Chilli plant update

Thew new crop of chilli plants are growing fast - we had to go and get some more pots to repot them before they get too big. Meanwhile the mature plants are still producing lots of nice red chillis for me :)

YouTube video blog test...

Just trying to see if I can blog videos....appears I can but I have to decrease the standard width from 425 to 400 in order for it not to bust my page.

Sony DCR-SR70E

My new camcorder turned up today. Neat little thing - very small, 1M-pix CCD, super steady shot, super night shot, 12x optical zoom, 800x digital zoom, 60GB HDD, docking station, USB2 transfer etc etc. Only thing I am unsure of is the MPEG2 recording format. Although straight to DVD will be easy it is proving troublesome to edit. UPDATE - review now on RICHIE BOYS TOYS

Sony DCR-SR70 Camera

I just bought myself a little present - a new camcorder (well, half bought - K has decided this is an easy way out of having to think what to buy me for my birthday and as such offered some help on the £££ front). I have been waiting for the right bit of kit to come along for more than a year now. My requirements were true 16:9, night-vision, HDD recording medium, small dimensions and pref. touchscreen. A while back I became quite interested in the JVC Everio GZ-MG505 but was put off by its lack of night-vision (more useful than you think). In then end Sony finally bought out a range of HDD cameras that weren't the size of a shoebox. I opted for the top-of-range SR70 as it has a 60GB drive (£50 more than the 30GB model). It also has a large touch-screen LCD - front mounted mic and comes with a USB2 docking station allowing me to charge and upload at the same time. So, ordered this afternoon and should be with me on Thu - can't wait!

Outside chillis

The two chilli plants outside are doing very well too...

Chilli seeds start to grow...

I planted some chilli seeds about a week ago - our good friend A had given them to us some time ago. Well, unbelievably (if you know how non-green my fingers are) they started to shoot. I cannot tell you how excited I am - more chilli plants!!!!!! The two adult plants we keep outside are producing more and more red-hot killers every day, so the thought of even more and of different varieties makes me dizzy with excitement :)

Hmmmm - steak!

Hurrah for Sainsburys - I managed to make an entire meal without really cooking anything - perfect!

Bluetooth mouse and TyTN dock

I finally added my Bleutooth mouse and TyTN docking station to RICHIE BOYS TOYS - I would add pics but for some reason blogger beta (which I am trying) is having problems linking them - might try later...(added)

Night in Bury

Spent the night in Bury St.Edmunds with work as B was over from Italy. Good meal at Cafe Rouge followed by a few beers in the Nutshell (UK's smallest pub - although this is currenly being contended by someone who has converted a signal-station to a bar).

Kris' new website

K has a new website to go hand in hand with her new business venture. It contains only a cover-page for now but will be changed soon to a full design - www.haighs.biz

My new chair...

I bought a new office chair today after um-ing and ar-ing for over a week. It cost a fair ammount but it is SOOOOOOO nice to sit in, and I do spend a lot of time in it. I consider it a treat to myself :)

WIFI - 4 from 17

I thought I'd try a little experiment today. I had to go and feed S's cat this morning and then return home via the post office to pick up a parcel - a walk of about 10 mins that involved a basic lap of the village. So, I set my wifi sniffer up on my TyTN and left it running. I caught 17 access points in total and, surprisingly to me, only 4 were unprotected. So, is the world becoming more secure? Well, by ratio I think so....but a couple of years back there were only 4 access points in knebworth and they were all unprotected! It is interesting seeing what people have named their routers though - everything from the number and road of the house it is in to 'The OC':)

New bluetooth headset

I recenlty broke (well, chipped) my trusty Nextlink Bluespoon AX headset. After 3 years use I figure it has done fairly well. So - what to replace it with...well, the new version - the AX2 of course! Same idea, same size but newer bluetooth stack and much longer battery life. Info here: http://www.nextlink.to/webshop/

Benington Lordship Chilli Festival

K and I went to the beautiful viallge of Benington today for the Benington Lordship Chilli Festival. The Lordship is a fantastic old manor house with sprawling grounds and part of the building consisting of some ruined battlements. The festival hosted 10 or so stalls selling eveything chilli related - spices, sauces, clothing - everything! We hung around for an hour or so soaking up the atmosphere and wondering why we had not found this picturesque village yet! We left with a Thai Dragon Chilli plant which should produce 200+ chillis every year. They are small and evil looking and are VERY hot - should come in handy for fajitas tonight :)

TyTN upgrade...

Been watching an interesting post over at the xda-developers forum. A new ROM has been released by HTC for the TyTN. Several people are reporting speed increases but I am more interested to see if it fixes my SMS voicemail notification problem (basically none being delivered).

There are however a couple of problems:
1 - the update is not a Vodafone update (but an HTC one)
2 - the update contains a basic extended ROM (missing the Vodafone plugins)

Item 1 appears fairly easy to get round with this machine. In the past I have had to hack ROMs in order to tell them they are actually different than they are. Once hacked the phone accepts them. With the TyTN you start the install and when it gets to point of telling you the phone has the wrong vendor code you simply leave it plugged in in BOOT mode and re-run the setup. The vendor check code can no longer run and as such you can flash the ROM - nice!

Item 2 is also fairly straightforward as long as you have a copy of the extended ROM you with to use. Simple complete the upgrade, unlock the extended ROM, copy in your preferred files and hard reset - the device does the rest.

We will see how successful this all it - I am currently only 10% though the 25min upgrade process detailed as step 1 above...fingers crossed!

KellyCult

I received today my notice of expiration for my KellyCult domain. With less than 100 hits a month I figure it is not worth renewing. So, as of 18th October it will be no longer at its own domain, instead at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/richandkris/kellycult
The site was up for two years and was inspired by my Jacskon Kelly bought for me as a wedding present. It was fun to make and, at the time, a laugh to maintain. RIP KellyCult :)

TyTN remote control...

Found a nifty tool allowing me complete control of my TyTN PDA using my computer. Have turned my £1,200 laptop into the world's most expensive PDA keyboard :)

New monitors - new desk layout

We got some new Dell monitors at work today - which meant I got to re-arrange my desk :) I went from 4 screens to 3 and, added to the fact these new ones can sit a lot lower, I have created a more spacious feeling. It is easier to see what is going on in the office now - and talk to people. Marco complained that Tera's NASA command centre had left!

RICHIE BOYS TOYS

I have been playing around with e107 (a CMS - search google) and have loaded a new page on a NAS device at home. I figure it will be a place I can comment on my favourite tekky toys :) Have a look:

RICHIE BOYS TOYS

Bl**dy cats!

Came down this morning and found a dead bat on the kitchen floor. I swear our cats have become more and more efficient at being cold blooded killers over these summer months. We have had everything from slow-worms (look alarmingly like a snake the first time you see one) to foot-long rats, to pidgeons, blackbirds, mice, frogs (which scream when prodded by a cat), voles and now bats too! When will the killing end!!!!

Boiler leaking.....

Our lovely (not that old) combi boiler sprang a leak recently. I got fed up with waiting for our plumber friend to phone back so I decided to fix it myself. Found a service manual on the net and after figuring out where it was leaking from I discovered there was a rubber washer to blame. Quick call to the 'Service Centre' for parts and the entire thing cost me £12 and took 30mins. K was somewhat aprehensive when I started hammering stuff, removing large bits of metal and draining off water but she soon calmed down :) It apears fixed but will give it a couple of days before passing judgement. So, next project, anyone know how to move a radiator....

In Hull this week

I am in Hull this week with the Hull Daily Mail. Whilst here I noticed a very large TV screen in the middle of the town centre - nice! I also went and visited 'The Deep' which turned out to be rather a nice aquarium full of sharks, rays and suck like. Not sure it was worth the £11 inc parking though! I put some vids on my youtube account - see link to the right of this column...

New toys...

Got the chance to play with some new toys recently. The Freecom FSG is a 250GB NAS device BUT it also has an on-board processor allowing routing, web hosting, ftp, email, network printing, etc etc etc. It is truely excellent although a little loud when in use. The Dell D420 is a VERY small dual-core laptop with a 12.1" screen. It weighs around 1KG but gives around 5 hours of battery life. The screen is 1280x800 so it is useable too. Both these toys are very tempting but with my TyTN purchase this month I am having to be good...

Jenson Wins!

Jenson Button won his first grand prix in Hungary... I was on the edge of my seat with excitement. EXCELLENT! WOOHOO!!!

Bath and Cheltenham

Had a busy week this last week. Work took me to Swansea, Bath and Cheltenham all in 3 days. On the plus side I got to take K with me and show her around a bit. First time she has been to Bath and she loved it. We met up with my Aunt and Uncle in Cheltenham for a meal which was great - although K got stung by a wasp which was not so great :). Nice for me to have company though on what would normally be a fairly boring business trip.