Reasons to be Cheerful (Number 1)

Oh yes, read it and weep, and to think some ne'er do wells were calling for McLeish's head early on in the season... hang your heads in shame. Come on now, big effort and lets see if we can make Gerry McNee spontaneously combust, by buying a few more *whisper quietly* orange jerseys... *gasps* I'll get banned for that.

Category:

• Sport
• Football
• Rangers

1, 2, 3, 4

My free Walk-o-meter arrived today. Reading the instructions and shaking the thing about in my hand didn't fill me with much confidence. It says, get this, to fit your Walk-o-Meter to your belt or waistband. Now if I had a belt that fitted or had seen my waistband in the past 5 years then I wouldn't need a free gizmo to paint the sad truth of my utter laziness (I have M.E. remember) in the cold light of day.

Undetered I duly hooked the thing on to my trousers in line with my left leg and off I set (to the Chinkies, it is Friday after all). I walked to the car (must be a good 20 paces) drove to the takeaway and parked (in the furthest parking spot from the door... Well there are actually only 2 parking spaces but lets not get hung up on detail). Through the door (10 paces) pick up the order, back to the car (10 paces) and home (20 paces). Flushed with my exertions I whipped off the machine to look at the final score. Four! F O U R?? I hadn't even burned off the calories I inhaled while waiting for my order. I want my money back!..oh, but it's free. I still want my money back, what a swiz.

More investigation has settled on clipping it to the inside of my sock. Walking up the stairs to my computer and hey presto, 27 steps and accompanied by a rather classy clicking sound all the way. Feel much healthier already. Further reports to follow.

Category:

• Health
• ME
• CFS
• Weight

Sensationaaaal

Oh dear, there's going to be a lot of fall-out about this one. Not being prepared to lay out cash for PPV football matches, I, like a lot of people, didn't see the game but it's obvious the SFA will launch an enquiry. Two sendings off (here you can see Lovenkrands succumb to Alan Thomson's evil breath *eew* it must stink to have that sort of effect). Listening on the radio, and being hopelessly biased, the other side must take the majority of the blame. O'Neill will be lucky to escape having his collar felt from the Police after his outrageous decision to parade about, across the pitch, with his arm around Neil "loads 'o' money" Lennon, inflaming an already highly charged situation.

My prediction that Alex McLeish wouldn't be Rangers manager next season is looking doubtful but I stand by my thoughts on O'Neill and Ferguson.

Category:

• Sport
• Football
• Rangers

Stock Photography

Stock.xchng is a great site for picking up free images which can be used how you wish. All you have to do is register to be allowed to download the Hi-Resolution images, or you can browse freely by previewing the pictures. Perfect for wallpapers, textures, website design etc.

Category:

• Internet
• Photos

Doctor, it hurts when I...

I've been noticing a bit of pain in my wrists and fingers recently, particularly in my right hand. At first I thought it was just the general symptoms of the ME/CFS which can cause muscle and joint pain including fingers and wrists but I'm now beginning to think that there may be a bit of RSI involved too. Repetitive Strain Injury is particularly prevalent in heavy users of computer mice and keyboards. The constant tiny movements involved in clicking a mouse button can, over time, cause damage to your fingers and wrist resulting in at pain or even the inability to work. For some time I'd been aware of a loss of strength in both my hands and had put this down to ME/CFS but after a bit of research this is also a symptom of RSI.

As a Design Engineer I'm shackled to my desk for hours at a time using some of the most mouse and keyboard dependent software known to man, ProEngineer. When in intensive design mode I'm sure I will get through 10s of thousands of mouse clicks and tiny mouse movements a day. I've started to look at ways of lessening the load on my right hand and the Spaceball 5000 motion controller seems to be the favourite at the moment. At over 350 quid the boss is likely to quiver his bottom lip but my mind is made up, I want one. This device would allow me to use my left hand for rotating, panning and zooming the 3D model while editing with the mouse using my right hand. At the moment much of the mouse movement and clicking is related to movement of the 3D model on screen.

Also of interest are some exercises designed to ease and prevent RSI type problems. I'm going to give these a go and see how I get on.

Category:

• Spaceball
• 3D
• Gadget
• RSI

How much?

So I'm in B&Q getting some lights, starter motors and fuses (we seem to have been suffering an unusual amount of blow outs recently). At the check out:

Bint "That'll be 13 quid."
Me "There you go."
Bint "Thanks."
Me "Can I have a bag please?"
Bint "We charge for bags now."
Me "?!!? How much?"
Bint "5p"
Me *raises eyebrows*

Money grabbing ba*tards. They'll claim it's to protect the environment, b*ll*cks, it's to grease up their idiot managers. My boss is a credit card "rate tart" always chasing the latest 0% deal, to this end he pays for everything, no matter how small, with a credit card. I've told him next time in B&Q to whip out the card when held up for a 5p bag. That'll teach them. What next? 10p entry charge, 50p for parking in the shop car park, 75p exit charge if you don't buy anything.

Category:

• Customer+Service

Blender

I have written about Blender before and how impressed I am with this free open source software. This is a little picture I created to test Blender's ability to import and smooth geometry from external CAD programs. The model is not mine but was perfect for testing the smoothing options. The picture turned out pretty good so I thought I'd show it off.

You can learn more about Blender and download it here.

Category:

• 3D
• Blender
• Yafray

Hobson's Choice

Only time will tell if any of it makes any difference but in the next 36 hours the people of America will shape the future world we live in. Few would argue that they have the right to defend themselves from foreign attack in their own country but waging war on the rest of the world is not the answer. Will a change of President make any difference? Who knows? Bush has brought nothing but death, destruction and fear, maybe a change is for the best. It's not up to you or me, instead it is in the hands of America... That's a sobering thought.

Category:

• Politics