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Off home tomorrow for a long weekend, and gawd I need it, I'm knackered. Bit of a family get together to celebrate my Mum and Dad's Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary (which was last month, but postponed until me and Lesley could get over). Looking forward to it but I wish the weather was a bit cooler.

I've promised Lesley a proper tour round Belfast to see the sights and hear the stories. It's been 4 years since I was last over and I'm sure it'll have changed even more than the last trip. The time was, I was convinced I'd return there to live but I'm settled in Scotland now and unlikely to leave. Time moves on, things change, hopefully for the better where my home country is concerned.

Category:

• Personal
• Northern+Ireland

Yafray 0.0.9

The release of Blender 2.42 has prompted a small update to YafRay (Yet Another Free Ray Tracer) to version 0.0.9. Mainly to fix a few bugs and to ensure the integration with Blender continues to work well.

Yafray can produce stunning photo-realistic renders, comparable with the very expensive commercial packages like 3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D, Maya, VRay etc and all for free. Global Illumination, HDRI lighting, caustics, photon mapping, blurred reflections, in short a fantastic bit of code. I really must set up a small gallery and show off my (poor) renders.

Category:

• 3D
• Blender
• Yafray

Health Update 50

Managed to get a wiz into the bottle and trotted off to the Doctor's to get it checked. Sample showed protein and blood indicating a kidney infection as a result of the kidney stones and dehydration. The Doctor put me on a short dose of Antibiotics and told me to drink (water) "like a fish" to flush out my system. Thankfully he didn't feel the need to shove his finger up my arse, which was nice.

I've had the odd twinge in my groin/back but nothing to worry about compared to the pain I was in last Saturday/Sunday.

Category:

• Health
• Kidney+Stones

I Can Definitely Smell Sh*te (Conclusion)

Remember back in April and the trouble I was having with the drains/sewer (see here and here)? Well to cut a long story short the drains were blocked again. Not inclined to stump up more cash I did a bit more checking as to the law regarding ownership of the pipes. Lo and behold, here in Scotland, it's Scottish Water's problem if two or more properties connect to the pipe. Each property owner is responsible for their individual branch pipes but the main pipe connecting to the public sewer (even on private land) is Scottish Water's responsibility, happy days.

They came out, cleared the blockage for free and said if it happened again they'd organise a CCTV inspection and decide on what work needed to be carried out. The stuff about Private Sewers etc, I mentioned previously, relates to England and Wales where they have private water companies as opposed to the publicly owned Scottish Water. Three cheers for the Scottish Executive, Scotland, The Krankies and Paul LeGuen... hurrah!

Category:

• Scotland
• Sewer
• Drains

Health Update 49

Hmmmm, been a bit ill again. In fact I've just had my first experience of a 999 call, ambulance trip, gas and air, pain killing injection in the arse, X-Rays, and a rubber gloved finger shoved up my chuffter. Not nice.

Pain, don't talk to me about pain. It's looking like kidney stones and I can confirm they're bloody sore. The X-Ray showed nothing but that's not unusual, they can be hard to spot or I may have already passed it... ouch! The concern is that I'm not able to pass water at the moment so I have to take a sample to my doctor tomorrow to check for blood in my urine, the stone may be causing a blockage. The injection they gave me is starting to wear off so fingers crossed I can control the pain a bit better this time.

I'll write further on this latest adventure tomorrow.

Category:

• Health
• Kidney+Stones

Syd Barrett

You've probably never heard of Syd, but his influence on music for the last 40 years is immeasurable. Had he done a Jimi Hendrix or a Janis Joplin or a Brian Jones he'd be as well known as those sixties legends. But he faded from the scene due to his mental health problems exacerbated by vast amounts of LSD, got fat and bald and died last week after complications with his diabetes.

After he left in 1968, Pink Floyd went from strength to strength under the leadership of Roger Waters but thoughts of Syd were never far from their minds. A true innovator.

Shine on you Crazy Diamond.

Category:

• Music
• Syd+Barrett
• Pink+Floyd

Blender 2.42

Blender 2.42 has just been released and it's another massive step forward for the best in open source software. Mainly due to the changes required for the Orange open source movie project this is one of the biggest upgrades ever. Check out the release logs, download the software and the Blender 2.42 regression suite of test and demo scenes, open one up, hit the big button labeled "Render" and be amazed at what you see.

The game engine is moving on leaps and bounds too but the big news for it's development is the planned integration of Ogre3D graphic routines which hopefully will get a demo release in the next few months. Fantastic times ahead for open source devotees.

Category:

• 3D
• Blender
• Ogre3D

Dell 2007WFP Update

Bugger, bugger, bugger. Less than 24 hours after I placed my order and they drop the price by another 10%, typical. I definitely think they're trying to recover their reputation for monitors by offering these at lower prices after the issues I mentioned previously with banding and blurry text (now resolved, fingers crossed).

The offer runs until the 26th July so you can hold off and see what I think of mine if you're looking to buy.

Bugger...

Category:

• Dell
• Monitor
• LCD

Dell 2007WFP LCD Monitor

I've been splashing the cash again on upgrading my computer. This time on a 20.1" widescreen monitor from Dell. With my employer's discount it came in at £301.60 delivered, ordered this morning and got the confirmation it'll arrive Friday, nice.

Fully featured with everything you could ever want along with good industrial design I decided to plump for the 20.1" widescreen model running at a resolution of 1680x1050. I've been using the widescreen format for over 5 years now and was loathe to change back to 4:3 for the main screen.

Now, I know there have been huge problems with Dell's 2007 range of monitors with terrible banding issues and reports of blurry text. These seem to have been fixed recently with an update to the firmware (not user installable) so fingers crossed everything's OK with my screen when it arrives. This may also explain the good deal to be had on these screens with Dell trying to get some favourable press for the upgraded models (£325 offer finishes 2/8/06).


This will fill the two DVI connectors on the graphic card so I'll have to get an Nvidia Quadro NVS280 PCI card if I want to add the third screen. Through the wonders of Photoshop (see above, click image to enlarge) I mocked up what the 3 screen set-up would look like. The height of a 17" 4:3 LCD matches well with the 20" widescreen. Looks well smart, a multi-monitor set-up is essential in my opinion for serious work. I'm also looking forward to reclaiming some of my desk space by getting rid of the 24" Sony FW900 CRT (it's soooo yesterday, darlink).

Category:

• Computer
• Monitor
• LCD

Demon MaxDSL Upgrade

Demon are beginning to get their act together and provide information to their customers about the planned roll out of the faster MaxDSL service on their networks. Check out the mini site they've created here where you can test the maximum speed your connection will support and the date they estimate the upgrade to occur.

I'll be upgraded to their HomeOffice 8000 service the week beginning 16th October 2006 with an initial line check estimating a maximum download speed of 4Mbps. Better late than never I suppose.

Category:

• Internet
• Demon
• ISP
• MaxDSL

Football!!!!!!!

The first semi-final has just finished and it was the match of the tournament so far. Two teams gave the rest of the world, but particularly England, a lesson in how the game is supposed to be played, at pace, on the grass, end to end... fantastic. Compare that with what England served up throughout the tournament and it's like a different sport. I love the World Cup!

Come on France, a final with Italy v France... Zidane's swansong, Italy mired in corruption playing beautiful football, toe to toe, it's what it's all about.

Category:

• Sport
• Football
• England
• World+Cup

Sony SDM-S75DB

I've been spending money on The Beast to upgrade for use over the next couple of years before it's eventually replaced with a dual-quad core 16GB workstation of the future.

First up is the addition of a second screen. I've finally decided to replace all the CRTs I have lying about now that I've had experience of my dual screen set-up at work. I went for a Sony 17" LCD SDM-S75DB from ebuyer as it was the best deal I could find for a screen with VGA and DVI-D connections at a cost of £138, not bad at all. Perfect for viewing the TV from my Freecom USB DVB-T stick, Firefox, iTunes and Outlook while keeping the (soon to be replaced) Sony FW900 24" CRT free for the main applications.

Took about 30 seconds to install and get up and running using the second DVI-D connection on my Quadro FX1000 graphics card. Picture quality? Stunning. I knocked the brightness down to "mid" settings but it still looks amazing. One word of advice when buying a LCD monitor; don't get hung up on the panel specifications like response time, brightness, contrast ratios etc. The technology is mature now and the law of diminishing returns is in force.

The screen came with VGA-VGA cable along with a DVI-D to DVI-D cable so I can connect up a second computer as well using the VGA interface. At this price the addition of the DVI-D interface is a rarity.

A slim bezel and almost invisible set of control buttons make for a very sleek look (even better when I replace the CRT as well.) No gimmicks like 90 degree pivot and useless 1W speakers. At this price I can't fault it and intend to order another one in a couple of weeks.

Next up I'm thinking of taking advantage of a good deal from Dell for a 20" 4:3 LCD running at 1600x1200 as a replacement for the main screen. With the Employee Purchase Programme discount from my employer I can pick one up for £325 delivered. Nice.

Then, with the addition of a second Sony SDM-S75DB and a Quadro NVS-280 PCI graphics card from ebay I can run all 3 monitors on DVI-D from The Beast and still have 3 VGA interfaces free for other computers along with the ability to add a 4th LCD screen if I wanted even more screen real estate :)

Category:

• Computer
• Monitor
• LCD

World Cup Losers

Well, it's all over for England. Quite frankly they stank the tournament out with a brand of football rarely seen anywhere in the rest of the world. Crap, the whole team, the management, everyone. Good to see Sven getting absolutely battered in the press and on the telly but it's still not enough. If he's a world class manager then I'm a chinaman. Abysmal.

It's still going on but already there has been a number of big losers in this World Cup.

Referees: The first steps to technology for supervising matches must now be implemented.

FIFA: Talked tough on blatant cheating but never followed through.

Commentators (English): Unlistenable, time for a refreshing change. Fanzone anyone?

Pundits: What is the point of them?

Presenters: Until Saint Jeff of Stelling is appointed link man for all football shown on TV in Britain we are living in a vacuum and wasting precious time. Get Stelling!

ITV: Should never again be allowed to show Football on the telly. Enough is enough.

Cristiano Ronaldo: Cheat, and pretty crap too. Can never play in the same team as Rooney again.

Henry: Cheat, along with his Champions League Final rant and his World Cup shennagins, zero respect.

Rooney: The emperor has no clothes.

Beckham: Will he play for England again? Did he ever?

Sven: Would you employ him?

As I write this the debate rages about who should be the next Captain of England.... if it isn't Steven Gerrard then McLaren is mad. England have no world class players, not one would get into a World 11. Gerrard would maybe make a World 22, the rest, journeymen. Make Gerrard Captain, and then build the midfield around him and get a new manager as well.

I now predict Germany will win the World Cup. It promised so much but after the second round of matches of the group stage the wheels have well and truly come off this tournament. Very disappointing. A classic final between Italy and France could save it but I'm doubtful that'll happen now.

Category:

• Sport
• Football
• England
• World+Cup