Ireland 43 - 13 England

Dancer, a complete and total humping of England. Shane Horgan's jump to score a try, top class. The National Anthem was immaculately observed (at least as broadcast by the BBC) so credit to Ireland all round. The BBC commentators? Xenophobic bile as the BBC's commentary continues it's decline into the sewers.

The only pisser is the last gasp loss to France means we're not pushing for a Grand Slam. Triple Crown and the chance of being Champions will have to do. How far our expectations have come in the past 10 years.

It'll be a wild night at the Friends of Father Ted Festival 2007.

Category:

• Sport
• Rugby
• Ireland

Health Update 52

I had a hospital appointment with the Liver consultant today, he gave me a right bollocking because of my weight. Feeling OK but he left me in no doubt that if the damage to my Liver is not slowed down I'd be toast in 10-15 years. He said my past blood test results had been showing a steady improvement in line with the weight loss but he was expecting the sample taken today to show deterioration.

It's good that an improvement was noted in my past blood samples so I've decided to try even harder to shift the weight and monitor my blood results to give some impetus.

Another appointment with the consultant was arranged for May where I intend to show significant weight loss and sparkling blood results. It's a bit of a leveller when you're told in no uncertain terms that weight=premature death when NASH is involved.

Category:

• Health
• NASH
• Weight

Blender 2.43

Yes, yes, yes, oh yes. Blender 2.43 is out along with a nice redesign to the Blender.org site. Great stuff. I'm using Blender at work to present some concept designs to a customer to help secure a $20million contract, pity I can't show them. I love Blender!

Check out the videos which have been created to show off some of the new features. Sculpt mode looks very interesting indeed. Walk don't run.

Category:

• 3D
• Blender

Michelangeo? with Blender Continued

The new release of Blender is just hours away so here is a quick update on my character modelling.


The neck, arms and beginnings of the chest.


Hands are in.


The torso.


Pot belly, crotch and openings for the legs.


Thighs.


Legs are finished and shaped along with the feet. The modelling is now finished and it's time to add some materials. He's called Roger by the way.

Category:

• 3D
• Blender

Vista WOW WHY?

I haven't got the slightest bit of interest in Microsoft's Vista (I'll get it for "free" when I upgrade to a new dual quad core beast, next year probably) but this review on theregister.com really sticks the knife in. What do Microsoft think they're doing? Are they following the longest suicide note in history that is the Sony Corporation?

Category:

• Microsoft
• Vista

Lets Be Careful Out There

Following on from a friend's brush with identity theft resulting in the emptying of his bank account and unauthorised use of a credit card the topic of bank security has been high on our list of work conversations. A couple of incidents have come to light in the past couple of weeks.

Firstly a colleague was buying a new car (new to him you understand, we're all criminally underpaid ;-) so off he trotted to the bank to withdraw £2000 in cash. He handed over his bank card and asked to withdraw the two grand. "Certainly Sir" says the bank drone "I can give you that in £20 notes or if you want £50 notes you'll have to go to a different window." and swiftly proceeds to count out the cash. "Errr?!!? says my colleague "Don't you want me to type in my PIN number or sign something or show some photographic identity." "That's not necessary" replies the drone. "Eh?" days my colleague (a bit concerned and flabbergasted in equal measure). "I have your description here attached to your account details and everything is OK". Now, my colleague is the spitting image of Henrik Larsson, so we can only imagine it says the same in his bank's description but really, what sort of security is that? All you have to do is look like someone and the bank will hand over 2 grand in cash. Unbelievable!

Next up was the boss who was positively rocked by my retelling of the iand.net story (for reasons I'll not go into). To cut a long story short he decided he wanted to close a long forgotten ISA account at his Building Society and use the cash to cut a lump off his mortgage. In he walked (for the first time in 7 years he reckoned) asked to close the account and requested a cheque for the total. "Certainly Sir." went the drone and promptly closed the account and printed a cheque. No queries, no quibbles here's the cheque. Now the boss had armed himself with two forms of photographic identity expecting to be grilled before being allowed access to the account. He had a go at the drone and eventually demanded to see the Manager about his concerns on the bank's security. The Manager seemed uninterested and said it was OK as the cheque was made out to my boss and therefore could only be deposited by him. But as we know that's not too difficult to circumvent. All very worrying.

So, like Ian, everyone in our office is re-examining their approach to financial security, changing passwords, purchasing shredders, studying statements etc. I suggest you all do the same.

Category:

• Money
• Security

Michelangeo?

I've mentioned my awe and respect for Blender on a number of posts in this blog. It is a completely fantastic, open source 3D package capable of modeling, rendering, animation, sequencing, game engine, etc etc. Now I just dabble with it, rendering a few models I've created at work (to help the managers visualise my latest genius creation) and play with it at home as well. But, as I'm a professional designer using high-end CAD packages every day I've never really bothered with modeling in Blender. I decided to change that.

There is a very good tutorial on the Blender wiki which takes a beginner through the process of modeling, adding materials, lighting, rigging (add an armature, think skeleton, to animate the character), posing and rendering a biped character. Created by Ryan Dale for the Blender Summer of Documentation project, Introduction to Character Animation, is a great introduction to many of the features Blender offers. I was so chuffed with what I've produced in the first 44 pages I thought I'd show it off.


Beginning with the mouth.


Preparing the eye and socket.


The eyes are in and the lids are modeled.


The back of the head filled in.


Closing the mouth (forward preparation for animation and lip syncing). The finished head.

How cool is that eh? I'm so proud. Next up is the neck, shoulders, arms and torso.

Category:

• 3D
• Blender

Ireland, Ireland

Here we go again, the Six Nations, fantastic. This time we're many peoples favourites after last years Triple Crown, runners-up to Champions France and a good showing in the Autumn Internationals so we're almost guaranteed to be pish. As long as we beat the bastard English :-) I'll be happy.

Biggest question to be answered today will be at what point Jonny Wilkinson hobbles off injured in the England v Scotland match? I'd never wish injury upon any professional sportsman (even the deviants) but it's almost inevitable he'll not last the course of the game.

I'm away to watch some Father Ted on DVD to brush up on my "being Irish" skills before our opener against Wales tomorrow. Come on.

Update 4/02/07: Oh boy did I ever get that wrong. Jonny Wilkinson singlehandly destroyed Scotland and is now being hailed as the man who will win them the World Cup again. Hmmm...

Category:

• Sport
• Rugby
• Ireland