Steve's Blog

Thu 18 Jun 2009 - Scotland - Eddies Wedding

After the Hull Stag it was Eddie's wedding in Scotland.

In between the wedding events we headed up to the Highlands.

Sat 30 May 2009 - Hull 2009 - Ed Stag II

Eddie Stag II in Hull 20 years after we started Uni there.

Pink T-shirts and beer!

Mon 25 May 2009 - Apple Mac Mini

After buying the iPhone I ended buying a Apple Mac Mini to replace my Linux desktop experiment. Until you see one for real its hard to appreciate just how tiny the form factor is. I can now download the iPhone SDK.

Thu 21 May 2009 - Bubbles and Manias - You Are Here

We have had the credit crunch, and are in the middle of the worst resession for 70 years, but according to Estate Agents house prices are starting to rise again. Labour are trying to re-inflate the housing bubble because the whole economy was built on equity withdrawal and ever rising house price increases. Added to that MPs themselves were building up tidy fortunes by buying houses, renovating on expenses using taxpayers money, and selling at a profit.

I do not not convinced about all this talk of a V shaped recovery. I reckon its a Dead Cat Bounce.

Fri 01 May 2009 - Apple iPhone 3G

Nice big 320x480 screen.

Great touch screen navigation and only one hard button.

Loads of Applications. Some useful!

1 years unlimited data access.

Contacts and Calendar sync.

I gave up waiting for an Android based phone to replace my W910. Android phones, like the HTC Magic, have only just started to come out and are only available on contracts at 35 pounds a month for 24 months. I am not buying a mobile with Windows on. Which pretty much left Nokia and Apple. After my last bug ridden Nokia handset I vowed never to buy one again. That left me joining the iPhone herd like the rest of my friends.

Wed 22 Apr 2009 - Technical Lego Mouse Trap.

We found out we had mice so I built a Lego mouse trap:

After a battle of wits with the mouse and continuous refinements I managed to finally catch a mouse.

Sat 18 Apr 2009 - Volkswagen Golf 1.4 SE DSG Test Drive.

0-60 in 9.5 secs and 47mpg.

Very smooth seamless 7-speed auto DSG box.

Great 1.4 Turbo 122BHP petrol engine, fun in S-mode.

Decent cabin inside and very quiet.

Didn't look as dull as I thought with 16" Alloys and Metallic blue.

8 to 12 weeks delivery time, and dealers best price was 800 squids more than the DriveTheDeal.com price. Also they only offered me 1600 pounds trade in for my Impreza!

Thu 09 Apr 2009 - Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 TDi Test Drive.

0-60 in 10.5 secs and 44mpg.

The Diesel engine is quiet and powerful enough.

Muscular styling and decent cabin inside - cup holder city.

Drives like a car, although doesn't quite corner like its on rails.

Loads of space inside for bulk buying TESCO value products.

It took a lot of effort to arange a test drive of a manual Tiguan. Now I am waiting for the dealer to come back with their best price.

Sat 28 Mar 2009 - Ford Kuga 2.0 TDi Test Drive.

0-60 in 10.7 secs and 44mpg.

The Diesel engine is quiet and powerful enough.

Aggresive styling and decent cabin inside.

Drives like a car, although the driving position feels too high.

Less space inside than a Ford Focus!

I booked a test drive with the Reading dealer, but their car broke down on the day! I never heard back from them. So I ended up test driving it in Swindon. Unfortunately I did not know the roads, and the dealer didn't know where any twisty country roads were.

Sat 28 Feb 2009 - Average House Price Statistics - UK National

Down 19% from 2007 peak back to 2004 levels. But still 5.5 times the average salary. Average detached house prices in the South East are still Ł300,000+

Sun 15 Feb 2009 - SEAT Leon 2.0 TDi DSG Test Drive.

0-60 in 9.3 secs and 47mpg are pretty good.

Lots of usable power.

Very smooth seamless auto DSG box.

Shape looks a bit blobby from certain angles.

Older PD Diesel is a bit noisey.

Not a bad car. Although SEAT have just announced a facelift for the Leons with new Common Rail Diesel engines. I am waiting for the dealer to get back to me with details of the new model which should be available in the summer.

Tue 20 Jan 2009 - Squeezebox Streaming Audio

I bought a Squeezebox Boom to stream my music over WiFi around the house.

MP3 Collection, Playlists, Internet Radio, RSS News Feeds. It really is an excellent bit of kit.

Wed 31 Dec 2008 - Singapore

End of Year holiday in Singapore.

Three weeks of sunshine and very expensive beer at 2 SGD to 1 GBP. Thanks Gordon!.

Thu 25 Dec 2008 - Xmas and New Year in Singapore.

I escaped the cold and flew to Singapore for Xmas and New Year.

As usual celebrated in the Public House.

Sun 21 Dec 2008 - CCTV.

I was going away on holiday to Singapore for a few weeks so wanted to set up CCTV.

I installed a webcam and used Open source motion detection software on my 24x7 Linux NAS to monitor the house. This inexpensive setup worked surprisingly well.

Sat 13 Dec 2008 - Christmas Lights in London.

Popped down to London to see the Xmas Lights before Christmas.

Should not have bothered. Every year the people of Norway donate an Xmas tree to stand in Trafalgar Square. This year it looked sad, and like it was dying, and had few decorations. The Oxford Street lights were nowhere near as good as Orchard Road in Singapore.