Whoa 'Time'out!

Walking into work on my daily commute this morning a man approached me and politely asked me for the time, I gave it to him, he thanked me and went on his way.

I find it odd that in this day and age, he didn't know what time it was? I can understand him not having a watch but surely he had a mobile phone on him? Almost everyone has one of those and he didn't look like someone who didn't have the means to own one?

There's hope for Apple's Watch after all...

Dying Light: Jumping from the Suspension Bridge

Games like Dying Light are just virtual playgrounds for messing around!

Photography #101

One thing I love to do is try and get the sun shining through trees, one of the most expressive photos to capture in my opinion. I like to compare them to views in games like Halflife: Episode 2, or Elder Scrolls games (such as Oblivion or Skyrim) as the devs for those games really tried to utilise their respective game engines' raytracing capabilities.

I took this early morning during winter time at Centre Parcs, whilst trying out my hired mountain bike... and yes, like most gamers, I was sad enough to try and envisage whether a nVidia 9800 card would be able to render this scene at +60 fps!

Photography #101

This is a pic I took from the top of the Wrekin, I used my camera's Panoramic Mode, great for situations like that when there's an ace view and you want to get as much of it in one go!

You're supposed to be able to see seven counties when the view is clear but I doubt this pic got them all!

I can see my house from here!

Chancellor's 'Lightbulb' Moment

Chancellor George Osborne recently had a lightbulb moment whilst figuring out the latest budget…

Eureka!

General Election 2015

Apparently Parliament has now been officially dissolved… a team of immigrants was brought in to clean up the mess.

Hotel Wireless

Why is that hotel wireless services always seem to have that annoying habit of being totally crap at the most inconvenient moments. I was able to stream Sky Go uninterrupted for a couple of hours (including a live stream of the Norwich Peregrines with no problems) yet when I'm sat in the bar and want to post a couple of simple blog posts (sans pictures) it craps out!

Must be something to do with the gay wedding taking place in the hotel's function room as there's tons of people attending and they must all be hammering it too but my point is is that surely they must realise these situations happen so why don't they put in a wireless service that can handle it?!

Up the Wrekin

A good day today... Had a good walk up the Wrekin and am now sitting in a hotel bar enjoying a few refreshing beers :)

It didn't start well as I dropped a pot of hair gel on the floor of a local Tesco and gel went everywhere, I cleaned it up and left somewhat embarrased, god thing I wasn't a local! Although it's probably a talking point in the local pub - "bloody townies and their strange hair gel ways"

However I must point out that this happened in a Tesco just down the road from where my granma used to live so sucks to you locals, I had family here!

Oh for those of you how don't know what the Wrekin is, it's a big mound of rock and dirt that can be seen from pretty much everywhere in Shropshire, great views from the top :p

We got lucky!

Phew, we got lock at work today, a CryptoLock virus tried to do it's business on our network, it managed to copy a load of suspect files to our main fileserver but only got that far before our antivirus stopped it.

I've spent most of the day chasing it but it's mostly been contained now, just got to do a scan on the server overnight.

To the people that create this type of malware - may your anuses be infested with a thousand fleas for all of eternity, your place amongst humanity is not required, please go and die a horrible painful death somewhere that doesn't inconvenience anyone else.

Zero Activity

No posts this week - for two reasons

1. I've been busy
2. I've not had anything interesting to post, and;
3. I've spent most of the week recovering from a monster hangover

Probably more '2' mostly though, I mean, let's face it, why post if you've got nothing to post.

6 Nations 2015

Ah well, we gave it our all but we had to contain a rampant French team and they are the hardest team to play against when they are inspired.

Congrats to Ireland for winning it, well played to Wales for giving it a go...

To Italy - don't drop your heads just because you go a couple of tries behind.

To Scotland - a team that has great potential for the future, keep slogging away and stop being so damned obsessed with beating us! Look, we are all together on this little island, let bygones be bygones, concentrate on yourselves and you can be great, again. 

Um...

Okay the timing of those last two posts looks a bit bad, the post showing the content of the boot of my car was within 1 minute of me posting a pic of my pint.

That looks like I was drink-driving, which I most certainly was not. I took the pic earlier on, way before I went to the pub.. Thing is, when I arrived at the pub and had a free moment I chose that time to post the boot pic but for some reason Blogger never published it! Then, much later on when I went back to my smart phone and published the pint pic then noticed that the boot pic had not piblished so I did that too, hence the screwy timing...

Ahh wtf, no-one ever reads these.

Saturday Shopping

This is how I roll on a Saturday - flowers and beer in the boot of my car...

FTW!

Hoopla baby!

Photography #101

There's nothing like a nice tranquil watery scene... I took this after a pretty heavy bout of rain so the lighting was just right.

So tranquil... ;)

Web Annoyances #3

Adverts that have now started to appear between paragraphs of text on certain news websites, I've just started reading and the damned column of text shifts down and an advert appears with the express intention of distracting me from my reading!

As previous posts, when that happens I simply close the tab and move onto the next article… pisses me right off that I'm inundated with advertising everywhere I go on the web…

Partial Eclipse

Newsflash: A partial eclipse of the sun was cancelled in the UK today due to health and safety fears… the government is now out looking for the moon as, strangely, they could not see it anywhere else in the sky.

MacBook Pro Baby!

So I've added another member to my computer family - a brand new MacBook Pro, I got it so I could kick back on the sofa with it on my lap and do my work in front of the TV.

Yeah baby, Apple fanboi here... livin' the dream ;p

Photography #101

Aaahh! Cows!!

Cows are awesome, where would we be without them? 

Web Annoyances #2

News websites that have started to place multiple choice options that you have to fill in in order to read the article, I just want to read the damned article, not contribute to some poxy metric that no-one will find useful... all I do is close the page, go bcd to Google News and look for another site that has the same news article.

Rescuing civvies in Dying Light :)

For anyone who hasn't played Dying Light, when out and about in the fair city of Harran you often come across hostile survivors who, when approached, come at you with the intention of making life very painful!



This one failed...

Messing around with Virals in Dying Light

I got so fed up of these types of vitals attacking me whilst out on night jaunts that I equipped my rifle and unloaded on one that was near the safe house I was in, immensely satisfying!

"Pursuit evaded…" lol

Photography #101

This is a picture I took whilst in a hide at a wildlife sanctuary in Norfolk, it's of a couple of Common Chaffinch's at a feeding table. I used the telephoto lens and 'sport mode' where the camera is automatically setup for a fast, continuous shooting mode, great for catching a bird in flight!

Dying Light

I've had so much fun playing this game, freerunning round an open world killing zombies, what's not to like!

Like most games of this type, the world physics can get a bit screwy, like in this video (link below) where the viral I killed gets inadvertently sucked into a spike trap despite the fact that it was nowhere near it!

Immensely satisfying though because when those buggers gang up on you it get's painful! 

Web Annoyances #1

Those thumbnails for articles that often start with "Twenty armies with the most..." or "Ten of the most terrifying" or "This amazing trick will...", all the major news websites use them in some form or another at the bottom of the page.

I call them article spam, all they are is a backdoor mechanism to show you ads. Their format is always as a 'gallery' so a 'next' button has to be selected to view more, this then enables a refresh function to show a different set of ads thereby allowing the author to sell more.

Often the grammar and/or spelling is bad and no amount of research will have been done, the author probably just Googled it and took from existing articles others laboured long and hard to research because, after all, they couldn't give a fuck about the content, all they want you to do is click on the damned annoying ads.

I admit I've tried a couple that intruiged me but I quickly saw them for what they are and no longer click on them, it still annoys me seeing them though.

The Chronicles of Riddick, an observation

Just watched The Chronicles of Riddick, seen it loads of times but I've just realised something, the Necromongers in it are just a bunch of Emos. I mean they all have a pallid complexion, wear black, enjoy pain and constantly go on about death, no wonder Riddick got medieval on them all.

Ed 'Two Kitchens' Miliband

Mine's two sugars Mrs Miliband...

No. 10's kitchen has chairs, so there!

Progress Bars

This:

Is the bane of my existence… not that I'm saving a PDF format file but the progress bar, I see them every day in all kinds of forms, I even see the damn things in my sleep.

I'm hoping that future generations, possibly a hundred years or so into the future, won't have to suffer them because computing power will be so advanced stuff will get done instantly.

Here's some more:

Slightly different style but serving the same purpose - annoying the fuck out of me and pretty much anyone else involved in DTP.

…and look at this, I've got a progress bar over the top of this page as I write this blog!

Like I say, bane of my existence… my gravestone will have a progress bar on it, with the words: "Please wait…"

Apple Watch - the story so far...

So Apple announced more details on their new watches this week and the press immediately fell on the poor battery performance. Apparently you can get a good 14 hours out of it provided you do absolutely nothing with it except treat it as a watch (which in the 21st century is completely outrageous). However if you listen to music, do all your social media stuff, makes calls, send texts etc. you'll get four hours at best… then you have to plug in the magnetic charger and leave it for an hour-and-a-half to get at least an 80% charge.

Sounds pretty rubbish to be honest and not something people will be used to when it comes to using watches. I mean, lets face it, probably 99% of the world have watches that last several years on one battery, so tweaking their lifestyle choices to include charging their watches every night would sound a bit much for some people. That is an area of the watch's design that Apple really need to improve for the next version.

As for me, I don't think it will be a problem, the Apple Watch's battery performance falls into two categories - a gadget-centric working lifestyle and a heavy social lifestyle.

I have neither, whilst I use a lot of technology at work, none of it relies on the features the Apple Watch has and I'm lucky if I get one text or e-mail off the few friends I have as pretty much all of them are married off and have families so I only see them in the pub occasionally, which negates the need to use the Apple Watch for much more than gaze at the clock to check when the bar closes.

So I'm confident I'd get at least two days' use before I'd have to charge it.

Having said that, Apple's new MacBook looks awesome, but I can't afford both!

Jeremy Clarkson Suspended

It's real shame Jeremy Clarkson has been suspended by the Beeb, looks like the PC fucktards are getting their way again. I'm sick and tired with all their crap, they should realise that there's two sides to the coin and without an alternate way of seeing things (which is what Jeremy Clarkson does so well) the world would become some sort of dystopian '1984' where we all trudge into work, wearing grey clothes, blinking in unison with absolutely nothing to look forward to in our pitiful existences.

This is what the middle-management, red-tape wielding, PC fucktards want us to be… Jeremy Clarkson is a shining beacon amongst all that crap.

I pay the BBC licence fee and I want him to stay!

Bring back Jeremy Clarkson!

Photography #101

I took this picture whilst out on a walk in Shropshire, just goes to show how useful a telephoto lens can be! Of course the subject of the pic - a Blue Tit - was way too busy demolishing a nut and singing about it to notice me ;)

Yay I got a nut!

Apple Watch

Won't be long before Apple bring out their new watches and I'm torn as to whether to get one or not.

I have a perfectly good watch, an Accurist and it's served me well for the past twenty-odd years. I'm like most blokes my age in that I have one watch and a couple of pairs of footwear that last decades, so getting an Apple Watch is a big, big decision because it upsets that dogmatic wristwear-to-footwear ratio that's kept me sane and fashionably grounded for all those years.

Of course price is an influence on my decision, the sporty version alone will cost three times more than what I paid for my Accurist. Battery charge too as Apple claims it will need to be charged every night and I'm running out of real estate on my bedside table what with all the other tech gadgets on there vying for space and power extension brick slots.

But probably the biggest influence is that it would be an Apple first gen model, which means that a better, more powerful, second gen model will be out a year later, then a third gen and so on... so it's a strategic call as to whether I delve in and be a first adopter or wait it out until Apple release one that will undoubtedly have better battery life and features half the world will have been screaming about for the best part of a year.

Hmm decisions, decisions... one thing's for sure my old faithful Accurist watch will still be there, I'm not getting rid of it, it's still accurate, the battery only needs replacing every three to four years and it, like my limited footwear collection will keep me sane and grounded during this crazy Apple tech fest period!

Self Cleaning Paint

Scientists have developed a self cleaning paint.

Now if they could do a self cleaning carpet that'd be awesome, save me having to do the sodding hoovering all the time.

Truly a child of the 80s :)

My god, whilst watching an A Team episode via Netflix I found myself speaking the narrative that begins each episode out load, word for word, even though I haven't seen one in years!

Sunday Full of Rugby

A full day of Rugby at the Ricoh Arena - a Wasps win (versus Gloucester) and an England loss (which we watched on a big screen in the Jaguar Exhibition hall)

I'm off now, got a date with a huge steak and ale pie ;)

Website Ad Overlays

Note to website devs: when I arrive on your site and begin reading the content please don't suddenly block my reading with an overlay containing an ad for something I am and will never be interested in. It's really annoying and when I see them I stop reading and close the page, thereby losing you a reader which kind of defeats the object of you attracting visitors.

If you have to have ads on your site, do it less conspicuously.

That is all.