After almost 2 years, the caravan has gone. Some nice folks from Mosside came to see it about 2 months ago, and agreed to buy, but said it would be some time before they needed it.
So they came back today to get it. The caravan mover people came about 8am, and were away before 10. Susan and the kids were sad to see it go, I was glad to see the back of it!!!
See the pics at : http://www.ccso.co.uk/gallery/CaravanMove
Saturday, July 31, 2004
New Car
We picked up Susan's new car today. Well, when I say new, its new to us. Its a 2000 VW Passat TDi, just the 90bhp model, but its surprisingly nice to drive.
Its only the 'S' model, but it has a lot of the 'SE' stuff, like climate control, and full electric pack. Hoprfully it will do us well, for a long time
Its only the 'S' model, but it has a lot of the 'SE' stuff, like climate control, and full electric pack. Hoprfully it will do us well, for a long time
Monday, July 19, 2004
The Hole(2001) [SPOILERS]
[SPOILERS] Last night I watched The Hole (2001) for the first time, and I really enjoyed it. I was captivated from start to finish, although about half way through I was a little concerned it was going to end up in some bizarre dream, or something else which I wouldn't understand. However, it didn't!
It started by portraying the lead character as an innocent victim, and set out a base storyline and background of how things should have been. Thora Birch plays Elizabeth Dunn, a seemingly innocent schoolgirl, caught in a trap by her long time friend As the film progresses we learn more of her true character as evil and manipulative.
It's usually nice to see the bad guy get away with it, but I didn't feel the usual sense of satisfaction with this film. Still well worth a watch!
It started by portraying the lead character as an innocent victim, and set out a base storyline and background of how things should have been. Thora Birch plays Elizabeth Dunn, a seemingly innocent schoolgirl, caught in a trap by her long time friend As the film progresses we learn more of her true character as evil and manipulative.
It's usually nice to see the bad guy get away with it, but I didn't feel the usual sense of satisfaction with this film. Still well worth a watch!
Thursday, July 15, 2004
24 - Season Three
Over the past few weeks I've been following 24's third season with interest, and I have to say that the action in the last few episodes has been great! I've watched up to episode 20, so only 4 more to go, and from what I've read it isn't going to be a disappointment! 24 delivers again!
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Outbreak (1995)
Outbreak (1995) - another fine film, I'm quite sure it's factual basis around bio-chemistry is flawed, but nevertheless, a fine film. Good story, gripping and interesting to the end, the charactors are well developed, and it's interesting to see Morgan Freeman acting the bad guy.
Raises some interesting questions, for example, how would any country / government handle a virus outbreak of this severity (or even less serious)?
Good film, well worth a watch, as long as you can put your science head behind the sofa....
Raises some interesting questions, for example, how would any country / government handle a virus outbreak of this severity (or even less serious)?
Good film, well worth a watch, as long as you can put your science head behind the sofa....
Saturday, July 10, 2004
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Dead Poets Society (1989) - another TV rerun to take over my evenings viewing.
A strong film, about an influential English teacher, who encourages students to think and learn for themselves, rather than just fall into the mould society porovides for us.
Robin Williams is the teacher, Carpe Diem ("seize the day") a central part of the film, a fine storyline, as the charactors discover more depth to their lives.
Another interesting and thought provoking film.
A strong film, about an influential English teacher, who encourages students to think and learn for themselves, rather than just fall into the mould society porovides for us.
Robin Williams is the teacher, Carpe Diem ("seize the day") a central part of the film, a fine storyline, as the charactors discover more depth to their lives.
Another interesting and thought provoking film.
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Simon's Gallery :: Mussenden Walk
I've had the camera for about a week, and I'm still snapping everything I can see - Simon's Gallery :: Mussenden Walk
Great fun, just wish I was better at taking photos. :)
Great fun, just wish I was better at taking photos. :)
Monday, June 28, 2004
New Camera! DiMAGE G400
My new camera arrived on Saturday it's a Konica Minolta DiMAGE G400 which had been strongly recommended to me. I'm very pleased with it, it seems easy to use, and produces good clear, crisp images. I ended up paying 175 quid for it, I had to pay extra for next day delivery from amazon, as the first place I ordered from came back to me and informed me they had no stock.
So keep an eye, I've yet to create anything worthy of publishing, buy my gallery will soon have some new pics.....
So keep an eye, I've yet to create anything worthy of publishing, buy my gallery will soon have some new pics.....
Friday, June 25, 2004
Christian history
The book : "The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?" has been a great help to me in my search for the origin and reliability of the book we call "The Bible".
A few extracts:
"The Christian gospel is not primarily a code of ethics, or a metaphysical system; it is first and foremost good news"
"The New Testament was substantially complete about AD100, the majority of the writings being in existence 20-40 years before this" [p12]
"If the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt"
"It is a curious fact that historians have often been much readier to trust the New Testament records than many theologians. Historians like WM Ramsay, Ed Meyer, and AT Olmstead have protested vigorously at the excessive scepticism of the theologians in dealing with the historical writings of the New Testament" [p15]
"There is much more evidence for the New Testament than other ancient writings of comparable date" [p15]
"There is in existence about 5000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in whole or in part"
From an interesting article from google groups [well worth a read] I found a lot of interesting information.
The following is a list of non-biblical sources:
Cornelius Tacitus
Lucian of Samosata
Flavius Josephus [another]
Suetonius
Plinus Secundus, Pliny the Younger
Tertullian
Thallus
Phlegon, A first century historian
Letter of Mara Bar-Serapion
Justin Martyr
Jewish Talmuds
Lots more information is available at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/
other:
http://www.jcsm.org/biblelessons/didJesusreallyexist.htm
A few extracts:
"The Christian gospel is not primarily a code of ethics, or a metaphysical system; it is first and foremost good news"
"The New Testament was substantially complete about AD100, the majority of the writings being in existence 20-40 years before this" [p12]
"If the New Testament were a collection of secular writings, their authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt"
"It is a curious fact that historians have often been much readier to trust the New Testament records than many theologians. Historians like WM Ramsay, Ed Meyer, and AT Olmstead have protested vigorously at the excessive scepticism of the theologians in dealing with the historical writings of the New Testament" [p15]
"There is much more evidence for the New Testament than other ancient writings of comparable date" [p15]
"There is in existence about 5000 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in whole or in part"
From an interesting article from google groups [well worth a read] I found a lot of interesting information.
The following is a list of non-biblical sources:
Cornelius Tacitus
Lucian of Samosata
Flavius Josephus [another]
Suetonius
Plinus Secundus, Pliny the Younger
Tertullian
Thallus
Phlegon, A first century historian
Letter of Mara Bar-Serapion
Justin Martyr
Jewish Talmuds
Lots more information is available at http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/
other:
http://www.jcsm.org/biblelessons/didJesusreallyexist.htm
Monday, June 21, 2004
New Camera?
After the battries ran out on my suitcase-cam on our Mournes walk I decided to think about another camera. Recommendations seem to be in the shape of Minolta Dimage G400 Digital Camera
Looks like it's available quite cheaply too (thats good for me) Pricerunner tells me it starts from about £158, which is more than I hoped to spend, but if it would be a great camera it may be worth it.
I like the idea of a compact camera, carry everywhere, and snap away at my convenience. Lets get that gallery filled up!
Looks like it's available quite cheaply too (thats good for me) Pricerunner tells me it starts from about £158, which is more than I hoped to spend, but if it would be a great camera it may be worth it.
I like the idea of a compact camera, carry everywhere, and snap away at my convenience. Lets get that gallery filled up!
Friday, June 18, 2004
Simon's Gallery :: Mournes Walk
Yesterday Mel, Andy Sean and I took to the Mournes for a hill walk. It was my first time up there, the other three had gone together once before, what a great day out!
We did a walk called the Donard Loop, which is more of a walk than a climb, about 8 miles in total. The weather was mostly very good, and the scenery was beautiful. We set out at about 9:15am and finished shortly after 3pm, with numerous stops in between!
We stopped at a scenic old quarry for lunch, but the most notable stop was at the river on the way down, where we all enjoyed a refreshing paddle in the slow pools, and dipping our feet into the fast flowing waterfalls.
See some more pics in my gallery at: Simon's Gallery :: Mournes Walk
We did a walk called the Donard Loop, which is more of a walk than a climb, about 8 miles in total. The weather was mostly very good, and the scenery was beautiful. We set out at about 9:15am and finished shortly after 3pm, with numerous stops in between!
We stopped at a scenic old quarry for lunch, but the most notable stop was at the river on the way down, where we all enjoyed a refreshing paddle in the slow pools, and dipping our feet into the fast flowing waterfalls.
See some more pics in my gallery at: Simon's Gallery :: Mournes Walk
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
2 hard days work
Been in to at least 6:30 for the last 2 days, hopefully get away more quickly tonight. All this work isn't good for me.
Been on calls with US and Canada, slooooowwwww desktop sharing, installing applications. The sales guy was 1 hour late, and then didn't have the software with him. We had to download it, which took 2 hours.
That was the first day. The second day they said we needed to do it all again, with SSL. We still have no idea what we are doing. Today we had a VP meeting, at least that was simple :)
Been on calls with US and Canada, slooooowwwww desktop sharing, installing applications. The sales guy was 1 hour late, and then didn't have the software with him. We had to download it, which took 2 hours.
That was the first day. The second day they said we needed to do it all again, with SSL. We still have no idea what we are doing. Today we had a VP meeting, at least that was simple :)
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Postprocessing video using AviSynth
Doom9.net - The Definitive DVD Backup Resource more messing, much fin - this must become easier for consumer use.....
AviSynth Filter Collection
AviSynth Filter Collection
Monday, June 07, 2004
Computer Based central heating control
Computer Based Projects just may be what I'm looking for. I want to put a temperature sensor in each room, possibly automatic valves on each radiator [they seem to be available] and use a tiny Linux based PC as my central heating controller.
ADS DVD Xpress
Having toiled with my Pinnacle PCTV card for many hours, it is now on its way back to SVP for a refund.
The ADS DVD Xpress arrived on Friday, and I got it up and running, recording my VHS to my PC fairly quickly. I had to buy a SCART to video/stereo lead, as all the ones I had were not wired properly.
Anyhow, it seems to work nicely, I still have to test it out with a good quality video and full MPEG2 9Mb/s recording, but it's looking good so far
DVD Xpress
Downloads
The ADS DVD Xpress arrived on Friday, and I got it up and running, recording my VHS to my PC fairly quickly. I had to buy a SCART to video/stereo lead, as all the ones I had were not wired properly.
Anyhow, it seems to work nicely, I still have to test it out with a good quality video and full MPEG2 9Mb/s recording, but it's looking good so far
DVD Xpress
Downloads
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Phone Booth
yet another waste of time film, it has some interesting ideas, and its nice to see someone actually own up to how bad they have been. This reminds me of teachers who told you annoying things which you didn't like doing were "charactor building". Well Colin Farrell vertainly had his charactor built!
Interesting concept, but not really a good film - at least it was short!!
[Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland (DVD - 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment - August 11, 2003)]
Interesting concept, but not really a good film - at least it was short!!
[Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland (DVD - 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment - August 11, 2003)]
Friday, June 04, 2004
Notice 719 VAT refunds for do-it-yourself builders and converters
Getting ready to submit the VAT claim for our selfbuild, all the information is available from Notice 719 VAT refunds for do-it-yourself builders and converters
3 months to do it, and millions of receipts, better get to it!
3 months to do it, and millions of receipts, better get to it!
Thursday, June 03, 2004
PCTV Stereo - the return
I have just received an RMA to return my PCTV Stereo for a refund - I was not impressed with it at all. If you turned the resolution up at all it lost audio/video sync. I saw that this was a common problem among users, and tried all the suggested things, defrag, different PCI, etc, but I couldnt get it to work properly (14 hours trying is a valient attempt I think)
I have worked with it for about 14 hours, changing PCI slots, defragging hard disks etc, implementing all the changes suggested at the pinnacle support forums http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_forums.asp?WebboardID=1&SectionID=80&lng=1
I also read on the forums about many people having the same audio/video sync problems I had. My machine is well within the minimum spec, in fact it looks a lot like their recommended spec,
I have worked with it for about 14 hours, changing PCI slots, defragging hard disks etc, implementing all the changes suggested at the pinnacle support forums http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_forums.asp?WebboardID=1&SectionID=80&lng=1
I also read on the forums about many people having the same audio/video sync problems I had. My machine is well within the minimum spec, in fact it looks a lot like their recommended spec,
Sanitary ware...
So we ordered all our sanitary ware from Bradleys in Limavady around the start of April, and it was ready to be delivered, but we delayed delivery until Tuesday 20th April. The two cisterns for the ensuites were incorrect, the bath was not the one we ordered, and the taps in one ensuite were also wrong.
After being told that the correct cisterns were coming tomorrow for about a week, and finally we were told they would be in 10-11am on Thursday 29th April, which was still inconvenient as I had to hold the plumber off until this time.
We called over that morning, shortly after 11, and were told that they wouldn't be there until late afternoon. I asked where they were coming from, and as it was about an hours drive I said I would collect them myself. This seemed to trigger some sort of response, and I ended up on the phone to the delivery man, directing him to my house, and he actually turned up about two hours after that!!
Since then we have fought Bradleys for four antique pine cistern levers and for 5 weeks we have been told they would arrive tomorrow, or the next day, or the order has been delayed, or some other very poor excuse.
We ended up going over to get a refund, I just don't believe that they were ever ordered, and I wonder if I hadn't threatened to get the cisterns myself would they still not be here either???
This level of service is absolutely unacceptable, I can't imagine treating anyone this way, especially not a customer who has just paid £3000.
After being told that the correct cisterns were coming tomorrow for about a week, and finally we were told they would be in 10-11am on Thursday 29th April, which was still inconvenient as I had to hold the plumber off until this time.
We called over that morning, shortly after 11, and were told that they wouldn't be there until late afternoon. I asked where they were coming from, and as it was about an hours drive I said I would collect them myself. This seemed to trigger some sort of response, and I ended up on the phone to the delivery man, directing him to my house, and he actually turned up about two hours after that!!
Since then we have fought Bradleys for four antique pine cistern levers and for 5 weeks we have been told they would arrive tomorrow, or the next day, or the order has been delayed, or some other very poor excuse.
We ended up going over to get a refund, I just don't believe that they were ever ordered, and I wonder if I hadn't threatened to get the cisterns myself would they still not be here either???
This level of service is absolutely unacceptable, I can't imagine treating anyone this way, especially not a customer who has just paid £3000.
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