Category: "writing"

Last weekend saw me complete my second running event of 2024, the Marriott’s Way Trail Marathon put on by Positive Steps. It was 26 miles (41.84 kilometres) of mud filled disused railway route from Norwich out to the Norfolk town of Aylsham. As is the case with these events, I plan my race, not only from the food and calorie intake but also the entertainment to help take my mind off the dark...

Over the last 24 hours I have been reading and watching quite a few articles about the Apple Vision Pro headset and thinking about the upcoming launch, where it will sit in the technology stack and the future of such a novel product. https://youtu.be/hdwaWxY11jQ?si=QIWRUhuHwpl85l1a Not day one for me #Section titled Not day one for meCurrently I am not in the ‘FOMO’ camp; there are way too many...

Goodbye, Twitter #Section titled Goodbye, TwitterIt was way back in November of 2006 when I signed up for this new exciting platform; Twitter. It was a break from the other social media networks as it limited your posts to 140 characters. This limitation was actually a key part of the platform, it was built to fit in with the cellular SMS services; remember this was before iPhones and mobile data...

It is hard to believe it has only been a year. So much has changed and yet so little at the same time. The New Year is the time that many sit and make resolutions and plan improvement for the coming year. Maybe it is time to reframe our thoughts and look at it differently this time around. This time twelve months ago the first sightings of COVID-19 were appearing and it started changing the world,...

I remember sitting in the back of a hot car having flown into Poitier international airport for the first time, looking out of the window at the countryside and being slightly confused. You see, both Sean and I had recently surmised that our childhood had in part been the longest and best planned house hunt. A region by region tour of France, but with mum and dad’s future retirement plan in the...

Personally, I’m not a massive fan of the whole new year, new me movement. To me, if you want to be a better person or make improvements, it should not matter what the date is. That said, I do like the idea of looking forward to the next twelve months and planning a journey through them. Block Theme Development #Section titled Block Theme DevelopmentOver the last couple of weeks, I have been...

At first glance the Vittoria Terreno Zero looks like a lockdown love child of the Corsa road tyre and a Terreno cyclocross tyre. Has Vitoria found that sweet spot for fast gravel rides? Vittoria has been in the tyre game for a while now and where enhancements in road tyres are few and far between the off-road team have been busy. Hot on the heals of the existing three Terreno cyclocross specific...

It was 2010 and I signed up for the latest web service but unlike most of the signups this did not offer 140 characters to express my feelings, it was a new service called Strava. Back then Strava was pretty new, having only emerged a few years prior but it was gaining traction in the fitness arena, in particular cycling. To me, Strava started as a digital logbook of my activities on the bike....

2020 started off on the right trajectory. I had set myself some decent goals and spent a lot of the winter building my fitness towards some serious racing. An early race only went to prove this with a third place finish from a break. The power numbers were looking good, the motivation was high and the summer could not get here soon enough. Roll the clocks forward and 2020 has turned everything...

You know that feeling, when you wake in the morning and that little thought pops into your head. “I had a blog, once”. Yep. I can confirm that after an online search for my name it turns out I do indeed have a blog. It is still alive and has been sitting here collecting dust all this time. Remember back when blogging was cool and everyone was creating custom WordPress themes every month? Those...

Round four of Mud, Sweat and Gears was held at Ickworth Park in Bury St. Edmunds. It was a new course for me but I had been informed it would consist of a lot of grassy climbs. With the sun shining we pack the car and head over there. After signing on I meet up with Tony and we head out for a sighting lap. Sure enough, first turn off the start/finish straight was a big grassy climb into a wooded...

“Well, it all started when I found a lump” is a phrase I have been using quite a bit lately and it is surprising how those few words can totally change the tone of a conversation. Luckily for me my lump was located on the flesh of my left buttock and after examination was diagnosed as a harmless lipoma. When you recite that sentence; “I found a lump” you see the fear in faces and realise just how...

It is no secret I’m passionate about cycling, but the truth is I had never been handed a number and tried racing; until last year. Since cycling kicked off for me back in 2006 I have completed a list of challenges, I’ve pushed myself with my own goals. However all my events have been team outings or lacked that competitive edge. It was not without temptation; members of Cycle Club Sudbury had...

This time last week I woke up to my 30th Birthday. (Yes it has taken a while to write this, the started off with me making a big mistake and finished with a cold from hell) The plan for the day started with me waking to a massive migraine headache thing that put me on my ass (must be the age) After a while it passed and Lucy and I were due up at the farm for the statuary family get together. You...

The other week end I was round at a friend’s house. Whilst my head was deep inside a pizza takeaway menu trying to decide what to have, Glen was fluffing about on his PC. He called over and said that everything had paused and nothing was working, without rising my head I replied with “have you tried turning it off and on again”. Before I was able to follow up this classic IT Crowd line Glen had...

As any Mac user worth his salts will know that the latest version of OSX was released on October 26th October. Due to a bit of a mess up with a new hard drive I did not get round to installing Leopard until the following Friday. Since then I have had a little over a week to try out some of the claimed 300 new features and give it a bit of an airing. Installation #Section titled InstallationFor the...

When I look in System Preferences it now tells me I’ve been a .Mac member since 2004. Since I purchased my first Mac I have signed up to Apple’s own web service but until the last few weeks I have only ever used a .mac email address. Now armed with Leopard and an iPhone I can finally see the point in the service and have changed my work to use it more. Mail #Section titled MailFirst off I’m now...

Last night I chaired my first committee meeting. During the Annual General Meeting of the local cycle club last month, chairman Peter Whitely decided to step down as chairman. During the silence that followed and the prolonged silence after volunteers were asked for, I sat there and pondered the idea. I should have looked back over time and realised that I just can not say no, instead I poked my...

You get up every morning. You go to work every week day. You think everything is good with the world. That is until your boss tells you that there is no work to keep you employed and they can no longer keep your position open. So now you come home and re-think what you want to do in life. Redundancy does that to you. Now let’s be honest, my job was SharePoint development and I have struggled for...

During the festive period I started looking towards the New Year and calendar for the next few months. Turns out it is all going to be about cycling. Starting off with my attempt at becoming a Level 2 British Cycling...

Every where you turn some one is talking about caring for the environment and doing your bit. One of the main subjects of concern is packaging and the critical issue carrier bags. Now obviously because I work in the pacakaging industryit does make me a bit biased, but on the other hand most of my leisure time is spent enjoying the outdoors so I’m not writing this from a business point of view,...

If you are a Mac user you will no doubt know that the new OS 10.5 is on the way. In fact Leopard is due for release on the 26th October; only a few days away. So far I’ve always upgraded to the latest version but recently I’ve lost the way with Apple. Despite other bloggers detailing a few reasons why they would upgrade, if I was asked a month ago if I would the answer would be ‘not straight away’...

There has always been something about Project Gotham Racing that I’ve loved, even when it was Metropolis Street Racer on the Dreamcast. The forth incarnation of the game hit the 360 last week and I picked up a copy yesterday and after a couple of hours it’s safe to say I’m pretty impressed. Not only do you get the standard array of supercars to drift round corners but this time there is some two...

So I’ve made the switch from Windows to Mac. But hold on I hear you cry, you have been a Mac user for years. Well that is true but only in the ‘home user’ market. Recently I’ve made the move in the work office environment. Oscar Products is a small business and like many small business’ in the UK we use Sage for all our accounts, purchasing and sales orders. If there was an open source or even...

I think that it is the thought of my upcoming 30th Birthday; yep I’m getting old. But over the last few days I’ve finally logged onto Facebook and been searching for old friends, or sometimes just names I know! So if you get a invite from me, don’t worry it’s just some form of pre-mid-life crisis going on. Just accept it and move on, I know after Saturday I will...

Yesterday I completed my first cycling event of 2009. Whilst the CCS Reliability Ride is not really a race, it is also a bit more than the Sunday club runs. Before the event I decided I would have fun and ride round with other CCS club members, but half way round that plan changed and it turned into an ‘eyes out’ dash to the finish. The morning started with driving rain and a temperature just...

I love all Mac related events, it’s a time that new shiney gadgets are unveiled and I work out how I can purchase them. This years Macworld event started off with the shock of Apple pulling out and the main man Steve not performing another Steve-note. But nothing compared to the actual event! Let’s sum it up: iLife, iWork, iTunes DRM free and 17" MacBook Pro. Honestly I do use iWork so I’m...

Some times you just can not think of a title and so you go with the old month and year algorithm. To which I’m now theming Nov07. I’ve always wanted to knock out some custom themes that are hand built from the ground up. But everything I try I end up with WordPress moving the goal posts (in respect of function changes in 2.3) or a incomplete style sheet and this bugs me! They never feel complete...

Today Viddler took my online video virginity. I had purchased a Sony PC5 camcorder back in 2001 and at the time took some footage but never did anything with it. Finally, 6 years on, I’ve imported the footage into iMovie and started messing about. Quite a bit of the footage of back in my kiting days so it was a trip down memory lane as I put together a quick tour in my lessons of learning to fly a...

For a quite a while now there has been a farm of what I thought were Llama’s in the local village of Long Melford. Until one day a customer came into work and wanted some carrier bags for the produce from his Alpaca farm in Melford. I soon realised my mistake and after a conversation mentioned to him of my online presence; Funky Larma (yes he too pointed out the spelling). He suggested that I pop...

To all my family, friends, colleagues, readers and online peeps out there, Happy Christmas! For me it has been a strange old year but now it is time to put everything aside and eat and drink too much and spend time with those people that make life what it is. So have fun all and I hope Santa brings you what ever it was that has been on that list, not sure how he will get my new Yamaha R6 in the...

On Friday the guvonour decided to take the afternoon off, can’t argue with that he is the boss. But when he said he was heading down to the big smoke to watch his son I was intrigued. Turns out his son is a member of an unsigned British group called Envy & Other Sins and is taking part in a competition on C4/T4 for a chance for a record contract. I have not followed the competition, probably...

With the nights getting darker and the days colder I’m not getting out on my bike so much. So I dug out my iPod and Nike+ sensor and decided to hit the tarmac again. After a few quick runs around the block I knew I needed a bit of motivation to keep on track so I started browsing the Challenge gallery on the Nike+ webmetadata. The first one I clicked onto was the PC vs. Mac; well I just had to and...

Look through your feeds, notice something missing? Content? Yep I’ve been elsewhere the last few days. Understandable if you had this parked outside! It all started last week, having ordered the bike I was getting like a school boy at Christmas, I could not concentrate on anything and was turned upside down. Finally Monday the 3rd arrived and I set off to collect my new machine. Since then I have...

There are times like today when I just love living in sleepy quiet Sudbury. Because it means there are no queues at Woolworths and you canjust walk on in a pick up a copy of Halo3! This game as been in the making for the last 37 years, or so it seems. I know that Chris has had it on pre-order at Amazon since April 2006! As usual I did not pre-order, I did not panic and run around I just took my...

This Monday it will be October 1st, the year feels like it is flying away. Once again this year shibbyonline will be going PinkForOctober in aid of breast cancer awareness. Given that Jacqui is back in hospital at present for further surgery it feels the right time to show some support. But that’s not all on the 15th I will also be taking part in Blog Action Day. This is an idea that multiple...

I just can not stand reality shows; Big Bother, I’m a Celebrity and anything else like that just makes my skin crawl. The only thing worse than those shows are the talent show; X Idol, Pop Factor, Britain’s Next Drama Queen. They are all just excuses for 15 minutes of fame. Lucy on the other hand loves them, so much so that Saturday evening we had to watch another round of qualifying for X Factor....

It is the morning of the 24th September; around 8:30, and by all accounts I should not be here. In fact I should be some where in Scotland on a bike making a dash for the border, taking part in another end to end cycle ride. Yet instead I’m sitting here with a laptop trying to decide what to do today. Beginning of the month everything looked to be on track for another crack at cycling the length...

Earlier this week I passed my DAS test, which means I am now able to ride any size bike (insurance costs permitting) I wish. So as a means to get my foot on the bike ladder I went out and purchased my first motorbike; a Yamaha FZ6 S2. Ok technically this is not my very first motorbike, when I turned 16 I did not go down the usual route and wait for a car, I opted to get on the road early and my...

Yesterday I had my last lesson on the CB500 with Ian over at Excel Rider Training. It started at 9:30 in the morning with my test booked for 13:30 that afternoon. To be honest it was a long day and as it went on my nerves were getting worse, have not felt like this for a quite a while; well since my driving test. I knew my Achilles heal would be the U-Turn having slam dunked the bike twice on the...

In the last 24 hours or so details of Canon’s replacement for the 30D has been unveiled. It started with Amazon ‘accidentally’ putting the page live of their site, then counter details were released across the tubes. I for one use Digital Photography Review as my source of all things Photography based, so when I see it there I start believing. Whoot! Given that I only upgraded camera body in the...

Online cycle shop Wiggle are running a competition at the moment where they are giving away a full Shimano XT groupset. All you have to do is tell them why you dersve it over all overs. Here is my excuse: I think I deserve a new XT groupset as my bike needs one badly and I’ve begged the other half but I can’t buy anything new until she has her wisdom teeth out. So I’m having to ride around using...

Have you noticed the amount of cycling paths and lanes that are appearing all other the place? Wel they are popping up everywhere in an effort my the government and local authorities to get use to get out and use a bike more often and leave the car at home. Even in Sudbury on a new housing estate there have been special lanes made for cyclists, which is great, I love the fact that us cyclists are...

This post is more of a congratulation post for Lucy than anything else; on Sunday she rode her first 100miles! Now let me explain how this happened… A few months back Colin asked if I was interested in riding in this years Tour de Tendering, a charity bike ride based around the Tendering area. Being the person I am I jumped at the idea, but then promptly forgot all about it. Last Thursday at the...

It feels like my left arm has been surgically removed… no wait it’s still there, turns out that it is just my phone that is broken, but it does come across like a missing limb. When I got into the office the other morning I plugged my 6 month old Sony Ericsson K800i into the computer for it’s daily sync and charge. Once completed I unplugged the phone but it did not restart into normal phone mode....

I logged into Flickr and noticed I had one of those little alert messages. The message was to warn me that my Pro account was about to expire. Wow, I never realised that 12 months had passed already. The Flickr Pro account is by far a great investment, at sub $25 for unlimited photo storage it is money well spent in my books. Sign me up for another...

Busting a move through my RSS feeds led me over to Michael’s site and his recent post about the use; or rather miss-use of HDR. If in doubt about HDR try here, but it is essentially a method to capture a better picture using a higher dynamic range of colours; hence the name. HDR photography has always intrigued me and the process involved is very much a true skill. But as rightly pointed out by...

Follow these simple steps: Go to www.google.co.uk Click on maps Click on get directions Go from “Atlanta” to “Paris, France” Scroll down in the directions to number 22 Now that is being optimistic! Thanks for the heads up...

On a quiet Sunday morning I was going through my photo library and uploading the ones that got left behind only to find that Flickr Uploader has been updated. Version 2.3 is now a universal binary and among other things offers growl support. There is also the ability to rate the content via a range of filters. Handy. Grab an update at the tools page of...

Last night was the final straw, I am now a complete geek. I had my shopping delivered from web to door! I will be honest I’m not a big fan of grocery shopping, it is so mundane. Added to this I am slowly developing a phobia of the local Tesco’s store; I’m fine in Waitrose, in fact I love going there. But apart from an organic soft cheese spread Waitrose do not have much in the way of sandwich...

Nope your browser is not playing tricks and worse still my site is not yet borked. The reason for the very minimal look to the site is today is annual CSS Naked Day. Dustin set up the idea behind the CSS Naked Day the other year, which I think I took part in if I remember correctly, anyway the idea is too stripe all the CSS from your web site and display your bare code to the world. This is...

My legs are just beginning to ease up again, it’s been a while since I’ve pulled out that many miles but the Witham Westerley Audax was a blast and a great way to get back on the bike. For those cyclists; or even those who or not, an Audax is an event like no other in the world of cycling. There is no clock to race against, no points for first place (just bragging rights) but an enormous level...

I have done it! I spent a day without any computer/interweb interactivity! My plan this Easter week end was to try and distance myself from a computer screen for at least a small period of time. It just so happened to be around 36 hours and man it felt great for doing so. I love my time on the computer and trawling the tubes for new information, my recent addiction to Twitter has made this even...

I know deep down Lucy thinks of me as a geek. And why not, I’m always messing about with computers or the latest web craze and technology. Yet since she has been working in the States I think she is slowly coming round to my way of thinking. When she returned from her last visit she had actually taken some photo’s and wanted to share them; so she set up a Flickr account. Since then she has adopted...

I’m not sure if this is right or not? Lucy flew off to the States first thing Sunday morning, it is now Wednesday morning; I have run out of washing up liquid! This concerns me as I have either been acting like a responsible adult and doing the washing up on a daily basis. Or I have confused the Fairy liquid with the orange squash and now blow bubbles every time I burp. Think it is safe to say I’m...

Yesterday the tubes were alive with the news of Coda, the new application from Panic. Coda is an attempt at an ‘all in one’ application containing all the tools for the development of a web page. Currently I use a combination of TextMate, CSSEdit and Transmitthat seem to fill most needs, but what if I could have all that power and only need load up one application? Well I downloaded the 15 trial...

First off sorry for the language, in the nigh on 3 years that I’ve been running this blog I have never used such language but what has happened got to me so much that I think it warrants it. This morning I came out to my car to find that some scum bag had reversed into it damaging the front bumper. The damage is not serious but it has removed the paint down to the plastic which will require a...

This morning I woke to find that Rasmussen was no longer yellow jersey leader of this years Tour de France. Now it is best to point out that Rasmussen has not failed any dope tests or returned any positive results. He has been sacked by his team; Rabobank, following the confusion about his location regarding his missed out of race drug tests. At first I was pleased to know that Contador would move...

Today saw the first day in the Pyrenees and it is now turning out to be a completely awesome tour. Since before the Tour started my money was on Alexandre Vinokourov to take the yellow; Robbie McEwen for the green and good old Michael Rasmussen for the polka dot. Vino deserves the tour win, for so long he has sat in the shadows of some one else and now with time against him this could have been...

Yep I’m just another web2.0 sheep; following the herd and signing up to the latest trend site and social networking community. If you check your radar the current must have invites are for Plasq Skitch and Pownce. Plasq Skitch enables you to captre and share screen grabs and images with ease Pownce is the new social networking site that looks to take some of Twitters thunder. Thanks to Luxury Luke...

The other month I wrote aboutthe condition of the local cycle paths and more importantly the plans to change the Highway Code in respect of the use of these paths. Well I signed the petition to campaign against it and it turned out to be a fruitful exercise; check out the response You recently signed a petition asking the Prime Minister to “Listen to cyclists and not approve the revised highway...

This year’s Tour is off to a great start, especially given last years mess. The Prolouge was off to a great start, Britain’s hope was in the form of David Millar and Bradley Wiggins. Perosnally I did not think that either of them would be wearing the yellow at the end of the day but I really did not think that Fabian Cancellara would smash the field wide open by 15 seconds! Stage 1 deffinately...

Born this morning at ten past ten, Francesca Emily Chamberlin weighed in at 7lb 4oz. Welcome to the world, it is most definitely a better place...

The idea of taking part in another end2end cycle ride has always been at the back of my mind. In fact Dave did talk of it after last year’s ride but due to work commitments and the like it was quickly forgotten. Now that there is a bit of a cycling buzz back in the air with the Tour currently taking place the thought of trying again is strong. So strong in fact that we have set a date to work too;...

On Sunday the 7th July the Tour de France will start her in old Blighty; the prologue taking place around London with Stage 1 on Sunday starting in London and heading 190km down to Canterbury. Last Sunday was the turn of the dedicated, serious or down right sucidical cyclists out there in the world. The British Cyclosportive was the chance for every day cyclists to have a go at the very same stage...

Say it is not true? Please, just say it was one of those April Fool’s joke but a couple of months late. Yet given the speed the Astana bus left last night you can only presume that Vinokourov has a big fight on his hands trying to prove he is not guilty of blood doping. Either that or he comes clean and disappears from the cycling scene as another broken dream. I added this picture to my Flickr...

Yesterday was the second part of my motorcycle career; the Theory Test. The Theory Test is something I never had to complete when learning to drive a car but due to the changes in the law on motorcycle tests I had to take one before I’m allowed out on ‘big’ bikes. The test is taken in two parts; the first part is a section on general Highway code knowledge and takes the form of multiple choice...

Congratulations to Lucy! This morning she passed her driving test. It was her second attempt and only scored a total of 4 minor faults was a very good pass. Her first attempt last month probably should have been a pass as she was only failed due to a ‘judgement’ error, not leaving enough room for a parked car on a busy two way street. Find me a driver who does these days. Anyway she has passed now...

Last night I recieved an email from British Cyclosportive regarding the UK etape Tour thingie I’m taking part in on July 1st. They have put together all the riders and now issued numbers; I’m rider 1394, with co-pilot Viv being...

I finally have my phone back. It’s only been just over a week but those were some long days. I think the most missed feature was the camera, I can do without the phone calls, I can also just about survive without texting updates to Twitter but I really did miss having a camera in my pocket. The good news is that o2 did update and flash the newest firmware on the phone whilst they were at...

Yesterday was the first part of my motorcycling adventure; the CBT. CBT (Compulsary Basic Training) is a standard you must achieve before you can ride a motorbike on the road in the UK. Thanks to Ian and Ivan at Excel Rider Training who made the day; despite the weather! The next step to to practice my theory and hazard perception tests, then book a theory and see where we go. Until then I could...

Last week Lucy passed her driving test and it looked like the end of the L plates. A lass this was not the case because I have been bitten by the two wheel bug: and bitten quite hard. It all started a couple of years ago with the purchase of a road bicycle. This started an obsession with thin slick tyres and balancing round corners at higher than average speeds. The knock on effect of this was my...

Today is my younger brother’s; Sean’s birthday. He turned 26. After all the usual stuff you get for birthday’s these days he was given the best possible news. His partner Sarah had her 20 week scan and it looks to be he will be having a little baby daughter later in the year. I guess congratulations are in order, on both accounts. Happy birthday bro and good luck with your new journey into...

I have slowly been growing more and more addicted to Twitter. At first I was not convinced, I signed up in the early stages and had a few ‘twitterings’ but I just could not see the benifit of the service. For those not in the know, Twitter is a service that let’s you share what you’re doing right now on the web via various formats; web, IM, phone and SMS. You might be thinking where is the fun in...

A major, unique event in the cyclosportive season, following the route of stage 1 of the Tour de France on its historic UK Grand Depart, the event will take up to 5000 riders on an epic 120 mile journey from beautiful and historic Greenwich out of London and through the Kent countryside to finish in Canterbury, in the shadow of the city’s ancient cathedral. A must-do, once-in-a-lifetime chance...

Last night the clocks went back (Dave and I were discussing this the other day, why do we even bother with this, keep it the same time all year round) which now means that the evenings are getting even lighter. It had such a lasting effect on me that I dusted off the lawn mower and hacked the grass back this afternoon. Roll on the warmer weather and some evening...

“je suis un poisson rouge” That is the limit of my French speaking skills. And I have no idea where I got that from! Yet I’ve just come back from a weekend in France and some how I managed to get food and water. Ok I was with people who have a better understanding on the language than I do. Around 4 years ago my parent’s bought a small converted barn/cottage in Northern France; just North of...

Wow, what a glorious few days the East of England has had. Yesterday it read 18c and today was about 16c. It could not have come at a better time, I’ve finished my new stealth bike and managed to get a sneaky ride in this afternoon before the sun sank behind the horizon. I will be putting a run down of the bike together; honest the other window is open with a draft in there. Of course now that...

Just after Christmas I picked up one of the new Canon Selphy printers; well I have all these photo’s and nothing gets done with them. After the week end in France I decided to print out some of the better (well in my mind) snaps. But after sending 20 odd pictures to the printer I noticed that the colours looked rich, too rich. The blues were eye burning and the detail was lost in the lowlights and...

I have upgraded my Canon 300D to a 30D. The other week end in France my existing Canon camera; a 300D (Digital Rebel) started having a bit of a flip out. It would not focus and the shutter was not firing. To which I started looking around at an upgrade, just in case the worse ever happened. The options on the table was obviously a Canon, I have a few Canon AF lenses now, but what body; the new kid...

I think it was way back last month when I first heard the spec list for the new, revised Canon 1D camera. Engadget have finally got their hands on one. Whilst I can see the point of the Live Preview, for me it just shouts compact camera. The feature has got it’s benifits in the field but when you pay over £4,000 for a DSLR would you really use it the same way as the £30 Argos...

You most probably remember track cycling from the days of Chris Boardman and that ’bike’. Things have moved on from since then but it is good to know that Great Britain is still able to put up a good fight in the UCI World standings and on Saturday I got the chance to watch the action live. Fellow cycle club members Robin and Roger organised the tickets and a couple of cars to take a group of...

Rob called me this morning to let me know that he got wind of a recall notice on all SRAM Force brakesets. Apparently the titanium used in the mounting bolts is not right which can lead to failure of the unit, I checked the SRAM website and yes everything is going back. Just take a wild guess as to what brakes I’m fitting on my stealth project (more details on this later) you got it; Force! Oh...

Last night I had another quick trip round the block and so far it has tipped my total just over the 100km mark. I’m happy with my progress so far, I’ve not been out much in the last week or so but this is more to do with a busy schedule rather than a lack of...

Mental note, when you next wash your bike make sure you leave enough time for the saddle to dry. Because sitting at work with a wet ass is not the most pleasant...

It was brought to my attention that I was in the local papers again yesterday. The Suffolk Free Press is a local paper that sums up all news and events locally; quite a good read actually. At the week end CCS held their anual prize giving dinner to which Rob, Dave and I were awarded the rider of the year trophy for our End2End ride. Also attending the dinner was sports reported for the Suffolk...

There is not much that you could say about Mr. K J Chamberlin, go on you can google him and despite the fact that the Applegate directory have him listed as a business there is not much to find. Yet he has been the most important male figure in my life and I get to call him dad. Today marks his 60th birthday and by all accounts it does appear to be a rather large milestone in the scheme of...

Ok it’s Friday, in fact it’s Friday evening and I really have that great feeling inside. Of course you always get that feeling when you leave work ready for the week end but there is an extra reason for my buzzy’ness… Right now Lucy should be boarding a plane in Raleigh on her way back home. It has been a slow last two weeks but I am really looking forward to seeing Lucy again, gonna be a great...

There have been warnings of severe weather and snow over the last 24 hours, I’m surprised there was not a mass panic with people buying up all the last Lima beans at Tesco’s; just in case. This morning I woke expecting to see a slight dusting on the ground but not much else, I was not disapointed. So in the spirit of things I decided to cycle into work, this was the best decision ever, look at the...

I’ve just realised if it was not for birthdays this place would be very quiet. The last few posts have all been about birthdays, but this years is full of important dates; my dad’s 60th, my 30th, a few 25’s a handful of 21’s and a 10th! Hopefully I’ll rack my brains and try and come up with something interesting to write in-between the birthday...

This week end marked a significant page in the diary. Saturday was Lucy’s brother; Ant, his 30th birthday. Of course this meant there would be some celebrating in only a way that Ant knows, too much beer but no one really expected an X-Rated lap dance with a cement mixer. To kick the party off with a touch of class it was formal wear only, Ant of course went one step further and donned a white...

Over the last few days I have been working on a new web application for the Intranet at work. The idea of the app was to able to input and store quotation requests from potential customers. Part of this information collected is the postal address of the client, to which I decided it would be easier to have the UK counties as a drop down box; saves the spelling mistakes as not many people live in...

Lets be honest the Nike+ thing is a fitness for geeks tool. Yet why is it sooooo compeling? I took part in my first run on Saturday night and all of a sudden I was top of the leader board for the current challenge over at the Zero2Hero Locker Room. However in my over enthusisastic why I pushed it too hard on the first day, then followed this up with 30miles on the bike Sunday morning and now my...

Come on Newsgator I’ve been getting this error for the last couple of days now. It would appear that they have some dodgey java scripts over at the Newsgator online service which is preventing the display of feeds. Every time I load up the page it will pause, then the handy little Firefox debugger lets me know that a script is dragging it’s heels. No matter what option I pick I get the same...

Mozilla announced the other day the next release in the all in one package; Seamonkey. The software includes just about everything you need to get started on an adventure into the interweb; web browser, email, IRC client even an html editor to get you building web...

This morning started with a defiant low, I closed the front door on Lucy knowing that I would not see her again for another two weeks. Lucy is on her way to North Carolina on business for the next 14 days to try and help sort out the partner company in the USA. She has been whisked away before but so far it has always been during the week, never at a week end. This helped as I never had time to...

How do you do it Channel 4? How do you make me change my mind and watch an episode of Big Brother? Since about the first ever Big Brother I have never shown an interest in the program, I personally think of it as a complete waste of time and only extraverts and fame seekers need apply. So it going goes without saying that Celebrity Big Brother is even worse, a group of forgotten headliners try and...

Is is just a fade or will this be the start of a fitness regime? Michael over at Binary Bonsai started this off with his Zero2Hero idea; get running and get fit. I knew that since the Autumn I have been letting myself go and some time soon I would need to get back into shape. It just seemed like too good a opportunity to miss so I jumped on the bandwagon and decided to shape up. Last week end I...

It is January which means only one thing MacExpo! The time of year were Mr. Jobs shocks the world with just ‘one more thing’. This year there was no exception just a slight change in the proceedings. There was no last minute shocker, it was full blown shock from the outset. First up we have AppleTV or iTV as it was nick named. This is a clever streaming media device that will sit under your hi def...

It is that time of year again, the time when some of the main distributers get together and try to sell there wares to the local dealers. Last year the event was in it’s infancy and as such not a vast number of exhibitors or visitors. This year it has really stepped up a gear. From the change in location; Whittlebury Hall is by far a better choice to the outskirts of Birmingham! But also the...

Today Apple announced the release of coloured iPod Shuffle’s. The Shuffle is in my mind an astounding piece of design, now available in a selection of colours will only make it a better seller. I just love that Orange...

Christmas is over and the New Year is in full swing and if I were to be brutally honest, I can not wait to look forward and put everything behind me. Last month Lucy’s mum; Jacqui was diagnosed with breast cancer which was a complete shock to the family. Needless to say the hospital and all groups have moved like lightening to get some support and start treatment. However it did put all festive...

It would appear the the sport of professional cycling has imploded over recent weeks. Every day greets us with a new press release stating a riders admission to doping, a team manager stepping down or a contract being terminated. So what do we as cyclists do? Well my first task is to try and defend my sport and hobby to the football fraternaty at work, which is easier said than done. All the...

Talk about a long time coming. Looking back the last time I sat down with digits at keyboard was over three years ago, that is quite a while in Internet time. Well since that time I’ve changed jobs, bought a house and started a family. Maybe taking time out is good for the soul, it has helped me. However I have missed having that little outlet for my thoughts, the online scratch book so to speak....

Total cycling commuting miles for March:...

As the World crashes into 2009 I dust off my keyboard. Nope not really I’m out somewhere enjoying myself but it felt about right to post a little note just to say have a good New...

That’s right after a two year break I’m back on my bike and taking on the UK again. In 2006 I cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats, in 2008 I’m take the south bound road and cycling from John O’Groats to Lands End. This time around I’m hoping to raise money for the Breakthough Breast Cancer charity following on from my own personal encounters with the disease. Please feel free to donate any...

Wow looking back at my site the last article I wrote was nearly 4 months ago. Damn the time flies when your on the cross roads of life and life changing decisions mean you have to take a break and access where your going. So if you know me or have followed this blog you will no doubt know that I work as a sales development manager for Oscar Products; a small local packaging wholesaler....

If your lucky you have an office instead of a cubical. If your really lucky you have an office that is well looked after and painted in some subtle tones to inspire a relaxing working environment. If your me you end up in a studio with a bright yellow wall behind you and a bright blue to your right. This does not provide a perfect environment for the Creative Services crack team that is Jim Brown...

James Toseland is the current World Super Bike Champion, and now the best British bet at winning the MotoGP. Think of him as the motorbike version of Lewis Hamilton. Now I will level and say I have not always been up to date with my knowledge of motorcycling, so put me up against a die hard fan of Mr. Toseland and honestly could not answer questions about his beginning’s in trial bike riding. Or...

Version 2.4 was skipped and the WordPress development team jumped straight from 2.3 to 2.5, and what a move it was. They have even updated the WordPress site to match. To be honest this feels more like a full digit upgrade than a point improvement. But this could be down to the visuals more than anything. The admin panel has had a complete make over, and whilst it is getting some stick and...

How long has this show been running? I remember I first started watching series 2 a few years ago. In fact the first episode I saw was the beginning of series 2, with Desmond going about his life in the hatch. At the time I had Sky television and so could watch the show, yet I feltlost confused as there were references to the first series I did not get, there were also too many questions needing...

Over the last few days I having been bringing back my old Vaio laptop from the dead. I purchased the laptop many moons ago, before my adventure into the world of Apple. But once I had found utopia with OSX the little Sony got put away some where and forgotten about. Meanwhile Microsoft have seen sense and 180’d on their views and IE8 will be the first fully functional standards aware MS web...

It feels like ages since I’ve put together one of those more personal posts were I go on about stuff that no one else really understands. But today has been one of those crazy lazy Sundays that has left me feeling quite content. Which is strange for tomorrow morning Lucy is once again off on business, this time she is only heading over to France and only for a week. But in light of that we decided...

Yesterday saw the release of Ghosts I-IV from NIN. Not only was this release not really publicised but it was also following in a similar track of Radio head and their In Rainbows album. Not quite a ‘pay what you feel’ option but some seriously price reduced DRM free chunage. Being quite a closet NIN fan I wanted to download this, but I decided to go with the free 9 track starter pack and if...

I woke this morning with the plan on spending some time updating mine and a few other sites I have hosted on my Dreamhost account. But after firing up Coda it reported it could not connect via ftp. So I decided to try standard http, only to find my (and others) down. Off to the Dreamhost site where I find a support blog with this message. Turns out they are moving the cluster my site is hosted on...

For the last couple of evenings when I have been out running round Sudbury I have noticed an abundance of other runners and joggers out there. On one run I actually saw the same person twice! Once within the first 2 minutes and then on the last leg. You could say that there are still plenty of people out there taking up their New Years resolutions and keeping fit. Personally I like to think that...

Jon Hicks has been ’fiddling’ with his site; his words not mine. If you take a visit over there you might notice some good looking heading tags. Or you might not. Why is that? Jon has decided to target specific fonts in the CSS. Normally when declaring fonts in a tag you would go some thing along the lines of a couple of system fonts and then a font family: body { font-family: “Arial Black”,...

Veerle started a competition last week with the goal to sum up what you thought graphic design is all about. I started off enjoying looking through the Flickr pool for the submissions until at the week end whilst sitting with young Oscar I had a quick idea, the result was not really graphic design per say but it was creative. Then sitting there the other evening I thought more about what I...

I spent my lunch hour reading through Mike’s brilliantly well written article about the differences between the proposals for both html 5 and xhtml 2.0. Normally something like this would not have engaged my full attention but recently I have really been trying to touch up on my standards; for reasons that will get explained later. But reading through this I found myself already seeing the code...

Let’s be honest, since its launch back in March 2007 it has not exactly been as big as can be expected. Yet I have always had a little flame for the media box that is AppleTV and often found myself stopping by the Apple store with my mouse hovering over the ‘Add To Basket’ button. Earlier this month Uncle Steve decided to have another go at the AppleTV market with Take Two. A software update to...

This is the traditional ‘first’ post of the year, you know the ones where we all discuss our plans for the coming year. Looking back at 2007 #Section titled Looking back at 2007On a personal level 2007 has been a bit of a mixed up year, full of ups and downs with the odd twist. The highlight of the year without doubt had to be tv birth of by niece Francessa but that did not happen until July so...

You have read that right, I am without iPhone. My beloved little gadget; the third arm I have learnt to live with; the grail of all Apple products has broken. It all started with a bike ride. The phone was in my pocket, as I do nearly every day, yet this time when I went to retrieve my phone I noticed it was turned off. I hit the ‘home’ button to check and sure enough nothing. So I tried the power...

Step back about 4 years and that is when I first purchased my Marin Wolf Ridge. Since then it has been my ‘knobbly’ tired bike and the bike of choice for commuting and general use. In that time it has clocked up several thousand miles and only causing one little problem. Yet on Friday when I went to the shed to remove my steed I noticed the handle bars were loose. Not just loose, the header plate...

Rather than getting a white Christmas Lucy and I ended up with a washed out Christmas. It all started just after the turkey feast on Christmas day, Lucy was feeling a bit strange and so when to lie down. Two hours later she had a temperature and the shivers. Two hours after that I went down. We ended up cutting the family plans early and retreating home. To which the next four days were spent in a...

A good way to start the year. Reached my first Nike+ milestone (maybe I would have reached it sooner had I not stopped running during the...

There is something to be said for trying new ideas and keeping everything fresh. But there is also something to be said for actually sitting down and finishing something off; something like a WordPress theme. Exit the Black theme, enter the White version. OK so naming stuff was never really my strong point. I got a bit tired of a dark site, for most it really works for me I wanted something...

This morning on the way into work I was listening to news and there was an article that raised my eyebrow; much to the confusion of the other road users. A recent article stated: There are warnings that hundreds of thousands of people are at risk from losing their homes because they can’t keep up their mortgage payments. Debt-help groups say banks are lending five or six times applicants...

It would appear that my Mighty Mouse has decided to take the Mighty out of it’s functions. The roller ball will no longer scroll down! Everything else works fine with the thing, scrolling up and sideways. The buttons still function and it looks in good order, I can only guess it has jammed up with fluff or something. Yet can you clean it? Hell no, there does not appear to be any way of opening the...

I have been trying to set up Chris’ latest offering to the WordPress community; the LifeStream plugin. Everything looks to be working apart from my Twitter feed, I just can;t seem to get it to show up. I’ve run the feed through FeedBurner, along with other feeds but no...

This morning I had to take a quick trip into Ipswich and the results where some what preplexing. It has been a little over a week since the incidents started happening in and arround Ipswich and even with two people in custody there is a strange feeling to the place. Police cars are still surrounding the Portman Road/Portman Walk area and as you drive along you realise just how present the Police...

Seb Rogers, the Mountain Bike photographer has released a screensaver of some his work. Both screensavers include some of my favourite pics as well as a clock and date function, so you can kid yourself that staring at mountain bike pictures serves some useful purpose. Enjoy! Check out the article on Seb’s blog. The only problem is that at present it is PC only, Mac version arriving shortly. And...

Lucy has gone away for a few days on some work related training thing, so I’m left to my own devices. What do I do for three days? How can I pass the time? Just me, the Xbox and some killer games. Time to catch up with some serious gaming. First up we have Splinter Cell Double Agent; bit old hat now I know but I’ve not really had the time to really check this out. Next up there is Tony Hawk’s...

Last night I downloaded the trial version of Aperture to test out and see what it is all about. For those of you in the dark Aperture is Apple’s ‘Pro’ photo application, think of Aperture as what Final Cut Pro is to iMovies for iPhoto. It installed fine and everything looks great but I am totally at a loss now on how to manage my library. Before iPhoto would take care of everything for me and I...

For those of you lucky enough to be subscribed to this site’s feed; I use the term lucky loosely there, will notice that the intervals between posts have been some what slow. You might also notice that my Flickr feed has been rather bare of late as well. There has been a very good reason for this; work, work and a bit more work! For those of you that don’t know I’m actually a fairly simple...

I finally received my birthday gift from Lucy. The new 2nd generation iPod Shuffle. First thoughts you get when you see the new Shuffle is “how small!?!” No matter how many pictures you see on the internet or read in books nothing really prepares you for just how small this thing really is. Last year I treated Lucy to a first generation Shuffle and was shocked as to the size of that but looking at...

It would appear that crazy motor tuners JRD ar planning on putting the knife to the VW Beetle. About time too! JRD are planning on kitting the Beetle out with the HPA 3.2 litre V6 lump, to give you an idea on the performance of this engine check this clip out of a HPA tuned RSI. Check out the full story over at Left Lane...

Recently Apple have updated their webmail client. For many weeks they have been promising a sweet looking web based version of the popular mail.app. But why can you not make so I can use it! At work I run Windows2000, all updated up to the hilt. With a copy of FireFox2 as my portal to web. I point my address bar at www.mac.com, log in with my details and up pops my lovely pretty webmail portal....

It is a little bit later than planed but here is the new theme/style for shibbyonline. Code named Black it is the first theme I have created using a dark background, those of you who have followed my themes and designed will know that it is mainly light colours that float my boat. There are still little bugs to work out and I’m in the process of writing new archive and about pages but hopefully...

Today is the Autumn reboot. Sites from around the world will release there new look, hopefully completely standard compliant, with a view to gain interest and a better view of their sites. I’m gutted that this time around I have just not had the time to take part. I had every intention to have another go at the reboot but due to work load and changes in job I’ve been totally snowed under; well I’m...

I was not aware of this but my Xbox360 actually blogs! If you are connected to the internet (most 360 gamers are due to the Live service offered my Microsoft) then every time you fire up your machine it records what you are doing. This information is obviously handy for keeping your gamer profile updated but the people over at 360Voice have come up with another use; getting you Xbox to write a...

Yesterday I came home from work to find the power was out. My first thoughts was that Lucy had forgotten a bill or something. Then it turned out all the houses in our little block were without power. We phoned the electricity board and were told that a explosion had occurred and they had to take the power down for Health and Safety reasons. Not a problem, except for the fact that no body was about...

Move over Blue Screen Of Death I now fear the Red Ring. I always thought a Red Ring Of Death was an over active take away condition. To my miss guided truth it turns out to be the reason I can not play Splinter Cell Double Agent. Friday was a bad enough day at work, so harsh that I decided to treat myself to a copy of the new Splinter Cell game; Double Agent on the way home. Because Lucy does not...

Seven whole days. 168 hours. 10080 little minutes since my last cigarette. Last Friday morning I decided to try kicking the habit (again). Inspired by Thomas over at The Undersigned, nothing to do with not being able to ride my bike without feeling my lungs jump out of my chest!, I went out and purchased the usual nicotine replacement products and set about trying to quit smoking. I did not post...

I’ve been Woody’ed! Cast aside and relegated to the bottom of the toy box, left to collect dust and be ignored until one day I end up in an antiques fair. Let me explain the story. Dave (aka Goose) and Serena took a holiday in France during the summer and since then they have been looking into purchasing a property out there with plans of retiring from the modern life. Maybe just watch Russell...

I’ve read the books, tried the examples and tested little known gems of CSS but then you read something that makes you sit there and realise that no matter what you do you have only scratched the surface. Molly Holzschlag teaches us about another one of those lesser used CSS rules; display: run-in; that really could be put to better use. But why is this not supported by Firefox? It would appear to...

This week end the excel center in London will play host to the 2006 Cycleshow. Starting on today the 6th and running through till Sunday the 8th you will be able to see the latest news and products to some of the industries larger names and see first hand what will be out next year. I however managed to blagg a ticket to yesterday’s pre-event trade show. Of course I did not have to sign up to take...

We all know the age old theory; give enough monkies enough typewriters and eventually they will write the complete works of Shakespear. Well I guess it could be the same for current day, give enough users enough html editiors and eventually they will create a valid web page. Dan is proving the point over at Satansden, well done and keep it...

After many phone calls and countless disagreements with T-Mobile I have finally upgraded my phone. More importantly O2 have upgraded my phone and until T-Mobile learn to take care of existing customers and offer them the same deals as the new customer I will not be going back! Anyway, I now have a K800i handset. Why? The phone boasts a 3.2mp camera. Nope that’s it, that’s the only reason I got...

With only a couple of days left in September I have been quietly trying to construct my pink theme for shibbyonline. Natalie has already set the mood, a very nice version of her site; not as pink as thought it would be but the message is very clear. I have been keeping an eye on the ever growing list of sites over at Pink For October and so far I’m really looking forward to seeing people’s own...

Enter the latest 360 offering from THQ; Saints Row. Set in the fictional city of Stilwater, Saints Row thrusts the player into a violent gang war between 4 rival gangs fighting for supremacy. Volition has taken the tried and true open world formula and has given it a much needed next-gen face lift, offering unparalleled customization as well as robust multiplayer over Xbox Live…a first for open...

shibbyonline will be taking a lighter shade of red for the month of October. In support of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month this site will be sporting a pink hue in an effort to try and raise support and knowledge for this disease. Whilst I have not been affected directly by this, a very fond co-worker contracted breast cancer and subsequently passed away. If you wish to find out more...

When I opened the curtains the weather was less than perfect, it looked like the first fog for a while. Yet little did I know what today had in store. On the ride into work the skies were clearing up and things looked a bit brighter. At work I remembered the deal, two big deliveries were moved to Monday morning, no escaping it I was stuck in the warehouse. Then Rob calls, desperate to get hold of...

Lost, the program about a group of people who survive a plane crash and live on an island. Sounds quite a simple idea really, yet there are some confusing things, the hatch, the others and polar bears! Last night saw the UK saw the airing of the finale to Season 2. Only a few words… WTF!?! I’ve only been watching the program since the begining of season two, I missed the boat on the first lot....

Apple will be holding another event entitled ‘It’s Showtime’ This can only indicate a media orientated spin on things, rumors are flying around like mad and are describing things like new iPods; possible video, new Nano’s, an iPhone, media related iMac news and all the like. I think it is about time I updated my battered and beaten 4th Gen iPod lets just wait and see what is...

Yesterdays Apple event was not quite what a lot of people expected. There was no AirPort video or updates to the MacBookPro, instead it was all about Apple’s flagship media products; iPods and iTunes. Nano #Section titled NanoThe Nano has been totally updated. Now available with aluminum cases and a selection of colours and a maximum of 8gb flash memory. To me this is just following the Mini...

Nope I’m not talking about the new Lego Star Wars game; however that is awesome and I will be putting some form of wording together for it later. I’m talking about the new Sram road groupset; Force. Sram have long been a competitor to Shimano in the the world of MTB gearing. The  groupset being in my mind one of the best looking bits of kit available. But so far they only concentrated their...

It all start off with Jon’s wallpaper, it all got a bit out of hand from there. Why not jump on the band...

You may notice a couple of changes around here. I’ve been working on a few different ideas for the metadata. The main one being the photo album page. For many month’s I’ve used the WordPress FAlbum plugin for displaying photographs from my Flickr account. However I found this a bit bloated, it adds lots of code and calls on the server from within WordPress. I wanted to find a simpler approach to...

It was a year ago to the day that a group of ex Grabor employees all met together at the Boat House in Sudbury. So what better way to mark a year on but to organise another meeting. I was not certain what to expect, not really sure what a lot of the ex workers were doing with themselves these days. Added to the fact I was not feeling too hot I actually wanted to pass on the day. Regardless Lucy...

Testing Testing One Two Writer The other month Microsoft released Live Writer, an application to enable the end user to write blog entries from the desktop. The idea is a nice one and so far it does fit into the whole Microsoft Office application suite very well, however with is once again a piece of Microsoft software, to which my only use is at work. Not bad come to think of it as I can sit here...

Wild Wales Challenge The Wild Wales challenge is an event held on the August Bank Holiday Monday every year in the village/town of Bala in North Wales. It is a one day event that takes in some 90 miles of North Wales. In recent years the event has attracted some 600 riders, not bad given the size of the sports centre where you start, yet this event is not a race, it is as it claims a CHALLENGE....

This should hopefully be a ‘come back’ style of post, as you will know I have been some what pre-occupied with other things and the whole blogging side of my life was put on hold. Yet what better to kick start your progress than a new theme! I present to you: Frost. It is still not 100% complete but over the next few days it should be tweaked to a point of being workable. The second more important...

Frost is actually named after ex warehouse man; Colin Frost. The idea was to keep a simple and clean white/grey scheme to the design. As per most of my design ideas now I wanted to keep the main articles separate from the ‘sidenotes’ or secondary articles. Frost began it’s life back in June, with a few sketches on my notepad. Next step was to rough out a visualisation of the design (pictured...

If you are a regular you will notice a complete lack of activity. If your a new visitor; don’t worry you have not missed much! To be honest I’m not sure what has happened to me or where my motivation has disappeared to but it has definitely gone somewhere, even my Flickr account has been very quiet. Since last month I have reached one of those ‘crossroads in your life’ stages. You know the ones...

This morning I went over to LifecycleUK to see Rob, I was not on a mission to spend more money on my bike, in fact I was selling him some carrier bags! But whilst I was there Rob called me into the back so show me something special, that is a bmc TT01 Time Trial frame. You will see one under Flloyd Landis tomorrow in the Tour de France prologue. Apparently that frame is the only one in the UK and...

It’s official, next year we will try the end to end ride in 4 days! The knee injury is only just calming down and the doctor said I can start riding again yet the talk of knocking a day off the ride has been spoken about since we got back. Last night Dave came round for a chat and a catch up and to drop the bombshell; “do you want to go for 4 days?” Now it might be fact that I was watching Tom...

Today the Tour de France enters the first mountain stage; stage 10. So far the race has been a strange affair, the big names are missing, the sprints seem to be at a loss and unorganised there is no team controlling the race or setting the pace. The result of all this is that it is a pretty much open board, you have had some unexpected names at the top with some very strange results. But the best...

Kyle has finally done it. One Red Paper Clip One Year One House Kyle has, over the last year successfully traded one red paper clip for one house. Not only that but he gets to mayor for the day. Read his story on the one red paperclip...

Floyd Landis has won the 93rd Tour de France. The tour started off on rocky grounds with some of the top names being suspended of racing by their teams. Since then the entire race seems to have been turned on it’s head with no real structure to the teams or the race. A lot of people claimed that since Basso and Ulrich were out the tour had been handed to Landis, I was not too sure about this and...

After my fun time at PC World and a few other chores Lucy and I headed over to see an old friend; Glen. He had invited us to a BBQ (of sorts) so we arrived just before 6. Problem was Glen had planned on building some decking to have the BBQ on, so far he had only sized up one timber to drill into the wall! Despite not being dressed for the event I opted to get stuck in and help. Lucy went for the...

On Firday Lucy had to visit the local retail park to buy a camera for work. Whilst there she popped into PC World to pick up a Mighty Mouse for me. (yep my S+arck was looking a bit long in the tooth and I’ve been meaning to get a MM for a while) When I got home I opened the outer wrapping of the mouse to find a used dirty mouse inside! Some one had obviously used it, then just put a bit of heat...

The last few days the East of England has been going through a mini heat wave or something. Since about Tuesday last week the weather has just been getting hotter and hotter. Today has been the best so far, to try and catch some of the sunshine I finally got Lucy out on a bike with narrow tires, just remember to take plentty of...

Whoops! In the last couple of weeks I have really let myself slide, I’ve gone off the rails and so far I’m carving a nice little single track though the land of Unhealthy looking for some where to stop. Thats right I’ve hit the beer and smokes pretty bad lately! I blame Kevin next door, since he has found a new sense of single freedom I felt guilty for not helping him make the most of it. Plus he...

I’ve been using Flickr for a while now, the other month it went Gamma which was great as the whole UI is a lot better. But using it the other day I noticed something which got me thinking. When you upload a photo and then go to view it to link it or insert it into your blog you are given two options; the code for a link and then the url to the image, how many people noticed the text beneath...

Today saw the last day of work for Colin Frost at Oscar Products. Tomorrow he and Linda will be catching a plane and setting up a new life in Portugal. It was a bit sereal to see him drive away knowing that he was not just popping out for a sarnie. Colin was here when I started at Oscar and has helped me out no end. I’ve never really been in the whole friendly work environment before but in a...

What is it with drivers!?! I am cycling along through a local village, this village is a quiet, historic antique village with a very straight road (Long Melford for those in the know). Towards the end I look behind; seeing the car a way back, indicate right and move into the middle of the road ready to cross over. Nothing wrong with my intentions, a cyclist indicating is a strange thing anyway....

Mircosoft is to end all support for 98 and Me next week. Sorry but it looks like if you want to still recieve all those updates and fixes you had better upgrade, or if you really want you can go back to 3.11 and pretend that the ‘start’ button thing never happened. I pick 3.11...

Thats right, after a ride out in the sun yesterday my bike computer now reads 3,000 miles. Thats 3,000 miles in just under a year, not a record but not bad going for me. BTW That does not include the 800 odd miles I’ve done on my...

I’m on 25peeps.com. It was so long ago I filled in the form I forgot all about the site! I think I followed a link there from Derek at 5ThirtyOne, I completed the form and then waited. The site itself looks quite good and the idea behind it is of course another one of those simple, wish you thought of it, style. The only downside is that unfortunately sex sells, look at the highest ranking...

Sitting at work this morning when an envelope made it’s way to my desk; a letter from Mike and Debbie at Willow Tree Farm Shop donating money towards the British Heart Foundation upon completion of my trip. Given the generosity of the donation I felt compelled to mention them personally. Thank you both very much and I wish you all the best. On a side note if you are in the Cavendish/Glemsford area...

New trailer released. Need you say any...

I am now sitting in a Travel Inn in Hayle and to be honest I’m feeling a lot better than I was yesterday. It has been a long old drive just to get here and so far the weather has been great. We shot straight down to Lands End and had a photo taken, turns out the offical photographer does not start until 10 in the morning; by which time we want to be 3 hours down the road. So a bit of smooth...

To start with we made it! I am back and sitting in the kitchen but still a bit dazed and confused. Sorry for the lack of updates and when I finally get round to writing a full run down you will sort of get the picture. As I have a lot of gear to sort out and some wounds to sort I’ll just give you the abrevieated version: Day 3 was an absolute killer for me, woke up with a pain in my knee that I...

This evening I took a trip to the local PC World to pick up some blank DVD’s for a project, I also wanted to have a look at some microphones for Skype. Ended up walking out with a Wacom tablet instead. Strange I thought. A graphics tablet has been on my list for a while but I’ve never got round to getting one, until I found this one sitting there on special offer. It would have been wrong to...

Saturday Lucy and I went for a trip back to her home town; Stamford to see Ant and Charlotte and new born Oscar.Of course the big part of the trip was to see Oscar and do the usual ’ohhhhhh’ ’ahhhhhhh’ and other cute noises. But whilst we were there is was also the annual fete for Stamford. So Ant and I tried to work out the pushchair and decide what attachments would be required and set off down...

I purchased my Epson RX500 over a year ago, still not sure why but at the time it looked the part. I think I needed the scanner part more than the printer but it turned out I never really used it. Last night Serena came round with some photo’s from the trip, the missing ones with us crossing the finish line, but these were in 35mm format! I remembered that the Epson had a facility for scanning...

This morning I took a quick trip to the doctors. I’ve been suffering from a few aches and pains since the ride and thought it best have a quick check up. The main concern was a knee problem that stems from an old basketball injury. But it also turned out I have tendonitis in my ankles! The correction for both the knee and ankle problem is one which is so severe that I can hardly type it: Don’t...

How cool is this? The Pong | Clock is now shipping and despite the price you know you want one, hell I would have one in each room, especially the bathroom. Telling the time has never been so much...

Congratulations to Ant and Charlotte; Oscar John Fredrick Duckmanton was born this morning at 4:16. He tipped the scales at 6lb 3oz and every one is doing well. Well done both and welcome to the world Oscar. Once you all get home and settled Lucy and I will make a visit; until then take care. I never thought I would use the ‘newborn’ tag in...

I’ve been back for two days now and and I’m struggling to get back into the groove. Yesterday I was not really up to much so I spent the day trying to upload some photo’s of the trip and cleaning my bike. Today I finally sat down at my desk (home version) to find a pile of post and an in-box full of emails. The main task for the day however was to finish of uploading the photo’s. Lucy got a bit...

Pre-race favourites Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso are out of the Tour de France after both were named in an anti-doping investigation in Spain BBC SPORT | Other Sport… | Cycling | Ullrich and Basso out of Le Tour Well that really changes the race, time to rethink where my money...

Yesterday was the longest day in th UK, whilst it does mean that there was the maximum amount of daylight it also means that it is all downhill from here on out. The nights will be drawing in, the days colder and nights darker. I’ve still not fired up the BBQ yet this year and it’s the end of...

Thanks to a shutter happy Lucy on the end to end ride and a overly popular Time Trial season I nearly maxed out my monthly bandwidth at...

Well it is now that last day. We set of from Avimore at 7:25am in the bright but slightly cooler morning. We are all rearing to go as today should be the shortest days riding. Everyone is in good sprits as we all had a giggle at Dave’s expense as we learnt that his bum was shaved so that plasters could be put over his blisters, ouch. Breakfast was at 9:15am 4 miles short of Inverness on the A9. It...

Start: Selkirk End: Kingussie Start Time: 7:30 End Time: 20:45 Distance: Average Speed: Weather: No Wind, Sunny and Very Warm Wow our first lay in, well sort of. We had about ½ hour extra as we didn’t have to drive anywhere to start with, which was a nice reward. We set off from the hotel at 7:30am. Breakfast stop at 9:30am in a lay by in Edinburgh! Sorry Dave, where that’s lay by suppose to be?...

Start: Warrington End: Selkirk Start Time: 7:15 End Time: 19:40 Distance: Average Speed: Weather: No Wind, Sunny and Very Warm 7:15am, Ashdon, Warrington. Fairly warm already. Everyone is a little tired from yesterday and the MacDonald’s probably didn’t help! Bikes were given a quick clean down and Harry’s phone is taken off him! Breakfast stop, 9:55am on the A6 to Lancaster just past Preston....

First off sorry for not posting yesterday, had a few problems. Nothing too serious we made it to Bridgewater, covering 165 miles but one thing we had not planned was the sun. Dave ended up with a mild sunstroke and I have severely burnt the back of my right leg, so much that I just hit the pillow early. Added to that the first day was one hell of a up and down event, I’ve never ridden hills quite...

Start: Bridge Water End: Warrington Start Time: 7:20 End Time: 19:00 Distance: 193 miles Average Speed: Weather: No Wind, Sunny and Very Warm Up early again and driven to where we stopped last night at Bridge Water. The weather is still good with a gentle wind. Set off at 7:20am. Everyone is still in good form and which is good as we have some catching up to make the miles up. Breakfast stop at...

Start: Lands End End: Bridgewater Start Time: 7:20 End Time: 19:10 Distance: 163 miles Average Speed: Weather: No Wind, Sunny and Very Warm We got up at 6am, had some breakfast and got geared up ready to go. All of us excited, eager and ready to start. What we had been training for since the beginning of the year had finally arrived. We drove to Lands End and started to get set up. Double-checked...

I’m sitting here with a few butterflies in the stomach, not sure what to expect of the next few days. One thing is for certain; if the last 6 months of training have not helped there is no helping me now. Tomorrow morning at around 7:30 Dave will pick me up and we will join up with Harry and Rob and make our way down to Lands End ready for the off. Whilst chatting with Dave earlier we decided to...

This years cycle show is being held on the 5th to the 8th October at the ExCel centre in London. Thursday the 5th is trade only but the remaining days are open to the public. See all the latest toys and goodies from the biggest makes. Any one interested in going? sorry for yet another cycling related...

When I fired up NetNewsWire and found the 1200 unread articles I knew it was going to be a long drag. Against my better judgment I found a passion for the ‘Mark all as read’ button, that was until I got down the the cycling feeds, something caught my eye; it was carbon related goodies. First up the new Time Trial machine from Trek, come on that just looks amazing, if your not convinced just check...

During my visit to Ant’s the other day I set him up on Xbox Live, eager to test it out he fired up Blazing Angels and joined an online match. On my return home the images of dog fights above Africa were ripe in my mind, so I went out and picked up a copy. I’ve had the demo for a while, it is available for free on the Xbox Live Marketplace and it does contain quite a bit of game play so worth the...

Yesterday was a good day work wise. I have been set with the task of creating a new web site for work. The way in which we work has shifted, due to unstable oil prices and the doom gloom out on the British high street people are not responding to our standard sales. But the internet and in particular ebay are proving to be a massive source of leads. To which we have created Any Old Bag, this will...

My G5 has a problem, it won’t sleep. Since I’ve had a Mac I always sleep the machine rather than power off, not sure why but it just sounded like a good plan. It does not take so long to start up again so that’s a plus in my book! But for the last couple of days now it has been unwilling to just let go and put it’s head down. You select the sleep option and the screen blacks, you hear the noise of...

I was going through some feeds earlier and notice a few interesting cycling related articles. RoadCyclingUK had their first look at the new Look 565 frame and fork. I was lucky enough to ride Dave’s 386 486 Look the other month and what a bike, but for me the money has to be on a tubular frame; think I’ve found a future frameset. Oakley are breaking into the hydration market. This is not a...

Yesterday morning everything went a bit blurry as the realisation suddenly hit that, this time in three weeks I will be well on my way into the first day of the End 2 End challenge. I am currently in a state of fear about the journey, there is this massive black cloud of “will I make it” looming over my head. Added to this that at present sponsorship money is rolling in only adds to the...

Over the week end my site has been hit my a massive spam offensive. My defenses against spam are not the greatest, if you have more than one link in your comment you get moderated. Apart from that I rely on the gods of online Casino’s to shine on me to protect my metadata. This current wave is a clever one and not relying on a link in the comment section but rather the link to online viagra stores...

According to Mint 50.9% of the visitors to my site use Internet Explorer (shame on you, browse happy!) needless to say you must cater for all users really and 50% is something you just can not ignore. Chris brought to my attention that the site is not IE friendly, everything still displays and you get the whole picture, just not the picture I intended you to see. If you using IE your screen looks...

I’ve been working away at those extra little bits on the site, you know all that fluff that makes you feel good about the amount of time you spend sitting in front of a computer screen. The latest installments apart from some style changes are the use of the various script.aculo.us Java scripts. First off we have the new AJAX powered search bar found on the home page, in the archives and on any...

Today was the Spring 2006 reboot, finally my new theme goes live, well sort of. Drop me a vote here It is not 100% complete, I’d say about 85% (I love making up figures) I still have some navigation links to complete. I’m not happy with the commenting and there needs to be a search feature and improved Archives but apart from that my first theme from the ground...

This time next week it will have started, we should have left Lands End and been making our way to the other end of the UK. I’m going to enjoy this week as it is just going to be a gentle cool down with no real training or exercise. If I have not got it in my legs by now there is nothing I can do in 7 days! The only real training this week will be mental preparation. Trying to get your head round...

Last night I had a bit of blast on the site, trying to finish off some of the features I never had time to put in before it went live. We now have a AJAX powered search feature, currently it is only present on the home page and archive page, not sure if you need it in the side bar on every page or not? I’ve also sorted, well close too to sorted, the seperation of comments and pingbacks. The...

I decided to finally purchase a new lens for my Canon. I’ve had my Canon 300D digital SLR for nearly two years and to be honest I’ve never really used it too the potential it is capable of. Now I have a Sigma 55-200mm to try...

Sorry this should have been posted last week, but I’ve been having a few problems with my scanner! The local paper; Suffolk Free Press ran an article about the ride, it turns out my dear old grandma had generated interest through a family friend who works in the paper’s office. To which I was contacted and asked to organise a photo shoot at Rob’s shop. They got a few points mixed up such as Dave...

Last night the Sudbury Cycle Club’s evening Time Trial took on a different meaning, it was an Interclub challenge with Colchester Rovers. Due to the road works outside Lavenham the course was changed from the regular 10mile to the shorter 8mile Bridge Street. Sudbury was out in force with a sea of orange and white shirts at the sign on, however the opposing red and black of Colchester meant they...

Some of you might know of a little cycle race going on at the moment; the Giro d’Ilaila. For those that don’t here is a quick re-cap; imagine the Tour de Frane in Italy. Simple really, well that is the simple version. I’ve not been following this as closely as I would like but I caught up with the results after the Stage 11 Time Trial. Since Lance departed from racing last year there was a big...

I knew that Lyn was out of the office today, which meant I was going to pretty much be on my own. That was until I got into work. Meet my new work colleague, as much fun as he was I had to let him go, he was just not work material, he kept on going on about his family and was not really focused enough for my...

The challenge is to cycle from one end of the UK to the other in 5 days! Starting on Monday 5th June to the 10th June four cyclists will leave Lands End and hopefully all being weel and good they will arrive at John O’Groats on the following Friday. The journey will cover the full length of the United Kingdom with daily milage reaching 175 miles and an estimated 12 hours in the saddle each...

No that was not a typo that is my feelings towards the show. That’s right it is that time of year when we get the chance to watch of of life more ‘colourful’ charactors enter into a house and get cut off from the outside world. I’m talking about Big Brother, which is in it’s 8th carnation. As you can tell this is not really my type of viewing, seriously I could walk out into the street for better...

For a few months I have been hassling Rob about Sram and their plans for the road side of the cycling market. If you have a mountain bike the chances are you are running one of two makes on the gears/transmission; SRAM or Shimano. Shimano have always been the leader but since SRAM broke into a MTB world they have taken it by storm, there simple ergonomic approach to levers and gears just works....

What have I gone and done? I’ve made the sacrifice to end all sacrifices, I’ve agreed with Lucy to sell my Audi so that we can get a car she can learn to drive in! Don’t get me wrong my Audi is nothing special, by modern standards anyway, but to me it is a lovely V6 engine that just purrs along. The problem is that I do not do enough miles to really justify having a car let alone that car but it...

Mint has just totally messed up on me! I have been running version 1.14 for quite a while now, I could not be bothered to update as it just seemed like a bit more extra work I could do without. Last night I was doing some file cleaning on the site and trying to fix the FAblum problem when I decided to bite the bullet and update, plus the list of peppers was getting better and only 1.2+...

Thats how long Lucy and I have been together now. It was about 8 years ago today we first really met and decided to give it a go. Well 2,922 days later it is all going well, of course we have our up’s and down’s but in the end I don’t think I would change it. Thanks...

Yes most of the web and UK public are going on about this and that noise that sounds like pong, but what the hell does happen if the timer runs out? I never saw anything of the first season of Lost, I was always out or focused on something else, but you could not escape from the buzz and hype. Last night the first two episodes of season two were aired on Channel 4, but in the build up they have...

fun and April showers for a day or two! Finally a few days off, just got to ride the Sudbury Fun Run and pack the car up and then it is a relaxing few days in North Norfolk, see when I get...

It has taken a while to sit down and write this post, but we are back from a extended holiday week end on the north Norfolk coast. We were camping in a small village called East Runton, which is just outside Cromer. Mental note if any one ever mentions the idea of camping on a Easter week end, tell them where to go; it’s bloody...

A lot of sites I visit have changed their looks recently and it might have something to do with the upcoming Spring Reboot, or it’s just a popular time to code! I did think about entering the Reboot a while back, when I first started working on my new theme. But at the time I sat there thinking my new look will be finished way before the May 1st deadline, so I went against my first plan. How wrong...

Unless you have had your head in the sand for a few days you are probably aware of the name change to the new Nintendo console. The old name; Revolution, is out and up steps; Wii. Nope you read right, Wii. It is pronouced we rather wie and there are some good reasons behind it. David B has a good post going on over at davidbabylon.com which details a lot of links regarding this change, also the...

It was time to pimp out my ride! Lucy and I have been sitting there thinking about my upcoming ride and the condition of my bike. So we opted to put some shiny things on the bike and make sure it would last the journey. I knew I needed a new chainset, at least some rings, the standard Shimano 105 chain rings are nasty and already they were looking like little sharks teeth. The option I was...

Lucy recorded the Paris-Roubaix cycle race for me today as I was; as usual out on my bike. What a race it turned out to be, World Champion and favorite for the win, Tom Boonen, was not on top form and let Fabien Cancellara of CSC slip away at the end to take victory. But for me the biggest let down of the race was to see Big George Hincapie take a tumble and really knock himself up. Looking at...

To be honest I’m not a vast fantasy RPG fan, worrying about leveling up on your shoelace tieing skill does not float my boat but you could not ignore the hype that surrounded Oblivion IV: The Elder Scrolls. So I picked up a copy to see what all the fuss was about. As usual the limited edition version was all sold out so I settles for the standard version and went on home ready to be...

Last night was a fun filled little gem, I was talked into attending a networking for networks seminar, or something like that. To be honest I always thought networking was a peice of CAT5 cable, turns out networking is also talking to other people about they could not really care less about! What a strange evening, 40 odd people all doing the business card shuffle and presenting themselves and...

Yesterday was another one of those cycle runs out to the coast, we have been trying to do these every other week end as means of building up the base milage. My problem is that this run always ends up totalling around the 80 mile region, I really want to break the 100 mile mark, just so I know I can do it. So this time I convinced Dave to start from my house rather than his (nothing to do with a...

The site went live last week but I’ve not had time to really look around but Sram’s new road groupset is looking very...

Do you ever sit there and think there are not enough hours in the day? How will I get everything I have planned to do done? At present it just feels like my plate is overflowing with things that need to get done. Along with the usual work flow, general day to day business and training tonight I’ve got to put together the April edition of the local cycling club’s newsletter. Somewhere I also need...

Today is CSS Naked Day, so stripe off your style sheets and show us your naked metadata. Quite a few of my regular reads have followed suite and it sure is strange to see the unformatted sites out there. Update: Well I’m gald that is over, it was getting a bit cold in...

Today saw the first bit of sunshine in quite a while. So much so I put on my shorts and tee and decided to take a quick trip down the tracks around here. It was still wet under the trees but it was nice to feel the sun on my back. So much so I suggested to Lucy that we hit the road for a bit. It was the first time Lucy had riden her new bike for any distance but the sun really does it...

Tomb Raider has been around for w while, in fact Lara Croft is now the largest selling female character of all time, but recently is has been a bit of a let down. The original Tomb Raider, which I first played on a PlayStation (the big bulky grey thing) and it was something else. A woman, raiding tombs, in hot pants, with guns, what a strange combination but it was a formula for success. This was...

I logged into xbox.com last night just to check out what games were being delayed this week and noticed a cool little addition to the friends list. The gamerscore. No more do you have to view your friends profile to see their score, it is displayed right next to the name in the list. Handy if your having one of those gamerscore/penis insecurity things going on and feel the need to have the...

Today is the first day of Spring, well according to the not so risky calendar in my office, I miss dirty work environments with dirty calendars, I mean how much does she really know about pneumatics and that can not be Union issued work ware. Sorry, any way back to the point of this. It should be the first day of Spring but does it feel like Spring? Not quite, the weather is still brisk with the...

I know this has been mentioned once already if not before but when Sean popped into the office this morning I spoke about these adverts from VW. He had not seen them so I said I would post a link for him to find quickly, well he is a welder by...

The last week I have been away with the fairies, in more ways than it sounds. My head has not been with it and I’ve forgotten how to commuicate in a known language. To which sorry to any one who has tried to contact me or expected me to do something and I never showed or replied. Now on this clearer Monday morning I have had the time to reflect, or rather the common sense to remove my head from my...

The last few weeks have been ripe with news of the PS3 launch date so here are some details just in case you were a bit confused: It will be launched in November this year; yep 2006. They are planning a Worldwide launch; good luck! 6 million units in the first year; financial year or our standard 12 months. 60gb Hard drive included; good move. Backwards compatible with all Playstation games; Well...

It looks like the coolest and quite possibly the only PC I would invest in has been sold to Dell. Please, please, please do not mess with the recipe Dell, Alienware machine’s are in a class of their own, keep your black budget boxes away from...

I’ve been a user of Sony Ericsson phones for many years now, I just love the UI and the features. My current phone a D750i has been a lovely little machine, but recently it has been failing to see the memory card, a pain when you want to take a picture and you have to restart the phone to get it to reconise the Duo stick. The phone also features a handy little service where you can update the...

To say I was not impressed by Sony Ericsson’s service was a bit of an understatement so I decided to try and sort my phone out myself. After a quick google I found out that the people in the know are the DaVinciTeam who specialise in SE mods and firmware updates. A bit researching I found that using the standard USB cable and the DaVinci client software I can re-flash my phone; hopefully into a...

There have been a couple of additions to the Xbox Live marketplace in the last 24 hours. Most noticable is the downloadable demo of The Outfit. This is a full online demo of a single level in the game. Second up is the trailers for Battlefield2: Modern Combat. Finally there are a few updates to titles on the way, Madden being one of...

I spent most of the afternoon in Rob’s shop the other day, well I was bored, and whilst I walked around I found my next bike. It was a Electra Ghost Rider, a slung back cruiser. Normally I would pass this off as a no point machine but I just could not pass up a test ride. Within 10 meters you could not help it, I fell in love with the bike. Even pedaling just created a smooth motion that was just...

During one of those geeky sessions were people get together and chat some one mentioned the word “Interslice” and “Cutco”, these words sounded familiar. I remembered it was from an episode of Simpsons; Das Bus to be exact. Anyway Homer is trying to set up a new internet company that is catchy. The name Interslice is catchy, so catchy that I can’t shift it so I thought about having a look into the...

I’ve not been about much, the new theme has been put on hold, Lucy wonders where I am going and what happened to me. The answer is Ghost Recon. This game is just about as good as it gets for the new 360. Finally a game that makes you feel like ‘next gen’. We were playing a bit of defend last night when I noticed that the empty shells from my MG21 were ejecting from the gun, hitting the wall,...

Just a quick note to say Happy Birthday Sean; aka Gravy. May a group of burly coal miners all sing in unison and salute you on this most very Welsh of...

Being Irish I will of course will be celebrating St. Patricks day with a few pints of the dark stuff. Yes I am Irish. I was born in that not so well known part of Ireland called Suffolk. Ok so I’m not Irish but I’m up for any excuse on a pint of...

Ok Play.com lets be friends again, let’s put behind us the fact that you took three months to post me a hard drive and a headset for my 360; loosing one headset in the process. Let’s not dwell on this especially when you dropped off a copy of Ghost Recon 3 this morning. Since Dan first introduced me to the Tom Clancy range of Ghost Recon game’s I’ve been pretty much hooked. I first tried the game...

Since starting this whole blogging thing I’ve grown more and more addicted to RSS feeds. For those of those of you not familiar try this link. The whole idea of getting a email like link of your most visited sites or blog’s is great, so much easier than going through your favorites and checking each one. The problem I’m finding is keeping those lists updated or inline with each other, better yet...

Reading through the news I came across this article from BikeMagic about the new Giant Glory downhill machine. For one it is a stunning colour and the components are pretty nifty, but just look at this picture of the gusset work and link detail. I used to ride a Box One many moons ago and this just takes me...

I was hoping for a nice quiet day at work; following up some leads and looking into some more asbestos rules and regulations, however a phone call from OZ meant I’m spending the day coding the company web metadata. Just what I need after spending my spare working this metadata. I need a break, I just nested a div tag within an a tag; what was I...

This morning I received a set of Time RXE pedals. To be honest I’ve never really spent a lot on pedals since I could ride a bike. The last ones I got for my road bike were a set of Shimano 105 SPD-SL’s which so far have racked up over 1,000 miles. Last week end one of the pedals started making a horrible noise; the noise that says I’m gonna die soon. So I started looking around for a new set of...

Use your DS as a VNC style remote. Handy little app, if only as use of a media remote if your...

20gb was never really going to be enough space on the 360. Datel might have the answer, if not a bit slow and...

So I was in the bath, it has been a busy time lately and I’m a strong believer in a good soak helps the body and mind relax. During my r&r I looked accross at the his and hers shelf of toiletries and noticed the vast difference. On my side you have a half used can of gillette gel, some hair wax (whilst I still have some I stick gunk in it) and some mosituriser. But on Lucy’s side there is six...

Woke up this morning to a lovely scene of slush, sleet and soggy feet. I love...

Yesterday the British all voted to ban smoking in pulic venues; including private clubs, by the summer of 2007. It was only a matter of time really and all I can say is I’m not too sure about the whole thing. I look at it from two sides, the side of me that has just given up smoking and regrets ever starting is pleased about it, it is surprising how the smell of smoke now makes me feel ill....

I am a big gaming fan, as you might know, I always end up getting the latest consoles. For the last few years the machine to rule the roost for me has been the Xbox; why? Simple Xbox Live! But it looks like Sony have plans to change that… If you are an avid gamer you know the benifits of playing a real person instead on the computer controlled charactors. The human can do something that no other...

Opera Software have released the second preview of the upcoming version 9 web browser. # You can download the various formats...

Over the last couple of days I’ve been trying to play Madden NFL 06 on the 360. This has nothing to do with the recent Superbowl I’m afraid it just so happened to be around the same time. However I’m having a few problems; I’m British! I don’t know a Blitz from a Hail Mary (ok I do know that one of those is a defensive play) and it is getting a bit frustrating trying to understand. I’m not one to...

A while back I tried out Joen’s Fauna theme and at the time I was impressed. But K2 kept on calling me back, with her cheaky AJAX powers and friendly support it was not long before I returned to what has been known as home for longer than I can remember. Since the other week when I noticed shibbyonline was a year old I’ve been thinking about making this place my own. It is nice to use K2 as a base...

I’ve had the first two episodes of the IT Crowd on my iPaq for a few days, good to watch when board or on the move, but last night Channel 4 ran a double bill. The set of the show is such a spitting image of my old job, it really felt like I was back in my old office with all the old equipment. I’m not sure if it is a show where you have to have been in the industry to understand it and find it...

Cycling #Section titled CyclingI grew up on a farm away from the local villages so riding a bike was second nature. There was always enough space to learn to ride and practice on, fall off on and generally have fun on a bike. When the time came the bike was my means of escape, rides down into the villages to meet up with friends and when the birthday’s came it was always the latest shiny offering...

Last Friday was Ant ‘Mess Your Pant’ Duckmanton’s birthday, to which Lucy and I went up to Stamford to celebrate. This was fine until I realised I would miss out on my Sunday club run. Due to work commitment and the lack of daylight this is the only training I’m getting at present and so missing a week would be quite a big deal. To which I decided to take my bike and planned on a Sunday morning...

I remember when we first met, you were trying to tell me about commenting, I was too impatient to listen. I remember the way you said Hello to the World as you sat there all naked and your archives empty and alone. Now a year on look at you now. During lunch today I went on my normal cruise round the vapour of the internet and it suddenly hit me, I’ve been blogging for a year now! Of course the...

What a week end. It feels like I’m still only just getting used to not moving my legs round in circles. The last few days were spent in the saddle, clocking up the miles. Total so far 151! Saturday was an early start, it was about 6 when Viv pulled up outside to pick me up. The weather was cold and foggy and not really inspiring me to take part in a 100km Audax. Despite that we set off to pick up...

Looks like the second film might be pushed...

Major Nelson has finally put an end to my pain I guess I can cancel the order for that Dell...

Last night should have been one of those ‘lads’ nights when we all get together play console and kick back. Instead I had a meeting with the cycle club so I had to bail. The venue for the meeting was just down the road from Mr. bob g bob house so I decided I would try and pop round after the meeting and admire 360 in full HD glory. So I packed in my MU and Tigerwoods and Madden (two games I really...

It has been in the back of my mind for quite a while now; create your own WordPress theme. The problem is that I have not really got the inspiration to sit there and come up with something interesting. There are plenty of ideas swirling around in the grey matter, I even started planning out some rough ideas before Christmas but I think they got lost in the post Crimbo tidy up. Every time I log on...

Yesterday Microsoft announced the first update to the 360 dashboard. According to Microsoft: This free Xbox 360™ update is great news! We’ve been listening to what the community has been telling us, so we’re happy to announce that this update will improve your gaming experience. Here are some of the changes in this update: * Improvements to the Xbox Guide. * Option to retain your saved games when...

home grown themes #Section titled home grown themesMorning After #Section titled Morning AfterFrost #Section titled K2 styles #Section titled K2 stylesK2 is the very popular theme from Michael Heilman, the creator of Kubrick (the default WordPress theme) Billet #Section titled Billet- A simple square looking style with an aluminium look to it. Download Grey #Section titled Grey- The second...

When Dave first mentioned about cycling from Lands End to John O’Groates I thought this would just be a flash in the pan idea, some thing that would be forgotten about in the build up to Christmas. I’m sure that was more hoping than thinking. Well now a couple of weeks down the line and this is by far dream, it is really going to happen. The date has been set; we leave Lands End on Monday the 5th...

Well it looks like the server was borked for quite a while, hopefully sorted now For reasons unknown my server was down for most of yesterday. It all looks to be up and running again and back to...

Western Digital have launched the new version of the popular Raptor drive. However this time you can get a transparent version. Least now you can see those heads...

Get your sea monkey’s online now. Mozilla have released the first version of the new Mozilla suite; codenamed Seamonkey features a state-of-the-art web browser and powerful email client, as well as a WYSIWYG web page composer and a feature-rich IRC chat client. For web developers, mozilla.org’s DOM inspector and JavaScript debugger tools are included as well. SeaMonkey 1.0 is one of the most...

Well we have started the new year and as usual we all sit there and make those resolutions and try and better ourselves for the coming year. Of course we all do this with the best intensions and at the time we have nothing but positive energy for the task ahead. However as the weeks progress the dedication dwindles and the engery disappears until at the end the gym membership is cancelled and the...

Because of the server outage I’ve not been able to get updated but I thought I better post this about last weekend, if only to remind me what went wrong and how to learn from your mistakes. Anyway the post, last Sunday I experienced my first Bonk! For those common with English slang this is not what you think, it is actually a symton of excercise or more precise a nasty experience due to over...

I guess I better post the manitory post about MacWorld and the new products to hit the Apple store, it does seem only right. So yesterday Steve took the stage and every one waited to see what shiny gadgets he would reveal; most people expected a Intel powered machine, more likely an iBook or a Mini. Rumours of Shuffle being updated or even dropped, new software in the form of iLife06 (that was...

The start of this post was going to be all about the sudden interest into ‘mobile’ web and hardware. The availability of wireless products has made it easier for us to connect to the digital world, it has radically changed my world already. At present I’m writing this from my iPaq while chilling in the bedroom and it suddenly struck me how much I now rely on a lack of wires! I walk into the house...

I really want to write snot but for the good of all others lets just say cold. For the last few days I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather but I thought I would soldier on in the best way as I had quite a busy week end planned. As most things in my life at present it was a very strong cycling based week end, the annual dinner of the Sudbury Cycle Club and then the first real event of the year,...

bil'let _noun_ a small bar of metal for further processing. Or in this case my first K2 style. Billet -...

Levi have taken the iPod craze and gone one further. They have designed a pair of jeans with built in controls for the iPod. This is not the first time clothing has been done like this, I remember seeing a Burton (of snowboard fame) coat with a iPod control panel in the sleeve but a £250 price tag on the...

If you can’t decide which media to support; HD-DVD or Blu-Ray why not do the next best thing and just offer external drives. At present the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD argument is a bit like the old VHS/Betamax problem. They are both good systems but in the end only one will survive commercially and at present no one knows which. So to prevent an ‘egg on face’ situation the 360 was released with HD support for...

Last night I had a few spare minutes so I was messing about with a Xbox360. You know how it is you keeping plugging stuff in trying to find out what would work and what device will eventually crash the machine. Well, keyboard fine (really handy for setting up the console), digital camera working great, next storage devices; looking good but what about an iPod. Plug in and to my surprise it works,...

It’s a bit blurry, my head is a bit cloudy, everything is so strange and the house is a mess, I guess that means it was a good night. Hope you too had a enjoyable evening and New Year and that 2006 will bring you everything you want or...

You know your old when you wake up on a Thursday morning and realise it is your 30th birthday. If you go by the national mean averages and other crap you will know that you are nearly half way through your existance on this planet. However you look at Dan you know you are no longer a spring chicken, time to invest in a cloth cap and some nice carpet...

Hot on the heels of Billet comes Grey It’s my second style, something with a difference, I’m afraid it is not fully complete and is only offered in a Beta state, but due to work load I have not got the time to finish it, feel free to...

Over the last few days I’ve slowly been growing more and more found of Google Desktop. I was messing about with the work web site last week and generating sitemaps and trying the Beta version of Google’s sitemap features when I thought I might as well give the Desktop a crack. The installation was fine and set up a breeze, the biggest down fall was the indexing of my computer. The indexing is...

This could be very interesting on the film front, let alone on the personal bank balance of Mr....

Yesterday afternoon was taken as a jolly. In other words work got the boot and I spent the time traveling to the Core Bike Show. This event is a trade show for the major importers of all things cycling, so I had to take on the role of ‘Web Designer’ for LifecycleUK, despite the fact that Rob actually signed me up as office gimp! Matt (the only real employee of LifeCycle) was 'Mechanic’. Held in...

Well after much time staring at the Apple web site I have finally decided to make up my mind. I’ve taken the plung and ordered a new 12inch iBook. Now I’m sure I am opening myself to the “you should have got a PowerBook!” or even now a MacBookPro comments. Well yes except for a few things, I could not buy a product called a MacBookPro and be taken seriously. Second, for the type of use, or more...

At the week end I was standing in the garden tweeking my Marin wearing only just a t and thinking how good the weather was for January and how all the nah sayers had predicted a harsh winter. If I could go back and feel my fingers now I would. Yesterday the temperature on the way into work was -5c this morning it was slightly warmed at just under zero and the forecast is for more towards the...

Yesterday was a sad day indeed, I lost my hat. I’ve had my hat for years, I first purchased it when I started working in a warehouse and on nights it was a bit brisk, since then that hat has been everywhere with me. I love that hat, I’ll miss that...

I’ve decided to have a bit of a change around again on the metadata. This time I’m messing about with Joens’s Fauna theme. Joen is a great designer and this theme just about sums it up, be sure to stop by his site for more news and views from the horses mouth. I’m not waving goodbye to the K2 scene, you can not ignore the support and community that Michael has created and as the Joen and Michael...

Found this link detailing the future of my friend the sober worm. In the last few days I’ve really got to know this chap, he sends me quite a few emails now and I really enjoy waiting for the next. On a serious note this could be interesting, if it does go ahead as planned I think the internet could have a couple of slow days. Kinda makes you just want to give up on the internet, if it wern’t for...

Some might say that this is a bit late, well yes it is. The reason is quite simple; I just decided to spend a few days away from a keyboard and spend it with family and friends, it felt like the right thing to do. None the less have a happy and safe holiday and make the most of the new year. Remember to drink way too much and gorge yourself on unhealthy...

Yesterday morning I was chatting away with a friend and he asked if I was woken up by the explosion? Of course as I had only got up, showered and left the house I had no time to catch up on the news of the world on this very foggy morning but it turns out that a oil depot in Hertfordshire had exploded during the early hours. This friend who only lives a few miles away from me heard the incident...

Yesterday was not the best day and not the best start to December. It was going well for me, got into work and managed to finish off some customers artwork and get a few jobs finished. Then one of our bigger suppliers came to see us and invited us out for a meal in the evening. As I get sorted and head out leaving Lucy at home quite happy, doing more jewelry stuff. A Chicken Tikki Balti later I...

Today I spent the best part of it out and about on the road. To do this I had to borrow a company car, which was OK as I first thought. It turned out I was getting a nice 04 Honda Civic, not bad. I’ve always admired the new shape Civic since it’s debut in the BTCC, in particular the TypeR version, in fact I’ve often thought about getting one. But after spending a few hours behind the wheel I’m...

Yeah ok so it’s not quite mid-week and infact it’s closer to the weekend than anything but that just about gives you the idea on what it has been like lately. First off the metadata. When Michael announced that r127 of K2 will only run on WordPress2.0 I started thinking, maybe I should upgrade, I mean WordPress2.0 is at release candidate stage, whats the worse that could happen. Well everything...

This question is bigger than pop socks and causing me a few moments of creating the classic thinker pose. Should you get a iBook or a PowerBook? I’m after any one’s feed back and justification on this. Before the standard ‘get a PowerBook; it’s better’ is rejoiced throughout the land here is the problem. Next year I’m doing my end to end challenge, soon after that I’m planning a Wild Wales...

We have moved #Section titled We have movedThe CCS has moved to a new permanent space on the web. You can find them over at www.cycleclubsudbury.com Everything is over there, the club newsletter; Spindle, details of the TT season and even a bit about the club. Photographs #Section titled PhotographsSemer Hill Climb 2005 CCS Christmas Dinner 2005 (?) TT Season...

Matthew posted about the best blonde joke in the world. I’m not normally one for these but this has got to be the best, deffinately worth a...

Don’t you just love those week ends were you plan to do all those things you put off during the week. You have a big long list of items that need to be completed; your even thinking about putting up that curtain rail you have put off for days. So you finish work promtly on Friday, journey home to meet your neighbour who asks if you fancy going out for a meal. So you agree; whats the worse that can...

2nd December marks the European launch of the Xbox360. Have you got yours? My answer; No. But then did I pre-order? No. Did I sit there months ago getting all worked up over the machine; No. Have I spent the last few months getting in a worse state as the hype builds; No. Was the last few weeks spent checking my online pre-order trying to work out if I would recieve the console today; No. Am I...

During the first week of launch experts estimate that between 300,000 and 400,000 Xbox 360’s were sold in the US. This is nearly their planned 3 month target in a week. But is has not been all clear sailing for Microsoft, there have been various reports of overheating power supplies, random crashes and games freezing and even dvd’s being ripped by the laser mountings of the drive. Microsoft have...

Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection network for its DS consoles will launch November 25 # Could be interesting as I’ve already tried just about everything to link it in with my home network, well it has been getting darker earlier so my mind...

Lucy shocked me to bits the yesterday by returning home with some curtain liners (yep I was that impressed) but also a copy of Half Life 2 (now I was impressed by that!) Half Life 2 has been knocking about the pc world for a while now and is no doubt last months news, but for those of us who enjoy the pleasures of a Mac can only wait until it was released on the Xbox. Of course the graphics are...

I recieved an email from one of our suppliers at work the other day, warning me of a virus doing the rounds. They warned me of a nasty virus based upon a Budweiser frog screensaver and how not to download it but please pass this on to all your friends as it is a new alert and we should make everyone aware blah blah blah… This hoax has been around for years, I mean years, all it does it take up...

no not this page, you must be joking! But I have created my first site that passed with flying colours. OK it’s not much and no big deal but it does make you feel better when the Validator comes back with that nice green bar. For most of the day I have been working on a new site for Oscar Products (the place I work) and thought it would be nice to make it all valid now, it looks good from a...

The other day I woke to be greated by the first blanket of white in the autumn. So far we have had a very mild October followed by a similar beginning to November, finally the temperature has dropped and it would appear to be back to normal. Personally I’m not a fan of the cold, I need by warmth, but it has been eerie still riding about in summer short clothing and not worrying about the...

This morning I took part in my first cycling event. Since I started cycling the plan was always to have a good 8 months of training and getting used to the scene and pick up the racing at the begining of next years season. However thanks to my inability to say ‘NO’ and Brian gently pushing me along I signed up for the local Hill Climb event. The race was held by Sudbury Cycle Club and was an open...

I have been waiting for this game for over two years now. I’ve been waiting since Mr. W32.Sobig.A@mm decided to criple my Windows machine for the last time. Operation Flashpoint was one of the first games I played online and still is one of the few games that had me immersed in a total underground state, any Zelda game also ranks up there. I had purchased the orginal, then the addon Red Hammer, I...

I came in from work hoping to spend a few mintues working on the new style and tidying up the code here but it looks like some one had some better idea’s. Nice but not really handy, especially as she has worked out if you stand on enough keys the machine makes some funny...

Following on from my post about asides I’ve had a look at trying to create something else. Those of you in the know will clearly see the similar layout to that of Michael’s recent Invader style. Yup that is the inspiration, I’m not going to try and hide it, however I will point out that I’ve not ripped his code or ‘borrowed’ CSS file’s (well clearly looking at the layout) I have spent the time...

that make a difference. sitting in a classroom this evening I was thinking about things, you know; live, love the universe and it it suddenly hit me; sidebar on the left. you never know it might catch on, if nothing else it’s different. now all I need to do is finally get some of these other ideas down in writing, then convert them to code and finally try styling this...

OK it is not quite that bad but a little bit of hype never hurt anyone. Last week I was experiencing some nasty virus problems, this morning I fully expected to be greeted by another couple of hundred emails stuffed full of virii (hmm sounds cool that) but no. Looks like it might have calmed down, or they have moved on I guess. But whilst I was checking my morning feeds and feeding my morning...

I’m having one of those lazy Friday night’s in, it has been a busy old week and I thought I could do with a nice quiet relaxing time. Low and behold to make the evening prefect Channel4 are showing Ghostbusters, such a classic film. and the flowers are still...

was the question I was asked this morning on my weekly club run. As we cycled through the wet and gritty Suffolk countryside being beaten by a chilled wind Dave leant across and asked this ill fated question. “How far?” I ask thinking he wanted to put the hammer down again and zoom off at stupid speeds to get the blood pumping. “End to end?” was the reply. It might have been the cold had slowed...

Yesterday afternoon was spent in Ace Comics, the local comic and movie alladin’s cave. Lucy and I split up in an effort to cover more ground, ok she had seen a Captian Jack Swallow model and the whole Johnny Depp thing kicked in. I ended up at the Star Wars action figure section, yep they had a case of original figures, even Hans in Hoth battle gear! Whilst I stood there surrounded by nostalgia...

On the Binary Bonsai forums it has been asked how I got those Java powered AJAXy looking features in my sidebar, I’ve also had a few emails about them so I thought I better write the code and share the knowledge. Here goes: It is a java script that creates a visual effect, you can also chuck some ajax inspired calls in there too but I opted for just creating the blind effect. The code and...

It must have been one bored board meeting the other day. During the summer is the best time to carry out the general repairs and renovations to the work buildings and offices and this year was no exception, but the front doors needed a lick of paint. The old colour was a gloss black which when you look at them is not bad, goes with the colours of Oscar Products but some how Lyn decided that...

If only everything in life was simple and planned it would be so much easier, a lot more boring and no where near as excititing but least you would have some direction to things. If life was like this you might have more than 3 days notice you were moving house! Those of you who know me or read the blog know that Lucy and I have been looking at buying a house as the future of our current residency...

Just in case your having a bad day this will no doubt put a bright spin on things. Indiana Jones 4 is looking more and more like a...

It’s been a while since I’ve messed about with a Linux system and checked out what is happening in the Open Source environment. To which when I read on OSNews that SuSe had a download Beta of the new version 10.0 of there OS I decided to check it out. Sorry to say that at present I can’t get the graphics card in my PC to work with the Apple Cinema screen and so it just gives me a blurry outlook...

Just found this link which was an interesting read, I’m sure this won’t sway my Xbox360 / PS3 decisions...

for the first of the month! How quick is this year flying through, already into August and if you live in the UK you will no doubt be wondering where the summer has got to. So far we had one spell of really hot weather and that was it, just plain old grey days from then, about time it warmed up and gave you something to smile about before those cooler September days creep up on you. Any way this...

After putting a few pictures on the blog from my boat trip, Mr Craft asked for a link so he could get a close up look of the pictures. This inspired me to try and sort out my .Mac Homepage. When i subscribed to .Mac, they gave me 150mb of webspace to display some of my files, photos, movies, etc. I have finally got round to putting the photos into albums and sorting them into order. Feel free to...

There was always going to be the feeling of not being complete with a [[Apple]] mouse. It only has one button after all! [[Windows]] users have been using two buttons for years and even the extreme of 6 buttons and yaw control and stabilizers and all other pretty functions. Yes you can attach a two button mouse to your [[Mac]] but then you lose that wonderful white scheme which to mean is one of...

Well this is my last post for a while in a few minutes I will finally have to draw the fun to an end. The [[G5]] will be shut down for the move and unfortuntely at present I have no internet connection at the new house so I will have to pass the reins onto gravy2012. I’m sure he will keep the world posted to the country humour and fun and well beings of Subdury. It’s be an adventure but there is...

I’m sorry for my lack of posts lately, if it wern’t for gravy I think the site might have been dead! I’m having a few problems just getting myself to sit down in front of a computer and concentrate. Last week I was on holiday and sort of tried not to do too much computer related, a bit of a detox session if that makes sense, but it looks like it has had some knock on effects. Since then I’ve...

First of all it started with this, then Frosty finished the doors and I now work in the pink-light district. but now to top it off the house next door, which has been undergoing some renovations has decided to change the colour of their front door: You have just got to love the condition of my lovely front...

I was having a quite Friday evening browse when I found this brilliant movie. It reminds me of those wonderful IT days. How do you reply to the user that phone’s to say “it’s asking for my passowrd, what do i...

It used to be the case if you had a 28inch telly you were the daddy on the block, then people laughed at you because everyone else had 32inchers. Then with Plasma displays the ego tripping screen estate agents were treated to 42inch, 52inch, how far will it go? How about 71inch? Not only that but HD set as well? Lucky Samsung have the answer. Now I’m not too hot on my Korean but I do understand...

I’ve that extra special Friday afternoon feeling as from now I’m on holiday for the next week. To be honest I have nothing planned and would not have even taken the time off work if it wern’t for the fact that Dan and Adele had suggested a camping trip as they are on a factory shutdown, plus the fact that I have three weeks holiday to take before the end of the year! On closer inspection the...

Last night i took a trip down to ‘The Big Smoke’ to see some friends play a gig in The Metro Club on Oxford Street. The band is called CTRL.ALT.DELETE and has only recently been re-grouped for a few months after the split of the previous band 'Nausea’ about 4 or 5 years ago. The band have been practising hard and are trying to make a name for themselves around the London area. Last nights...

Just got this link on my e-mail. Pretty impressive, check this out. I wonder how long it took them to comprise this...

is going to be the cry all over the land soon. play.com have put the [[Xbox360]] on pre-order already along with a load of games and tasty little extras. Whilst I have to admit I though the price was going to be a bit higher I still think I can hold off on the purchase and wait for sales to settle. What am I thinking, it is only a preliminary release date and it is the end of November! How about...

There are a few people I look up to in this world; parents for a start I mean who does not. But after them you look to other places for inspiration and you find people who you have no place knowing but you feel that certain admiration or awe. We all have people in our lives that you look up to and admire and if you ever met that person it would be one of those amazing moments that Kodak would make...

Update: Fitted the 170mm crank and had my first training session last night, today I’m feeling a bit better and the knee feels more confident but I guess it will take a few more days to really show. For the last few weeks I’ve been riding and training on a Trek1400 road bike. I picked this up as a means to break into the road scene and put a few more miles on the clock. It was not quite the...

on the usual trail through a week’s worth of rss feeds and inbox fluff I found this interesting article about the backwards compatiblity of the [[Xbox360]]. You know what that sort of policy just does not sound like [[Microsoft]]’s way at all, sorry I did have my fingers crossed there for a...

I’ve just been checking on the progress of the ctrl.alt.delete band’s website and have been impressed. depsite the fact that he would never admit it this is gravy2012’s first step into the world of the big triple w. it all started one rather over cast afternoon when I got a phone call from gravy to explain that his friends who set up ctrl.alt.delete a few years back were now hitting it big down in...

Here in the UK it is a little known event called Trafalgar Day, to be honest it is not the most popular or well known celebration ever to hit the calender but as this year is the 200 year anniversary people are making a bit more of a fuss. There is national cermony being held tonight where as beacons will be lit, up and down the country (if any one knows the reason behind this please let me know)...

Lucy has treated me on my birthday and presented me with a complete set of Trek/Discovery Channel Team cycle wear; ok I have not got the socks but I’ll let that one slide. The clothing which is made by Nike is top quality and looks the part, I guess the phrase ‘all the gear and on idea’ springs to mind. Best I get out on my bike now and put to some use, just got to overcome the British...

Why do people phone up and just try to mess you about? I’m sure they don’t mean to but how can people just be so unhelpful when they want information from you. I sell and supply carrier bags and packaging supplies, a lot of it is bespoke printed carrier bags made to order to which we have each bag made to suit the clients needs and requirements. We will always try and help and find the correct bag...

Last night I went to my first meeting of the Sudbury Cycle Club. Since I have been doing a load more road miles and making up some training programmes Lucy has been on at me to get in contact with her work friend; Brian who helps out at the local club. I finally paid up and joined on the Tuesday and was invited to their AGM on Thursday night. I went along and by the end of it I’m now the...

As some may know the other week I installed Mint, a little web stats application from Shaun Inman. Well a week on, how does Mint taste? Did it leave a breath of freshness or loose it’s taste just way too quickly? Sorry but how many mint related wise cracks can you get before it all turns sour? Paul Stamatiou has done a very useful run down of the application with a list of handy Peppers. The basic...

This afternoon i was visited by a friend asking me to transfer music from one iPod to another. In order to do this i used iPodrip and iTunes, but first i had to get the iPods connected and talking to the computer. This proved to be a problem with one of the iPods. Whenever a button was pressed, the Apple symbol appeared, stayed for about ten seconds then it came up with a folder and exclaimation...

almost a year on and I still treat my iPod with baby gloves, I don’t know if it is me or the fact Lucy bought it for me but everytime I move it or use I am so careful. Why then do I feel it is safe to put (gently place more like) in my rucksack and then sramble down bridlepath’s on my bike! Anyway last night bobgbob came round as per usual and was talking about finally jumping on the iPod...

I’ve owned a iPaq2210 for quite a while now and it has been my trusted companion; always getting me to meetings on time or making sure I never forget a birthday or two. Yes we have had our ups and downs, like Rui (and most other users) points out the side grips are a waste of time, the BlueTooth is bit flaky at times and there is not a decent phone application to be seen in HP’s line up. That...

I just found this little flash game for knight rider, you control KITT and the idea is to boost your way to the biggest jump, you just can’t buy class like this turbo...

24hr Challenge #Section titled 24hr Challenge Info: #Section titled Info:The Challenge The Drivers The Equipment The Background The Planning The Event Pictures - Race Gallery Race Updates and Results The challenge! To complete a 24hr endurance race on Gran Turismo4 in real time. We are going to stick to some ground rules to make sure it still is a bit like the real race. There will be no...

I decided to give mint a try as a new way to monitor web traffic (if any). there has been a lot of hype about mint before it’s release but you know me I’m never one to jump too soon so I held back and to be honest it has had some mixed reviews, on the whole I think it has gone down a storm with the newer blogging crowd. I think the old schoolers out there have criticised the price tag of the...

K2 has the built in features for gravatar’s. To be honest when I first saw them I thought of it more as a gimic rather than a useful plugin, but now looking at whole scheme of the idea I realised it is so simple yet so effective! I’ve spent the last couple of days thinking the idea over I decided I would give it a crack, but looking at the site Tom Werner is having a few problems. Now we have a...

It looks like Peter Jackson of ‘Lords of the Rings’ fame is going to take on another ring; the infamous Halo. I found this link on a Xbox metadata. Universal Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox announced today that triple-Academy Award winners Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh will serve as the executive producers of HALO, the upcoming feature film based on Microsoft’s phenomenally popular video game...

we all sat in the pub last night to celebrate Sarah’s birthday (hope you had a good one in the end!) and the subject of ‘whatcha doing tomorrow came up’. Lucy was simple; working so that left me with two options. 1. dust off my bike and head out on a epic or 2. update my flickr album and sort out the flickr plugin here. well the head ache this morning helped clinch the...

Today saw the announcement of the sixth James Bond, Daniel Craig, of Layer Cake fame, steps up to the plate to take on the role. Personally I’m not really feeling him as the Iam Flemming super spy, don’t get me wrong I think he has the skills and the talent and is one of Britains finest (current that is) but he just does not fit the Bond image in my eyes. He would make a great bond villan or...

the whole concept of asides to me is an interesting one. I like the idea of having a seperate section for those off beat comments or posts but I’m still undecided as to the location and style of them. with K2 you have two options; inline or on the side bar. so far I’ve opted for inline but I just don’t think that either place lends itself well to the idea of asides. the sidebar to me is the place...

for the last few months my beloved Marin Wolf Ridge has been complaining of a worn out and knackered bottom bracket. finally today I took it too Rob at LifeCycle UK (who I can not recommend enough!) to have a shiny new Race Face chainset fitted. I’ve opted for the new ‘x’ type chainset which has a external bearing fitment which should last a bit longer and take a bit more abuse. Now just need some...

Ka-Meng posted a question in the binary bonsai discussion group about trying to implement a ‘Alert’ banner instead of changing code each time. On my daily cruise through the groups I noticed this and for once opted not to remain an unnamed reader and as I thought I could try and help; hmmm… Needless to say the mod is working with help from Matt Boothby. I’m even trying it out on here, gives me an...

When i was helping Funky move house, i was walking round the house thinking of the different times we have spent there. From the Halloween party to the Le Mans 24hour, and from the Most Haunted Live weekends up to the more recent WGS sessions. But one time that came to mind was the night theydug up Cross Street. Watching these guys working was quite enjoyable and a pleasure to see such speed, but...

Just had an e-mail from Codemasters saying they had released more screenshots of the new ‘Toca Race Driver 3’. Looks alright, anyone heard much about it? Click here for...

Its looks like Apple are trying to upgrade the mini with a new colour screen version. The release of the iPod Nano takes this role nicely, with a 2GB and 4GB version with prices starting at around £139 direct from the Apple Store. This small new mp3 player also has the capabilities of the larger iPods for storing photos and creating slideshows for mobile displays. The Nano will be a great...

Lucy and I are currently enjoying a sweet break from the grind at the moment and taking a sojoun at Stamford. We have come to visit Lucy’s brother and sister-in-law; Ant & Charlotte and at the time of writing enjoyed one too many Bishops Farewell. Check out my Flickr account for the ‘Tight...

It looks like its a repeat of 2000 as everyone seems to be ‘panic buying’ all the petrol from the pumps. A threat of a petrol blockade planned for Wednesday 14th September has caused people to go out and fill their tanks to the top. I can understand if people need to fill up their empty tanks in order to get to work, but people who are queuing for hours just to put a £5 top-up in really doesn’t...

After first watching this film almost five years agos, i have been waiting for the release of it onto DVD, but finally Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas has arrived to Europe. For a long time the film was only available on VHS or DVD Region 1, but as of 1st September 2005, the film has been released in Region 2. The film follows the hallucinogenic and crazed adventures of Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp)...

I was scanning over the web and happened to come across some car reviews. Now i know the car has been around since April this year, but the new Holden (Vauxhall) Monaro VXR really takes my fancy. After the initial release of the Monaro back in early 2004, the 5.7litre V8 muscle car has been improved vastly. The engine has been increased to the new Corvette C6 6.0i V8 which puts out a hansome...

Ok I will admit defeat and accept that at present I’m not going to get any cycling done for a while. In fact I’ve been thinking I might have to knock the training program on the head until Christmas. It was bad enough knowing the evenings are getting darker and the days shorter, which meant no more trails through the cooling sunny shadows. But now with these courses and the extra homework I don’t...

Just a quick note to say good luck Gravy, we all know you have been worrying about your short trip to the dreaded ‘H’ but don’t it’s fine. I mean if any thing does go wrong it is amazing what they can do now with reconstructive surgery. Look at MJ, just think you might end up just like him. Good luck...

sorry it’s a Peter Kay joke… Update: We now have internet in the whole house. My wireless Access Points arrived and after some fiddling we are firing on all cyclinders now! Anyway this evening I’ve got one step closer to finally getting an internet service at my new house. I decided to renew my service with Pipex but as usual there were problems at the local exchange. Turns out I should have been...

Of all things it looks like I will be going back to study some more. As some of you will know I’m no web guru or full time coder I am just a person with an unhealthy obsession with web sites and all my knowledge and experience is 100% self taught. It was decided by my company that I should get a qualification or as least a bit of paper to say I can do what I do, so when some ‘free’ courses are...

I was sitting at the desk this afternoon updating the site and creating some more nodes on the Wiki and having a general tidy up. Quite a nice time too; iTunes on and just typing away when suddenly a click and total silence… First thoughts are is was just us, turned out to be the whole street, so what do you do? Can’t even have a cup of tea to pass the time, how sad. This was a good time to try...

In the seven odd years; lovely fun filled years I might add, that Lucy and I have been together we have spent most of it in rented accomodation. From the very first flat to our current rather large house we have never really thought about jumping on the housing market. Our current situation is that we rent a nice three storey Victorian weaver’s house located right on the meadows of Sudbury, whilst...

Update: It turns out the details Mr. Bumper Humper gave me are a complete load of poo apart from the number plate. Now I have the fun decision of do I take this matter further; hmmm… hell yes! Everyone gets a bit down on a Monday morning, it’s only natural you have got to go back to after a few days off. But this morning it all just felt a little bit worse than that. My week end was not the...

Last night we experienced one of the best electric storms we have had so far this year. It is hardly surprising the weather has been getting hotter and hotter and the air just so ‘heavy’ with that close feeling about it that you knew it was going to happen. Lucy and I were sitting downstairs talking about houses when it first started rumbling, so we decided to move upstairs and look out over the...

I was cycling home tonight and the usual trip down Market Hill yields the standard array of new Focus’, welded together Rover’s and the fibre-glass improved chav mobiles but something caught my eye this time. So much so I had to stop and double take. Yes, the Aero8 is a little bit weird for some people and yes from the front it does look a bit bug eyed but for me it was just something to...

This night was more orientated around the office staff of Grabor Plastics and so part 2 was for the shop floor workers, you know the real people behind any company. Some how I got invited to that as well. Once again an ugly night was soon to follow and the damage was done. It was good to meet up again, despite spending most of the night talking to Kay; yar-great, about the duality of man and the...

Despite the wonderful weather that Sudbury was enjoying over the week end most of my time was spent keeping an eye on the Le Mans 24h race. For me this was going to be an interesting year, Pescarolo on the front row ahead of the Audi R8’s, yep that’s right ahead of them. Plus the biggest news since the return of Bentley; the return of Aston Martin in the GT1 class with two Pro-Drive prepared...

Today gravy2012 and I decided to try and clear out some of the junk I have collected over the many years. With the whole looking for a house thing Lucy and I have realised that living in such a large house has created horders who have rooms of crap just piled up to the ceiling. We know to afford a new house we have got to remove the junk, no point to just moving it from one house to the next so we...

Friday night was a real scorcher at work. It was a nice bright morning when i first woke up, but then the clouds covered the skies just as i wanted to sit in the garden! They finally cleared as i was cooking my lunch and getting ready to go to work. When i got to work, i got suited and boated only to find that our shop floor was at least 30’C. To top it off, we had to fix a broken motor coupling...

I had a phone call from bobgbob the other day to say that Grabor Plastics, who were my old employer who had recently been sold and taken over by another firm, were having a get together at a new drinking hole in Sudbury as a fare well. He asked if would like to show my face as an old employee and see people off to pastures new, I said hell no, but I’ll come just to take the pi55 if he wanted...

Lucy and I hit the roads and enjoyed the sunshine this morning. It was by far one of the hottest days we have had this year and after a quick climb out of Sudbury we stopped to enjoy the view of what there was on offer. After the breather we set off again and carried on round the local countryside only to find ourselves at a lovely ford just outside Arga Fenn were we sat just chilling for a...

This morning i received a special offer e-mail from “ebuyer.com” about there latest products. I always have a look just to see what is cheap or what is new. I was extra excited when i saw this item, check out the link and tell me how cool is this. Maybe you can link it up and tell it to make your dinner!! Cooking In The Digital...

Last night whilst I was trying to take a couple more photo’s of the ongoing storm that has not really stopped for two days now, bob was looking at his new site on a Mac to check it worked in Safari when he commented on a ‘spot’ on my screen. On closer inspection it turns out that it is not a bit of dirt on the screen but a spot inside the screen. We sat there trying to work out what it was when...

If you have sky, you may have accidentally gone past the motorsTV, men&motors, Poker channel or even an old episode of ‘Top Gear’ and found yourself on LivingTV. This is an interesting channel for the enlightened viewer, but one programme which i have grown used to is Most Haunted. The programme consists of former 'Blue Peter’ presenter Yvette Fielding, an acquired taste psychic Derek Acorah...

It was sort of decided before the race began that if Lance Armstrong finished this Tour de France then he would be standing on the podium, with 6 tour wins already the chance of making it seven was too tempting, even he admitted that he could not just ride the tour, he had to win it. After Stage 18 Armstrong is already nearly three mintutes ahead of the next man; Ivan Basso and with the final leg...

ah the old days of the commodore 64,long lazy summers,long loading games,every game release was amazing and games were only £8.95 (£7.95 on spectrum - not fair). Anyway on to the post,i found an absolute class site the other day which has some really good remakes of some old commodore 64 classics,one of the highlights on this page is a pc remake of monty on the run,its really good,graphics are...

Lucy is out at work this morning and so I was left to just rattle about the house for a few hours so what do you do? If your really bored I guess you could check the news for news of the current oil price? So I did! OK, I’m not that geekish to really check the price to much, I don’t keep an eye on the FTSE either but when you are a merchant of polymer products you do have a vested in interest in...

When i was on my fore mentioned boat trip, i tried playing around with my digital camera to she what i could get. I tried silhouette, mirrored and night shots. The camera has no special self lighting system for night, it just leaves the shutter open for longer to allow more light in. Good job there was some kind of moon that night! Go to My iMac Homepage to see larger versions of some of my...

It seems that the web is alive with maps at the moment, the in thing is Earth Google with the new Google Maps also being popular. Is this the new way of looking at the world as a small space were we are all connected? Well it could well be. Whilst I’ve not tried Earth Google yet as it’s PC only but the Google Maps are pretty cool, makes you wonder how Columbus ever found land without them. By the...

[[Microsoft]] have released the new name for it’s upcoming [[OS]]; Longhorn, it will now be known as Windows Vista. Longhorn has been in the pipe line for a while and whilst rumoured it should be realesed some time in 2156! Only joking but the time scale has been put back and back whilst they concentrate on ‘fixing’ existing [[Windows]] versions. The plan is for Beta1 of Vista to be released...

I was damn shocked to hear the news this morning about all the terrorist attacks in London. It does not feel right to post yet another article about the events as I’m sure the internet will be ripe with news and views of the day, it only goes to say that I hope any one I know down that way is safe and well and all those effected have my thoughts and feelings. Of course you can get most information...

I have recieved so many emails about this idea I thought it best to share it with those that don’t know the deal. Yo, Have you heard of this? It’s been on the radio today and seems like a very good idea to me. tim —–Original Message—– East Anglian Ambulance Service launched in April a national “In case of Emergency ( ICE ) ” campaign. The idea is that you store the word “ ICE ” in your mobile...

Yesterday i returned from my annual boating trip on the Norfolk Broads. It comprises of a three day boat hire with 9 mates to sail, relax, bond and indulge on the occasional glass of sherry, this year aboard the Superior Gem 4! Ok so we managed a fairly good effort of over 350 beers in 60 hours and that was just on the boat, many more were consumed out in pubs, clubs and towns, plus we had to...

Lucy and I were walking through a local village at the week end and found this beauty between the antique shops. Not the first thing you expect to find in a rural...

It has taken a while but finally the clan I belong to DAO have been noticed and we are being published. Thanks to Nigel (of Crafty fame) for all his hard work in sending off the emails, well basically he kept on badgering them until they had no choice to do a article on us! As I’m not a hardcore gamer I do not get the copies of the magazines delivered to the door so I can’t tell what or where the...

We are now on the third day in July already, the year just seems to be cruising by in a blur. This is the seventh month already, the days will be getting shorter and the darkness will begin to grow, it felt like only the other day I was sitting there thinking ‘when will summer get here’ now all of a sudden you realise you better make the most of it; which is difficult with the decline in the...

Following on from my last post about Tiger, check out this link from Apple Insider. Yep they are still working on updates to Panther but the news about the first maintainance update to Tiger, 10.4.1 looks mighty...

What a day, it all started off good, a nice ride into work and then greeted by a brand new Camelbak Havok in the post but on closer inspection of my bike at lunch time revealed a loose back end! I noticed there might be a problem there the previous day on the way home, the back end just felt a bit ‘loose’ and did not track right, but me being me did not investigate, just hoped it would get better....

We had a letter through the door the other day to claim that they would finally try and sort out the surface of the road we live on, the plan was to close the road from Sat evening through till Sunday. We did not quite expect the machinery that they bought in to do the job with. Having a tall house we manged to get a birds eye view of the whole process and have to admit Sean and I spent most of...

It looks like the wait is over, the release date for Tiger has been confirmed. Placing a pre-order with tha Apple store will mean your copy will arrive for the 29th. Now I only have one question, do I upgrade on the day? All the nice new feaures of Tiger are appealing but can I done with the standard broken apps and corrupt permissions that are always there during a upgrade. Got a bit of time to...

Recieved one of my weekly email updates from Muriel Barnes last night and she has passed on the comments of: Just a quick line to let you know that your baby is getting along fine.? The attached pic was taken this morning after breakfast, although Pickle doesn’t actually have any now, she is offered supper only as is getting quite good at eating on her own now……….so she should be O.K. for...

Today Lucy and I had a quick drive up to Attleborough to meet Muriel and Keith Barnes who are currently breading out baby Senegal parrot; Pickle. It was a pleasure to meet them, and Pickle, and I can’t thank them enough. We found it hard to come away empty handed but we know that Pickle is a few weeks off from being fully ready for a new home. So I guess we just sit and wait until then, thank you...

One in three Friday nights for me are a bit of a non event, Lucy is at work and so I have no real intention of doing anything, most of the time this is used to perform the regular maintenance on this site and the [[DAO]] one. This Friday was a bit different, I got a call from Dan who wanted to try an install of Linux, so with my Mandrake discs in hand I popped round to see what I could do. Well...

back! I wish I knew what I have done but at present I’m crippled, OK not that bad but a serious amount of pain and not really enjoying it too much. It all started the other morning I think, lifting a PC into the boot of the car, I must have turned and done something weird with it as it just felt ‘off’ since then. But on the way home on the bike last night I went to put the power down out of a...

I’ve been trying to put some miles under my belt the last few weeks yet everytime I get going I end up with a flat tyre. I have been running some slicks at the moment so that might have some to do with it, but then I was only running on tarmac. I looked into the idea of some ‘Slime’ or some other forms of puncture prevention but after reading some stories of how messing the gunk in the tyre thing...

With the weather getting better by the day I’m getting out on the bike more. Yet last year I was struggling to get all my crap to work in one bag and find a nice comfortable bag to do so! I’ve decided to purchase a new, larger, Camelbak this year so that everything can come with me. I opted for the Havok, which despite not getting a great review so far is designed for the ‘Free-rider’ yet seemed...

I’ve decided to go for it with Tiger. My real concern is for applications not working yet I realised at the moment I’m only really using iPhoto and some other Mac programs. I’m hoping these will come out the other side smiling so what the hey. Plus if you pre-order from the Apple store you get an invitation to a online seminar showing you lots of tips and trix for the OS, a free chip butty would...

Today was the first day I decided to bike to work this year. Normally once the weather improves I near enough live on the bike but once it turns cold I just shy away indoors. Friday morning the weather was looking good, but they have planned on re-surfacing the road outside my house so all the cars were is chaos, meaning parking was in short demand. I opted to park the car and get on the bike to...

That’s right I’m searching the internet, the news feeds and even under the fridge for any information to the latest release of OSX. According to the Apple website it is due for release the first half of 2005. But on April the 1st, it was announced to have ‘gone gold’ This is basically the final, final release, it has been passed by everyone and is now ready for producing, packing and shipping....

Been a while since the last update and to be honest I’m glad, I’ve spent the last day just not wanting to look at a televison or computer screen after the GT4 race. The whole event went really well and it was a good laugh, but I am glad I did book the Monday off work just to make sure. Not really tired but it was nice to finally have a day to just do those things that weeks ends are there for....

Well today was finally the day we get to pick up Pickle the Senegal Parrot. So off we set in the car to the sunny depths of Norfolk to meet Muriel and Keith again. They had organised for a pet carrier to be waiting for us and after a quick fairwell chat we were back on our way home with the bird. I’m not sure if it was my driving or just the experience but half way home Pickle decided that she...

Just wondering whether everybody has had a nice summer? That was it you know, the three days of lovely sunshine! The time when everybody, including me, got the sun lounges out, filled there eyes with bbq smoke, filled there bellies with the charcoal they cremated on the top and then got burnt by the sun and spent all the next day walking round trying not to touch anything! The point I was getting...

Today we had a bit of a family outing, to the local motorcross course to watch some action. Sean, Sarah, Lyn, Ken, Lucy and I made the short journey to ‘Lovenly Hall’ for a event in the motorcross calendar. As you can tell I do not really follow the sport’s events, but I can’t get enough of the...

Well it was good to know that this morning that dreaded feeling of ‘what have I forgotten to do for work on Monday’ were short lived. For once I’ve some time off work and all I have left to think about is what shall I do to fill the time? Well the real reason for the time off is Pickle, well that and the fact that they kicked me out of the office as I’ve not taken any time off. As Pickle has come...

Yesterday I finally recieved my copy of Tiger, yep thats right nearly a week after the release date despite the Apple promise of ‘order from us and we will pre-deliver it so you can enjoy on the day’. Well in Apples defense it was more a TNT problem, least the local TNT driver and I agreed that TNT are by far the best of the worse! Anyway back to the blog, recieved a nice box full of one copy of...

Every one has fallen in love with digital photo’s but you never really view like you should be able to because not every one has web space to share their treasures. I’ve started putting some of my pictures on this site under the media section and as good as SimpleViewer is it is a pain having to resize the photo’s create and thumbnail and modify the xml for the album. I’ve looked at sites like...

We all know that [[Microsoft]] has been planning the unveil their new console the Xbox2 or [[Xbox360]] as it will be known and it is a engraved rule that [[Sony]] will come back with a new version of the [[PlayStation2]] which is cunningly going to be known as the [[PlayStation3]]. If you are into your gaming you will know that the [[Xbox360]] was actually unveiled on a MTV special show, which in...

This week end is the Suffolk Kite Flyers annual festival, also known as the Suffolk Kite Festival. Having been a member (long story I guess) I felt the need to offer my hand at setting up the show ground ready for the displays. But having the time off work and looking after Pickle I’ve not really had much time in the saddle so I decided to make the trip on the bike rather than a stuffy car. It was...

After my visit to to the D&D house on Friday (see below) Lucy and I kind of got invited to a BBQ with Carol and John with Dan and Dell. It started out a bit on the strange side trying to get Augie down to the pub and onto the house without the use of a cab but the ever adventure seaking Dan and I opted to walk and what a good decision. Weather was top notch and worth effort. After a few jars...

Many moons ago I started looking into web sites and the languages behind them. Not being qualified or anything like that and only looking into this as a hobby I decided to try and teach myself HTML. Now I’m not trying to blow my own trumpet but it seemed to be going quite well. I created quite a few sites and the whole process really got me thinking. I then moved onto learning a bit of php and...

Microsoft’s second version of its Xbox console will feature a CPU with PowerPC cores, according to GameSpy, which claims to have scooped the specifications. I heard rumours of a PowerPC chip behind this machine many moons ago but decided not to believe the hype until confirmed. I’m still not convinced this is a 100% water proof M$ approved spec sheet so here’s to still holding your...

SCI have today announced a bid to buy into Eidos. Eidos recently have not been on top of the world despite bringing the world Lara Croft, along with many other titles which completely slip my mind. They announced a major loss and requested a takeover to secure their future. The first to step foward was Bono (US lead singer) orientated partnership, Elevation Partners. Obviously SCI has concidered...

It’s been a bit quiet on the site of late, I think this is just things catching up with me. Easter was a tiring time with Lucy’s birthday thrown in. Too many dark days and bright nights were enjoyed but now I need rest. The only interesting item to post about was I purchased iLife05 from Apple. Because I only got my G5 at the beginning of the year (two days before the release of iLife05), Apple...

Monday mornings are never really the best but this morning was a different matter. For some reason there was an extra brightness in the sky and the air was smelling just that little bit sweeter. Does this mean spring is on the way? I damn well hope so, I’m fed up with the cold and miserable weather, I need some sun and a bit of warmth through my veins. This extra feeling carried all the way to...

Today was the UK release of Metal Solid 3: Snake Eater for the PlayStation2. Whilst I have aready been playing this through the use of a US copy and PS2 I think I will purchase the UK version. Rumours are there are more extras on the UK copy, a few more ‘Snake Vs. Monkey’ levels and the game setting of...

To be honest I’m not normally a fan of driving wheels or things like that. I just think a video game is just that, a game and any thing like these are just overkill. I will stand corrected and eat my hat and what ever else you have to do as today Lucy managed to find a Logitech Driving Force Pro steering wheel for the PlayStation2. The reason for this sudden change of heart is simply down to the...

Just a quick one to say happy birthday to Lucy! Thanks to all those who came out last night and enjoyed a drink, I took a few photo’s so I will see if any are worth putting up. Until then back to the...

Today was the release of Gran Turismo 4 for the PlayStation2. I recieved my copy as usual and as of yet I’m undecided about the game. By far Polyphony have spent their time on the look and feel of the game but this whole photo gallery idea instead of some good network play seems a bit strange. True you can play a nice lan battle but with [[Xbox]] running away with the [[Live]] scene you would have...

Gravy2012 and I had a quick go on the Logitech wheel over the week end. Well a quick go soon turned into about an evening’s worth. Add some beer and ales to the situation and as you can imagine we soon ended up making a night of it. The real reason for the extended ‘testing’ of the wheel was the simple fact that it is so god damn good! I was expecting some nice feedback from the reviews I have...

easyMobile.com - the discount mobilephoneco backed by no frills airline entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou - has taken off at last. And as reported, the cost of UK calls is 9p a minute while texts cost 3p. However, this is only a limited offer and from June, those charges will revert to 15p and 5p respectively. “We are very pleased to launch our service in the UK, and I fully believe British...

Today the register announced the following: Those of us who like a few pints already know that beer fights cancer and is an absolute life-saver in an avalanche emergency situation, but what about the apparently proven effect of ale on the old waistline, eh? After all, anyone who has ever been on a package holiday to the Spanish costas can attest to the terrifying expansion of the British male’s...

I’m always inspired by the endurance races in motorsport, the main one being the Le Mans 24h. Just the idea of a team of people running a car flat out for a day without stopping. Just to keep the drivers awake would be enough, but to then build a car that will run on the limit for this time is one achievement in my book. So imagine my delight when I discover that Gran Turismo 4 has some real time...

Apple today announced a change to the iPod line up. A new second generation Mini is available, now in 6gb formats. Also joining are the new iPod Shuffle machines, available in 512mb and 1gb capacities. Prices on the 4gb Mini have dropped to bring the new 6gb version in where the now older 4gb version sat. The Photo version has also been upgraded to a whopping 60gb! with standard versions still...