grafitti...

...in Kings Cross (New Wharf Road to be precise) today, must have been sprayed (in very good handwriting) over the weekend -

- (as usual, click it for a bigger version), some quick googling has lead me to those to whom the message was intended and also the probable culprits...anyone looking for someone to foot the bill for the whitewash and person to apply it might want to start here... ;)

Update - just found a write up of the event from the protesters point of view...sounds like it didn't all go as well as the grafitti campaign... ;)

Just for the record, I'm on the fence on this issue (before anyone starts a hate campaign... :)

Really busy weekend...

...Friday night we went for drinks at Flyingpops' folks, the rest of the weekend was spent largely sorting bits and bobs out from being away (putting things up in the loft, finishing off tidying away all the clothes from their various piles/bags)...played a lot of "Earth 2160" (excellent, atmospheric and really challenging RTS game) on Saturday night (while watching "The Cannonball Run" which had come through the front door with "The Sun" newspaper), however, I won't be playing it tonight thanks largely to what we did on Saturday morning (and the resultant chain)...

We were up fairly early and headed over to "Dorking Windows" (Friday night recommendation from Flyingpops' uncle Alan) to enquire about getting double glazing fitted around the house (this has needed doing for quite some time, us having been in the house for a year now). We had measured up, so we handed over the details, took a look at a few designs and settled on "standard white", the chap in the office seemed like a nice fellow, we shook hands and he promised to put a quote in the post...however, as part of getting this done (and really the main motivation for doing so), was to get the rather sticky back door replaced by a nice set of double glazed double doors.

This led Flyingpops to thinking about the placement of the living room PCs (which would be right in front of one of the new doors), so after some discussion we decided (by this time it was Sunday morning) to go round Homebase in Crawley and a few of the other big furniture stores, and also check out Staples and PC World to see if we could find some more compact means of storing them (saw this car in the car park - looks like someone forgot to lock their alloy wheels, I can just picture someone with their arms full of shopping bags standing open mouthed upon returning to their car, hehe...not funny really... ;) -

Instead of coming away with a minature PC desk (they were all a bit too big, or too flimsy looking), we instead came away with a Belkin Turbo (154hbs) 802.11g wireless networking kit (the router was a snip at £50!)...not *quite* sure how that happened...


Anyway, this meant that my job for Sunday afternoon was to rebuild the main PC (it hasn't managed to get on NTL for absolutely months now, couldn't work out why), so I backed up my saves for Earth 2160, bit the bullet and re-installed XP, it took about an hour I suppose, but unbelievably even after the rebuild exactly the same fault occured! It simply won't refresh the IP address! I've even installed a second network card to no avail...so, tonight I'll be on the phone to NTL to see if their experts can manage to help me get the machine online, but until then the wiresless network will have to wait...nightmare...

The weekend concluded with a meal of lovely roast lamb with red wine jus (think I prefer leg to shoulder though), roast potatoes and steamed veg spent in the company of G/S and Alexander (who is just starting on the long road to solid food, weighs about a stone now and is being much more responsive to stimuli)...

Nintendo are on the...

...razor edge again, after the truly innovative DS (with PDA-like stylus opening up all sorts of amazing new possibilities for game writers), it has just been announced that their "Revolution" console will come with a wireless "one-handed controller" (BBC article - see here for Nintendo's own spin on it). It physically resembles a TV remote control (which is fairly odd to start with), however, the really revolutionary bit is that - "Motion sensors on the controller translate its movements into game action, allowing it to be used as a virtual sword, baseball bat or racket"...that just sounds absolutely *fantastic*! Can you imagine Tiger Woods with that, or the manipulator from Half Life 2?? Please tell me I don't have three new consoles to buy next year (and I kinda fancied a PSP once they sort out the appalling build quality)! I'm gonna need to re-mortgage the house!

Interesting Shops of Kings Cross #6

..."Matchless Gifts" is in full swing now, it's a new brightly coloured shop on Caledonian Road, offering free internet access and free vegetarian food to all...! The area is now buzzing with people with shaved hair and orange clothes giving away curry at lunchtime, the back of the bikes have a space to attach a large solar panel, I guess to power a heater to keep the food hot...I took this shot of the front while they were still getting set up, but peer through the door now and it's lots of robed individuals tapping away at PC keyboards (which I must say does look quite odd) but I guess not a bad way to live your life -

"Wait a minute, Doc. Ah..."

"Wait a minute, Doc. Ah..."
Originally uploaded by finkangel.

"Are you telling me you built a time machine...out of a DeLorean?", "The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"...

(Marty must be somewhere in Kings Cross today... ;)

Oh, that copy of "The Bounty"...

...that I was so looking forward to (courtesy of the News of the World) was corrupted! Put it in the Xbox and it didn't want to know. It came up happily enough initially, detecting "Video" media, but all the media playing tools I have on there just locked when I tried to play it. I stuck it in the TV (which has a DVD player in the front, being posh and big and expensive and everything) and it became apparent why, it at least *did* make an attempt at playing the badly addled contents, multicoloured squares appearing everywhere (reminding me of the good old days of VCD conversions), managed to limp it past the 20 adverts on the front eventually and onto the menu (but it was an extremely painful process), and found that the actual film seemed to be intact (good news!) however, I really wanted to run it through the Xbox (favoring the superior sound through my Theatre system)...so, I ejected it from the telly, popped it in one of the living room PCs and started a rip process on the main movie VOBs using CloneDVD (stripping off the corrupted material at the same time) and re-mastered it using Nero...and... it's perfect (and no sitting around at the start for the "messages from our sponsors" either, result!) :)

Fabulous quote...

..."If Pacman had affected us as kids we'd be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music." - this guy said it first... ;)

Working hard...

...on my mailbox. trimming off the obviously not specifically for me (being in not quite relevent groups on the GAL or just cc'd in fyi)/out of date (already actioned by me/someone else) email - here I find myself facing over *350* emails that actually require me to read and take some action (this could take a while)...still, at least now I've got sufficient room to actually *send* emails in reply now, as long as they are small, meaning I can start on my well practiced method of working from both top and bottom of the list (in turn), giving priority to the low hanging fruit (people who normally ask "quick to answer" questions and people who normally send large attachments just to clear a bit of space)...pesky server space restrictions... ;)

Back to work...

...today, still feeling nice and relaxed from my lovely holiday, wonder how long it will take before I'm feeling stressed out by the commute...anyway, nothing could touch me today, booted up "Zoo Keeper" on my DS and got the top score effortlessly on the Time challenge (this is the first time I have even been in the top 5!)...the idea is to match up as many animals (horizontal or vertical lines of 3 or more) as you can in 6 minutes...if you haven't played this (simple but fiendishly challenging) game then do have a go, it requires total focus and today, not a gorilla or elephant could hide...I was in the zone... ;)

Arse...590 emails in my work inbox... :(

Done a lot of backfill...

...today, so no time to blog properly, but do zoom backward and take a look at some of the pics...

Also, Flickr streams are fully up to date now... ;)