27 October 2006

Big Brother is watching you!

2 years ago i bought my boyfriend a not-so-cheap weatherproof Garmin GPS so that when we go out on the RIB he wont get us lost. Obviously I didn’t know what I was buying and I certainly haven’t ever used it, come to think of it he's only used it twice... So today’s blog is about the basics of GPS.


Firstly; how to use it:

1. Buy the hand-held GPS set.
2. Buy some batteries, because you didn’t read the small print that said they weren’t included
3. Turn it on
4. Pace round the room wandering why it doesn’t work
5. Find the instructions, note that it says on first usage you should be outside with an unobstructed view of the sky.
6. Find a field (preferably with no bulls)
7. Walk round looking really stupid, while the thing triangulates itself with 4 satellites so it knows where it is.I got the boyfriend to do that

8. Ummm, keep it on when you go out - and it draws a pretty pattern to let you know where you have been. It also tells you how long it took you to get there, and what speed you averaged on your way. Really useful... if you have a crap sense of direction.

Secondly; the technical bit:

There are at least 24 operational Global Positioning System satellites orbiting the earth (this takes approx. 12 hours) sending a constant signal to any equipment on the ground that can receive it. Each satellite has an atomic clock so that it can transmit a start time. Once the handset receives the signal (they do not transmit) from 4 satellites it can calculate its position in 3 dimensions, the accuracy being about 10-20 meters, and know how long it took.

25 October 2006

Is there really somewhere I wont shop?

Yes, well now there is.

You may remember that I bought myself a lovely binary clock from these bastards. Well as of yesterday it still hadn’t turned up so yesterday I sent them an email asking nicely when i might expect my new toy? Last night I received an email informing me that my order was cancelled as they wont deliver to the Channel Islands. WELL THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW #@#*^$!

Anyway, after some rare post-work-hours contact with a PC I found the same item, albeit with an Englified price (did you know that often there is only half a dollar to the pound?) HERE, 'I want one of those' is one of the bestest gadget sites around. I have already had an email saying it has been dispatched! Yay!


Please note that I have replaced the offending website from my shopping list...

20 October 2006

The Shame….

I have to confess to failing another geek-test recently; I thought I would play around with editing my blog template - forgetting that I would have to put back in the tracking code that lets me see how many people have hit my site and where they come from etc... So, for the last week or so, I have been getting increasingly upset (crying myself to sleep at night no less) at my lack of visitors.

I have no rectified this issue, so if I could ask you all to hit the ‘Refresh’ button a few times, link to my archives, and even maybe link to my page from another PC in your office that would be just great. That way I will feel much better when I login on Monday and see that I had more than 0 visitors!!!!

Thank you for calling, have some of fluffiness, no-hands little cousin has come to stay:

17 October 2006

"Nothing comes for free..." ITS ALL LIES!

Earlier this week, my colleague GrinGod helped me unravel the mystery that is 'BitTorrent'. This is a method for sharing knock-off software and films, pre-release music albums and slightly out-of-focus porn...

The key to 'BitTorrent' is to upload your files at the same time as downloading someone elses so that bandwidth is utilised fully. I am sad to say i have nothing worthy of sharing so haven’t mastered this side of things yet - but i am getting very good at just taking! So far i have downloaded 8 albums, 12 singles and a film - all within work hours with sneaky usage of the ALT + TAB buttons to get me back to something more worktime-worthy, like Sky News Shobiz.

Heres how:
1. Download all the BitTorrent music and films you like at a file-sharing site such as The Pirate Bay.
2. Download a bit of software from one of the many sites out there (like UTorrent) to unpack the above file.
3. Listen, watch (and w*nk) to your hearts content - all for free.


But wait - i cant take my PC home every night, how will I get all this music work home? Well, yesterday I pilfered myself this shiny bit of kit from work. The real object of today’s blog is to learn how to install this cd-writer on my machine. It was surprisingly easy.
  • Firstly; I unscrewed the sides of my machine, ripped out a small metal barrier inside so that there was room for my old cd-player and the new cd-writer:
  • Secondly; I changed the setting of my old cd=player to 'Master' and my new cd-writer to 'Slave' (you'll find these settings on the back of the boxes):
  • Finally; plug the wires back the way they used to be, with the old spare set now in the new cd-rewiter, and screw it all back together:


You will be pleased to know i only had 3 screws left over when i had finished, and that my boyfriend is now the proud owner of the new Paulo Nutini album... (tis very good BTW).

13 October 2006

My attempts at mastering technology are failing!

Some of you may have noted that I deleted a post today, it was meant to have a link to a program i had written for your joy and delect - however i am having file hosting problems so will post it once that is sorted.

I have taken inspiration for this from this chap here who is trying to write a computer program everyday for 30 days - now i have no intention of doing this but if you have any suggestions for little silly programs you would like me to write emai me at tabilda@hotmail.com.

Instead, i bring you a link to this mp3 search site which will hunt you down free mp3s! Quick grab them before it gets shut down, i think it might be ever so slightly illegal!