Flickr have recently released a all new Uploader app - which I totally missed… But its pretty cool, adding in the ability to sort, title and describe before posting. More when I get chance to play with it a bit more.
Also worthy of note is the new stats system (pro accounts only) which you must turn on if you want it. For me it shows that my Lake District photos are the most popular - many years old…
Add comment January 28th, 2008
Finished week one. 3 runs, no injuries and an average of 2 miles per session (including warm up/down). Week 2 starts tonight.
Add comment January 28th, 2008
The interest rate for student loans in the UK is 4.8%. Thats massive - the rate has doubled… I have a fair amount of money to repay to the student loan people, and this news is not welcome. The worst thing is I found out on Facebook of all places - communication is pretty much useless from the loans company.
So in short, I am more broke than I thought I was.
Add comment January 28th, 2008
Time for a bit more detail on the running program that I am following. Its the Couch to 5 km (often known as c25k) provided by Cool Running. The program aims to se a run / walk interval traing method to get you from nothing to 5km in 9 weeks. The workouts are all around 30 minuites long and you need to complete 3 a week. Its fine to use a treadmill or run outside - whatever floats your boat.
The first week for example involves a 5 min brisk walk to warm up, then 20 mins of alternating 60 seconds running then 90 seconds walking. Finish with a 5 min brisk walk to cool down and go find a shower. Week 2 progresses by making you run 90 seconds and then walk for 120 seconds and so on.
So far I am part way through week one on the treadmill - being carefull to stick with the plan. Last time I went out too fast and got shin splints which stopped me training for a month!
Heres some links to get you started:
The Original c25k program from Cool Running
A script for converting your iTunes playlists into interval training
Robert Ullery provides mp3 podcasts with all the interval training sorted out. Top notch!
Add comment January 23rd, 2008
Just signed myself up for the 3 mile (5km) event at Liverpool. I have been whining about putting weight on for months, and its got real bad since coming home - I eat out of a kind of morbid self destructive streak. So now I have a goal, and a plan.
I thought about following the c25k - Couch to 5km plan for quite some time. I have a race to run, a new pair of trainers and a treadmill. Therefore I have no excuses!
Click on the widget thing if you want to sponsor me…… Aim is simply to run 100% of the distance.
If you have trouble with the widget and its pop-up - either enable pop ups or use this direct link - Sponsor Me
1 comment January 18th, 2008
Sad news today, a backpacker from Orkney was beaten to death in Taupo, New Zealand. This is quite strange to me - I always felt very safe there and I have spent quite a bit of time around Taupo’s bars… Weird when something like this happens somewhere you know.
My condolences to the Family of Karen Aim and I hope the New Zealand police can bring this to a swift conclusion.
More at the beeb.
Add comment January 18th, 2008
Akismet is the plugin provided by Wordpress to prevent comment spam. So far, it has stopped over 30,000 spam comments on this blog alone. Without it, comments would be useless. It misses maybe 2 or 3 a week, which are easily dealt with. Big thanks to Wordpress for supplying a top notch solution - Free ;-).
Add comment January 17th, 2008
I had forgotten just how good this is - if you dont know XBMC, it is a full media centre that runs on a (modded) Microsoft Xbox console. It plays videos, music, runs applications and generally presents a slick interface into your media….
Tonight I finally got round to chucking a 160gb USB drive on the back of my home server - which is a mini Compaq 733 box (low power consumption). With my whole music library on it, it now means XBMC can have access to all my music without needing my real (noisy, big) PC to be on… XBMC will compile a library of all the music allowing you to browse by artist etc, comes with some cool visualisations and I have the remote control. And if you need pimp remotes, its possible to control it using a inbuilt webserver via a PSP or similar wireless device. Not many full colour wireless remotes out there!
The plan is to expand the amount of Network Attached Storage (NAS) on my network as soon as money appears. There might be some old Compaq SCSI 6 drive backplanes and caddies spare in work as old kit gets retired - I reckon these can be made into SATA without too much destruction, which would give me 6TB of hot swap (with appropiate controller card).
All I need now is another Xbox for downstairs. eBay here we come…
Add comment January 17th, 2008
Been looking at the Eee PC recently - at £220 it seems to be a bargain for a ultra portable laptop. I have decent desktops at work and home, so just want a light, wireless laptop for round the house and possibly any travel. The Eee PC looks to cover this - 3 USB2 ports and a SD Reader mean I can get my photos off SD cards and onto a hard drive (usually my 160Gb Ipod). It should have enough horsepower for the GIMP and with a small bluetooth adaptor I would be able to go online via GPRS. Sounds good eh?
However, I still don’t like the look of the 7″ screen. Today, news broke that a new version that should ship April ‘08 will have 7″, 8″ or 8.9″ screens :-). Looks like I will be waiting for that or maybe picking up an original off eBay when all the cool kids upgrade….
1 comment January 8th, 2008
Well I got back on Dec 20th into a freezing Heathrow Airport. After some messing round which involved two trips through security, my laptop being examined for explosives and a shock when i bought a coffee from CostALot, I got on my BMI flight up to Manchester and met the parents.
Otherwise nothing to report over Christmas - met the family and friends (not much changes) and shivered as I moved from highs of 35 to lows of -3. My room persists in being un heated and like to be around 14 deg C in the morning :-(.
Over the coming weeks I have about 10,000 photos to orgainise, upload the good ones and print the best ones. There is also all my junk to move - living out of a rucksack (and car boot) for over a year has taught me something about how much stuff I actually need or use. Expect eBay and tip action in January. Kind of like spring cleaning but without wasting oppotunities to ride / walk / whatever when the weather gets better.
Add comment January 3rd, 2008
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