iRobot - Roomba 560

Finally - I get to command my own robotic minions... well, one of them at least. Tomorrow I expect delivery of a robot vacuum cleaner - the Roomba from iRobot (link in title). This little feller should skirt around the house whilst we are away and keep it nice and clean for us. It can be scheduled up to once per day at set times, finds its way back to its base station when it needs a charge and avoids stairs, walls and furniture. OK OK - it *is* a bit weighted on the novelty side and less on the functional side but I just could not resist.

Have to think of a name for it now... suggestions?

Wonder how the cats will like it...?

Update: It arrived - photos!

Photomatix - HRD

I bought a copy of Photomatix recently - been wanting it for ages but just figured they do a massive 60% student discount!!!

The software allows me to render tone mapped HDR images straight from Lightroom - awesome!

An HDR is a combination of several images, over and under exposed in order to get more levels of detail in the shot. Here's a sample of the effect (slightly exaggerated here) - a view from my home office window.

Trees - topped!

Network Rail turned up today to top our trees for us - very nice of them. Took the guys about 3 hours and the difference is amazing. So much more light into the garden. Neighbours will be happy too. Rasmus was not happy though with these strangers stealing his trees - he sulked inside until they left.

Stage 3 of 3 boot loop - Vista Business x86

After 2 days of getting my machine just the way I wanted it I was quite happy with a nice new and fast OS again. This morning I booted up and noticed some windows updates. I duly applied them and restarted. On start up I got the familiar 'stage 3 of 3' update notice. However, instead of booting it appeared to enter a boot loop :( Safe mode also affected. In the end I had to run recovery from the original Vista install disk and restore to a previous image. Not happy...

Fix: uninstall all .net components. Run an MS cleanup util and then re-install .net in order. Took forever!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923100

WHS now has 2TB

I took delivery of a 4th HDD for my Windows Home Server this morning - bringing the total capacity to 2TB and finally lighting all the blue strips :) It has proven invaluable for restoring machines, backing up and recovering files and I wouldn't be without it now. In fact there's talk of a new software release offering native JungleDisk (currently I use an add in) and TimeMachine support. Can't wait...

C:\windows\winsxs

I noticed the other day that my laptop was running very low on disk space. I did a search of the file system (Vista x64 on a 30GB partition) and found that around 20GB of it was being filled by one folder - C:\windows\winsxs. This folder is a cache of resource files and their versions used by applications for stability reasons. However, there is no safe way to remove any of these files and reduce the size of the partition. So, no choice but to reinstall the OS - I'll give it 40GB this time :(

Windy

It is very windy today. We have two roses climbing up the walls at the front of the house and they both broke loose. I managed to tie them back up with some wire - but not sure how long they'll last. Might attack then with tag-ties if they come lose again.

Stolen Wing Mirror

Came down to the car this morning to head off for work and noticed that the passenger side wing mirror glass was missing. Not broken off, but carefully removed. I then noticed another 4 or 5 cars on the same side of the road with the same thing. I presume some drunk kids thought it was a good idea :(

So, reported it to the Police and popped down to Merc where they promptly fitted a new one.

Not a great way to start the weekend...

Dad Flew in to Visit

Forgot to mention that Dad flew in to visit earlier in the week. He has just completed his IMC checks and was nearby so stopped in for lunch. There is a little airfiled just to the east of Bennington that he used - only an 8 min drive from here.

Broken Sat-Nav

Over the last few weeks my TomTom 730T has been less and less liking its RDS-TMC receiver. In fact, recently there is almost nothing I can do to get it to work. A quick call to TomTom and they sent a special delivery pouch to send it off for repair. My guess is that there are some broken solder joints by the connector. Hope to have it back soon!

UPDATE: huff - it's not until after they've received it they tell you the repair will take 20 days!

UPDATE2: Apparently it was shipped back to me this morning (Friday) - NICE!

Wedding

K and I went to A's sister's wedding last weekend in Southampton. I was the official wedding photographer :) Had a great time - the evening reception was on a boat! I tool 1163 photos and kept 1025 of them in the end - hope they like them!

University - DONE!

I've just presented my last bit of coursework for my MSc. As of now the taught part of my course (the last 2 years) and all my exams are done - only the dissertation is left. WOOHOO!!!

HTC Touch Diamond 2

I couldn't hold out any longer - I just bought a Touch Diamond 2. I've been watching the phone up to release date and thinking: "I don't need one, it's not that different". But then came the reviews of the release units - and my mind was changed.

Admittedly it is not night-and-day different to the Touch Diamond 1 but there are significant changes such as tighter touchflow integration and the promise of free WinMo6.5 updates later in the year - meaning I get to use the new MS Marketplace. Should be here on Tue...

Aberdeen

This weekend I have been working in Aberdeen on a system upgrade. All has gone well, so far, and the upgrade has been fairly straightforward. I even managed to catch the Grand Prix in the office :)

Sailing Shoes

I did a little shopping at lunchtime today and found myself some shoes suitable for sailing in later in the year. They have non-slip/mark soles and even a washable insole. Look comfortable and should be good for windsurfing in too...

Second Flash

I got home from another weekend at work last night and whilst waiting for K to get back from yoga, had a play with my new 2-flash setup. Took some interesting shots (link in title) but liked this one the most. The second flash is behind the guitar - lighting up the amp.

Nottingham

I was walking back to the hotel from the office in Nottingham today in the glorious sunshine and decided to take this pic. You wouldn't tell you were in the middle of a large city surrounded by industrial parks and offices!

Bike to Shop

My bike went into the shop today for its first of three safety checks - Part of Marin's 'Platinum Care' which comes with this sort of bike. Other than gear alignment I don't think it needs anything else...

Update: needed new rear gear cable.

Steam Train

Working in my home office when I heard a whistle outside the window - I grabbed my camera off the desk and managed this shot as a steam train went past :)

Update: turns out this was the train used on Top Gear, Series 13, episode 1. Must have been returning from the trip :)

Canon 580EX II - SURPRISE!

I was surprised yesterday when A came round with a gift - a Canon 580EX II!!! A gift for the upcoming photo shoot at his sister's wedding.

So, within an hour (whilst at the pub) I had read the manual and around midnight I attacked the cats with a pap-style flash attack (pics linked in title).

It is amazing HOW much better it is that the 430 EX - THANKS A!

Canon 580EX II Review

Roadster Foglight Foils

I fitted some foils to K's roadster yesterday. They get rid of the massive silver fog/indicator backs that stood out so strangely on the front of an otherwise all-black car. I think they look great :)

SlimPlug

My Sony P netbook has a tiny tiny bag to go with it - looks rather too much like a man-bag actually :( Anyway, the only annoying thing is the HUGE UK mains plug that comes with it. Well, I found the answer - a foldable one from Slimplug - costs about £10.

Input Director

If, like me, you have more computers than makes sense you will have come across the annoyance of having to change keyboard/mouse every time you want to use a different machine. If you don't want a KVM then Input Director might be the answer. I can now control all 3 machines (6 screens) with my main mouse/keyboard - awesome! Best bit - it is free for non commercial use!

Nottingham

I've been in Nottingham since Friday with a system upgrade at one of the local papers. It's gone quite well but I can't wait to get home. I'm waiting on a DB transfer at the moment... The pic is of the 'wheel' in the city centre.

New Mouse for Netbook

I've just ordered a new mouse for my netbook - white of course to match. It's bluetooth and made by MS so should be good quality.

Important features (for me) include a back button and an on/off switch.

Update: it's pretty good and comes with its own pouch too!