Software, technology, startups and video games

Recently I’ve been thinking about how productive I was at school compared to the current day. I am still amazed at the amount of different subjects I was juggling back during my GCSEs, carrying a backpack crammed with a bunch of textbooks and file blocks. Somehow I still managed to study, play computer games, play Gaelic and football for for 3 different teams and still find time for some telly (and the odd date!). Ok maybe I didn’t study as much as I should have but I still did well enough. Continue reading →

So Ronaldo has finally admited he wants to go to Real Madrid. Shocker!! I am sick and tired of Ronaldo’s antics. Yes, yes, I know. All southern Europeans want to play for Real (zzzz!). I don’t care. Let them have him. They are made for each other. I for one would be relieved to see the end of the story.

As a Man Utd fan, I want to see guys out on the pitch that want to play for the club, giving their all for the shirt and the fans. Now I know that most footballers are only loyal to themselves and the almighty dollar. However, players like Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville give hope that there are still some players in the game that have some class. As much as I have enjoyed watching Ronaldo this last few years, I always knew it would end in bitter divorce and acrimony, sooner rather than later. Let’s take the money and invest it in some new talent, rather than a long, drawn out feud that will do more harm than good. So I say thanks to Ronaldo for the entertainment, goals and most of all the Champions League trophy (although I should really thank John Terry!).

Good luck with Real, Ron. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Well I have decided that I should start to do my bit to save the planet. Yes thats right, I have decided to start using public transport once more, Northern Irish Rail (NIR) to be exact. OK, maybe it has more to do with the fact that I am now working in Belfast City centre and can no longer avail of free car parking. The fact that it now costs more than £60 to fill my car’s tank is a pretty persuasive argument too. And then theres those cursed motorway roadworks (Grrr!) to contend with.

So how do I feel about my loss of freedom? Brilliant! No longer do I have to trudge up and down the motorway, stuck in traffic jam hell, listening to the same old crap on the radio, bored old of my skull and going slightly insane every day.

This morning I was able to relax on the train, reading my latest Digital Photography magazine while listening to my iPod. There was no traffic, no hassle and best of all – NO STRESS! I also find that living to the train timetable gives you something to get up for in the morning. I have to leave the house at 07:30 or I miss my train whereas my car was always just sitting in my driveway, waiting for me to turn up, whenever that may be.

Now, I have used public transport long enough to know that its far from perfect. I know there will be days when the train is late, breaks down, I don’t get a seat or get stuck beside some smelly teenagers listening to crap music too loudly. But I don’t care. The car is dead. Long live public transport!

VMware Tools improves performance, mouse control and enables copy/paste between host and guest OSes.  If you create your own VM using VMWare workstation (see here for instructions) you should install the Tools. You can get the official guide from VMware here but it is missing a few points so I thought I would share them here: Continue reading →

Lately I have had a lot of stuff on my mind and it is driving me slightly crazy. There are so many different things I want to do and I have so little time to share between them. So each night, I sit down and try to decide what do to that night, by the time I get round to deciding, its bed time. Whats a guy to do?!

What things I hear you cry? Well its quite a diverse list ranging from expanding my knowledge portfolio (thanks prag prog!), working on my current list of projects, fleshing out some of the ideas I have for new projects, getting myself fit, DIY work round the house, learning to play the guitar, my new hobby of amateur photography, gaming and spending quality time with the family. I am also considering touting for little bit of freelance work to supplement my craving for all things gadgety (Anyone need a part-time coder??).

Somehow I need to organise my thoughts and start to manage my time effectively. If I don’t, I will never get anything done!

From the BBC Editor Blog:

I have restrained myself to such an extent that I have not uttered a single word about the new iPhone in the last 36 hours, on TV, on radio or online. So, while I’m here, wasn’t it just a little disappointing? Still no video, the camera stays at the original 2mp, and no ability to cut and paste. And isn’t the price cut proof enough that Apple misjudged the European market, and needed to kick-start sales?

I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Canon 40D Remote Live View

Tonight I finally got to play with my new DSLR camera, the Canon EOS 40D. As Royal Mail are taking their time to deliver my Compact Flash Card, I have been unable to use it in anger until now. I had read about the Remote Live View feature of the camera so I decided to try it out tonight. As you can see from the picture, not only can you remotely operate the camera from your PC, you can also see the real time Live View image that the camera will display on its LCD. The photos are instantainously downloaded to you PC as soon as you take them too. It is a brilliant bit of software, a lot more interesting than developing financial software that is for sure!

I am only really starting out in photography so I have a lot to learn. Apologies for the flash reflection!

This week I purchased a pro-sumer Digital SLR camera from a well known high street chain. I was encouraged to take out their accidental damage policy claiming that I was actually buying my next camera. If it was broken, they would replace it “whatever happens”, if it couldn’t be repaired within 21 days, with an equivalent model, even if it was more expensive. It works out at around £30 a year for 5 years. So if in 4 and a half years a new model comes out and I accidentally run over my camera with my car, I should* get it replaced by the newer model. Of course it doesn’t cover loss or theft. I was thinking of getting some sort of after care as DSLRs are known to be delicate and very expensive to repair and it should give me peace of mind when using it “in the field”. I have 14 days to cancel the policy, what should I do??

* Whether I do or not I don’t know, sounds a bit too good to be true IMHO.

It has been a long, long season for Man Utd supporters with its fair share of ups and downs. However, this has undoubtably been one of the greatest seasons I have experienced. The quality of the football this year has been fantastic and its been a priviledge to watch the best player in the world score an unbelievable 42 goals. The defense has been immense too and really provided the perfect foundation for the success. To win the Premier League for the second year running and to top it off with the Champions League is a great achievement. It is the perfect tribute to the Busby Babes, 50 years on from that tragic night in Munich and 40 years on from the first European win. This team will surely now go down in history as one of Man Utds best ever. Hopefully they will stay together and go on to have more successes over the next few years.

Congratulations to Fergie and the boys and thanks for the wonderful memories of 2008.

You may have noticed the odd photo appearing on the sidebar of my blog. I have recently started uploading a selection of my images into flickr. Its quickly becoming a habit, and a time consuming one at that. Every photo has to be lovingly touched up in Photoshop, then tagged with a description and title, tags and added to sets. Then you have to wait ages for the upload!

The thing I enjoy the most is describing each picture. It allows you to take a bit more time over each image, rather than flicking over it in a slide show. It encourages you to find out what you acually saw (e.g. the name of a statue or ship). Also, once tagged you have a great way of quickly finding images you are interested in. Flickr’s 100MB monthly upload limit is going to be very restrictive, which may mean upgrading to the pro account .

I have spent a *lot* of time recently organising and reconciling my digital photo collection and storing them in an easy-to-traverse hierarchical structure. Its amazing how disorganised it can quickly get with lots of duplicates from repeatedly copying the same images to different folders. Photography is one of those things that I would love to do more of, given the time and necessary budget!

Anyway, expect to see a lot more (if you are at all interested) in the near future.