The Smiling Catfish

2011-07-13T10:05:00.001-07:00

Waiting on Esxi 5 to open for download.

What a nice day

2011-07-05T00:47:00.001-07:00

Cans

2010-11-20T06:52:00.000-08:00

Finally, a set of headphones that can permanently damage my hearing. A disturbing amount of bass.

Still here

2010-11-17T12:14:00.001-08:00

Barely

Server Core allow MMC firewall

2009-10-08T11:32:00.000-07:00

Netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=“remote administration” new enable=yes

Clustering in VM Ware

2009-10-08T03:03:00.001-07:00

Add a shared disk,

vmkfstools -d thick -a lsilogic -c 10G /vmfs/volumes/vmfs001/SCC1S.vmdk

Set the SCSI adapters to a new slot and different SCSI ID's,

IE 1:0 and 1:1

Set the SCSI adapter to virtual

These Days

2009-08-07T14:54:00.000-07:00

So there are many days you will have in your life, some good some bad. I've been lucky enough to have a few days where it has just has panned out. So, in life, you are occasionally lucky enough to have these days when you lay your shit down, and that shit be good, that good shit be happening.

I am lucky enough to have a new job. I am now a "Microsoft Implementations Engineer'. To put this into perspective. I've jumped from dick all experience, to a 3rd line role within 10 months. Yowza!!.

My new boss summed it up, by the way, this is nearly verbatim. "We've put a lot of faith in you, you better get reading those books this weekend!"

Bring it.

Bugger

2009-06-29T10:31:00.001-07:00

So I'm going to be made redundant and I have 24 cans of premium german lager at home.

You does teh math

DHCP Server

2009-06-28T08:05:00.001-07:00

Install dhcpd
Overwrite /etc/dhcpd.conf with dhcpd.conf.sample
Edit dhcpd.conf with your settings
Bind to an adapter in /etc/sysconfig/network/dhcpd if you need to
Start the service, and monitor any errors in /var/log/messages to prune any errors.

SCSI Drivers in XP

2009-06-24T23:34:00.001-07:00

Been kicking my ass for a day now. Installing XP in ESXi, kept bumming out when adding the SCSI drivers. Make sure that the XP install disc/image has OEM PREINSTALL set to no with something like nLite. All is good.

ESXi install with CPUID value error

2009-06-24T02:50:00.000-07:00

During boot, hit shift o, and a screen will appear with advanced options at the bottom. Enter 'nocheckCPUIDlimit' and press enter, the system will boot. After boot, connect to the server using the VI client and modify advanced options, boot. There will be an option to force CPUID check. Uncheck that and apply and the server will boot without intervention.

Ripped shamlessly from the vmware forums.

Finding things

2009-06-21T03:57:00.001-07:00

Where is useradd? = whereis useradd

Easy eyh!

Mount Disks by UUID

2009-06-21T03:56:00.000-07:00

Step 1 - Get the UUID of your drive by executing the following:
user@machine ~> sudo vol_id -u /dev/sda1
208861208860Z1A6

Step 2 - Add the proper line to your /etc/fstab file to property mount the partition in the future, snippet below:
# /dev/sda1
UUID=208861208860Z1A6 /media/windows ntfs defaults,umask=007,gid=46 0 1

Really usefull when using USB drives permantley as I've has them mover around before.

Credits go to here

Muchos RHEL5

2009-06-19T10:47:00.001-07:00

The more I learn, the more I am able to understand that which I do not know.

X and Y

2009-04-05T05:58:00.000-07:00

Y: You're up early

X: Couldnt sleep, been having some bad dreams for a while now.

Y: Do I have to tell you all of my dreams? (storms off)

WTF!!

Todays command

2009-04-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

So I have hellanzb running on my NSLU2, for some reason it chose not to extract somefiles. So I have multiple rar's which are parts of multiple files in a directory and I need to decompress each one of them.

find ./ -name "*part01.rar" -exec unrar e {} \;

So the curly brackets are passing each result from my find command onto the end of unrar. The semicolon indicates the end of the command and the slash next to it stops it from being used as a command seperator. Cool eyh.

New Job

2009-04-04T03:33:00.001-07:00

Not many updates for a while as I've started my new job. Same place, just moved into 2nd line tech support. On the geek fron i've hacked a NSLU2 which I'm using as my NZB server. ill post up some more details later.

Ah bless..

2009-02-24T03:47:00.000-08:00

My daughter just found out she can't see the back of her head :)

So good I had to post it.

2009-02-22T23:23:00.000-08:00

Found this on a random forum so I can't credit it but damn is it awesome.

Bye to L-in

2009-02-20T01:07:00.000-08:00

Been a while coming, now I've fully transferred all of my stuff to smilingcatfish. Checked out http://www.l-in.com/ and saw that someone had already parked it!! So i decided the inevitable had to be done and deleted my Google apps account.

Google really is good

2009-02-18T02:19:00.001-08:00

Exchange support. Say byebye mobileme.

Damned if you do

2009-02-11T10:38:00.001-08:00

Finally got around to sorting out some Japanese lessons today. It was actually only a meeting to discuss what I wanted but was really cool. Sown side is I wont have time for a lesson until the end of march!! Crazy eyh. Mrs A was unhappy to say the least but this is something that has to be done, I'll just have to see where the cards fall. Talk about paths in life, of all the places in Bristol the Sensei's house is on the back of a place thats significant to me. Can't say much more than that but jeez. Felt really positive about the thing though, not too sure why yet, but this is defiantly the way for me to go. It just occurred to me earlier that I'm going to have to learn how to read and write again, ouch.

On the up side, rocking OS X86 on me netbook, It's not 100% there, screen brightness is a bit iffy and there's no headphone/speaker jack sensing but it's thoroughly workable and at the end of the day, a £300 mac, you takes your pic. It has shown me that a small system with a kick ass OS can easily replace a big mother of a system.

Hail to the King

2009-02-08T11:44:00.000-08:00

Amazing what one can find in one's attic.

Yet more snow

2009-02-05T17:11:00.000-08:00

I'll be jiggered

2009-02-02T11:29:00.001-08:00

Todays Musings

2009-01-30T12:13:00.000-08:00

Last night was a strange one, no matter how tired I've been, I've always enjoyed kicking back with a movie and a drink. Last night was the first time I really didn'y enjoy myself. Maybe I'm getting older or my priorities have shifted, who knows.

So I just ended up moping around my house today with a poor attempt for a hangover and a cold. Watched the rest of Season 1 of 'The Wire', can highly recommend that. Took Debian off and put XP on my dev machine. Main reason is that XP is just easier to RDP, SMB and generally dick around with. It's easier to waste time learning on a VM instead of a base machine as half the time I want that machine working and don't have the time to set it up. I learnt that with the great MythTV saga. Flipped Fedora on a partition in my netbook. Wireless worked from the get go which is encouraging as I really want to get OS X86 on this thing.

A bit unusual

2009-01-29T17:12:00.001-08:00

So tonight I was all set, a bottle or 2 of my favourite wine, a packet
of cigarettes, a movie or 2. All should have been good in the world of
Andy. It would seem that after the 4 weeks of healthy food, no wine or cigs

all I have to show for my pleasures is a headache and even more of a
cough. Time could have been better spent installing my firewall in VMWare.

Still, Japanese lesson time soon ;)

Sent from my iPhone

Not much really

2009-01-28T13:53:00.001-08:00

Been a quite few days, work is ticking over atm and I start my new job on the 5th of March. Been 28 days without a beer and a smoke :| I get to have a little sake and a smoke tomorrow night but it's strictly a once a month affair, and then I can book my Japanese lessons, woohoo.

Looks like she may have talent for this

2009-01-25T13:23:00.001-08:00

Taken with my iPhone of all things!!!

Apple Bluetooth Keyboard on Windows XP

2009-01-24T07:24:00.000-08:00

Been Annoying me for a few hours, I'm not anti Windows but I really like the Apple keyboards and with this new laptop I need to use windows because of the funky wifi drivers and the improved battery life. So wanting to use the laptop on my LCD TV I went and bout an Apple keyboard. Does it want to pair, does it ever.

There's a few bits and snips on the Internet but it all seems to come down the M$ bluetooth stack not authenticating the keyboard. Essentially the keyboard wants a pass and widdicom doesn't want to. One fix is to force a pass in the registry, which seems patch and doesn't work. There's a tick box asking for authentication in the bluetooth software but it's greyed out. A quick dig around finds you:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Widcomm\BTConfig\Applications\0011

This is just on my registry, but there is a description key with "Use a Bluetooth enabled mouse, keyboard or other interface device". So this is defiantly the area where the bluetooth app gets it settings for each device class attached, (cameras, keyboards ets). A quick peek through some of the other folders (0010,0009 etc) shows that the key Authentication has been set to 1, but the Keyboard and mice one, 0011 remember, is set to 0. So change that value from "0" to "1".

A quick reboot and when I tried to pair it refused, another try and it asked for a pass key, entered that in and now all is good:) And also very aluminumy.

All is good

2009-01-23T14:27:00.000-08:00

Yet another move around in the front room tomorrow. More updates then.

New Toy...Updates to Follow

2009-01-23T09:00:00.001-08:00

Samsung NC10 :)

This seems to be all over the news today

2009-01-20T23:12:00.000-08:00

Rock on

How cool?

2009-01-19T13:08:00.000-08:00

Found these 2 gems, not sure who did them so I can't give credit but all I can say is amen brother. 1 day, 1 day...

Lunch is served

2009-01-19T06:29:00.000-08:00

KITT, meet me round the back!!

2009-01-17T04:03:00.000-08:00

The new LG Phone Watch, maybe not an iPhone Killer but destined for big things I think.

Tokto Time Lapse

2009-01-16T01:40:00.000-08:00

Saw this on Kirainet. Reminds me of when I went to Tokyo.

Hackintosh a gogo

2009-01-13T02:13:00.001-08:00

So I already have an iMac which I love, and Ive been trying to sort an OS for my 2nd machine, a PC. I kinda feel like Goldylocks. Vista is to slow, XP to old, Linux too flaky. Moments, or possibly weeks later... hang on a mo. I dig out my OS X installation disk, patch it and hey presto, OS X86 :) Seems to be running stable, and my old Dell is enoying a new lease of life. To be clear, I love storage space and USB/Firewire is OK for the odd drive, but for many many drives it falls short. I can't really justify a Powermac but would love an xMac . If this works out well there could be a new PC build on the horizon ;)

I need to get home and wash the chav off of me

2009-01-11T02:55:00.000-08:00

Linux Mint, now with Dual Screen goodness

2009-01-09T02:55:00.000-08:00

More than a little geeky but I dont care :)

Dual boot with Mint Linux and XP

2009-01-07T11:00:00.001-08:00

Not so mad skills, apparently linux no likey software raid. WTF. Software raid, thats a new one on me. So, I shall allow myself to digress upon this point. Software raid, lots of linux wining about how it's not 'real' raid with no real solutions. Which is so linux. I dont want to manually config a an NTFS partition, I just want it there, same with WIFI networks, same with raid.

I'm not a lover of any 1 OS, I just use what works. Love a PC because I can rip it's guts and make it do what I want. Got a mac because the damn thing refuses to go down. Windows on the other hand, besides being a pretty good OS which rums on nearly all the puters in the world, is buggy and not relaible. With a mac you HAVE to do it Steve's way, which 75% of the time is insanely brilliant. The other 25% is insanely overpriced. My favourite is probably Google at the moment because it is zero config.

So I can see linux working, mac is just a nice polished front end to unix after all. Why cant someone just rip off OS X. Make a nice ultra clean intuitive gui. Stick a reasonable price point of say £25, or have a free version with no te..... Actually I'll just morph this into a list of what I want in an OS.

Built on a NIX core, UNIX, LINUX, OS X all reliable servers. Someone allow the GNU or whatever to use Linux kernel for a small commercial distro.

A modular kernel, but not only for drivers etc. Twitter, facebook, blogs, email, modern multimedia codec's. Allow these to be built into the core of the OS. This sounds a bit crazy I know but bear with me. So if I want to listen to an MP3, that codec is built into the OS. If I want to add a twitter to an application I can just add a tile to that app that allows me to do that. Im watching a movie, I can blog in real time and do a screengrab. The OS would be built around what and how I use it.

Pricing. I am aware of nefarious software methods. However, and here we go again. Lets say that I have a rock solid OS that's built upon a GNU licence. I would pay say £20-30, with 20% going to a linux foundation. Imagine a) how many people would buy into it providing you have a good OS and b) how much research could be done into kernel dev's etc.

ZFS, yes please, as the boot drive ;)

Games, this is easy. OpenCl is around the corner and from the start, use Steam, I've got no problem paying for my games. Get them to add in bandwidth for free community games. Could build steam straight into the OS as well ;)

I could go on, this all seems a bit childish maybe but my point is that this is really possible. It's not that I'm anti Microsoft or Mac. I just want an OS that is realtively open, stable and multimedia based. Is this too much too ask?

6 days and no cigarettes

2009-01-06T12:06:00.000-08:00

Something to be happy about one would suppose.

Back To Blogger

2009-01-06T08:47:00.001-08:00

I'll post a bit up later ;)

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Down in the Wall of Corn

2009-01-06T02:57:00.000-08:00

Not much to say, still no cigarettes. Am I ever glad I left this place.

A new year, a new domain?

2008-12-30T03:00:00.000-08:00

So I’ve already deleted my old l-in.com domain and now own thesmilingcatfish.com. I’ve always used tscf for spoof email so I decided I should register. I’ve felt that l-in wasnt really what I wanted it to be.

Out with the old

2008-12-28T14:14:00.000-08:00

So I've got a few plans, a plan to be more specific, that I'm going to do over the next couple of years. This is the whole life change shennaigans, Im sure you've heard it before. My friend Alex once said a poignant thing to me about 6 years ago. "You know, with all that money you've spent on your home theatre (I was into that at the time), you could have had a wicked holiday in Japan". Talk about the forest for the trees.

Skip this to see the main part. Always had a love of tech, going back to a ZX81. My first console was a Sega Master System, at the time, apparentley I liked 'Japanese' games, so it began. I watched Fist of the North Star at my good friend Paul's house. Close to the time I also watched Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence. Little did I know this was a path set for me. Towards the end of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, a famous actor (little did I know it then), Takeshi Kitano, had this line at the end of the film. After all the messed up things he had done to the progtanist (David Bowie ftmw) he spoke the lines in broken english "Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence". That spoke to me, even at the young age of 12, that really spoke to me. Somehow I identified with this sence of decency even in arduation. Ever since then I've had a natural leaning for a Japanese sensibility, somehow I just understand it. Later on I learnt that my grandfather thought the Japanese in Burma. I guess I kinda like to think it's a piece of karma visitng me.

Onto the topic. I had become so accustomed to being into Japanese culture that I did not even notice that I should have been making all efforts to at least visit. Who would believe that a Chinese wife, mine!!, could push me there. All the time I'm doing my thing, she's like "You should find a Japanese wife". I'll admit she likes to get the knives out but none the less.

So I'm sat here enjoying an economical version of Sake from the local supermarket (the only Sake available I hasten to add). And I've been watching a lot of old movies over the last few days, old from my past that is. Hellraiser 1,2 and 3. Im currently on Robocop for those who care. And I'm thinking, is my mind trying to regress? It could be said I live vicariously through movies, but who doesn't?

My plan is pretty heavy. I need JLPT level 4 PLUS at least 3 or 4 good IT qualifications. Am I caipable? Yea, I kinda think I am. However will I see the forest for the tree's? I'm aiming at 5 years, I sincerely that my wife and child will see this with me. But if the shit hits the fan. I guess I've gotta do this for myself. I just I have to realse this this is what myself wants.

I do not know or I do not understand?

2008-12-27T15:47:00.000-08:00

So this is a pretty broad ranging idea. Lets put it this way, I'm a nerdy guy. Would you say I do not understand, for instance, genetic engineering, or would you say I do not know. To put it another way. If I were to become a genetic engineer, would I be able to learn 'most' of it from on the job training. Do I not know or do I not understand. My point is this I guess, to not understand underlies a deficit of comprehension. To not know belies a willingness to comprehend, even in the absence of knowledge. I kinda guess I understand a little nihon'go.

Back In Black

2008-12-08T07:17:00.000-08:00

Felt the need for some clothes and after 5 years of doing the blue jeans thing I thought why not. Bela Lugosi isn't dead, he's living in my crotch stuffing.

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Andy is Peeling Sprouts Look at me

2008-12-07T01:22:00.000-08:00

Well it only took a few days, already bored of facebook. Guess there's better things to do other than telling people what I'm doing.

Don't Pick Up A Penguin...srsly

2008-12-06T05:03:00.000-08:00

Geolocate this post

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Facebook

2008-12-03T05:45:00.000-08:00

Just had a quick play, seeing as I've been updating my blog a bit more often I guess it may have motivated me a little. Can't see what the fuss is to be honest, think I'll give it a week or so of playing before I issue a verdict.

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Mood:Pensive

2008-12-02T07:57:00.000-08:00

Was hoping to be able to ditch my Micra of death and pick up something better seeing as it failed it's MOT. The missis may have caught wind of the scheme, booger.

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Early Morning Shenanagins

2008-12-01T22:14:00.000-08:00

Missis was a snoring, nothing else to except watch Wanted :) All is good with the world.

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Something is amiss at the Chinese supermarket

2008-12-01T11:42:00.000-08:00

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Wanted On 720p

2008-12-01T09:31:00.000-08:00

And my daughter simply insists on being in the vicinity.

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WD TV

2008-11-30T14:53:00.000-08:00

Technolust Satiated. Now I have to wait for a firmware to allow embedded SSA subtitles in MKV containers. Anime don't you know ^ ^

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Pic Test

2008-11-30T14:50:00.000-08:00

So will a picture taken on my iPhone, uploaded to blogger, automatically sync over to my picassa account?

Posted with LifeCast

2008-11-28T13:53:00.000-08:00

Geolocate this post

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Cornwall

2008-11-28T01:57:00.000-08:00

Geolocate this post

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Test Pic Sync

2008-11-27T12:48:00.000-08:00

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Pic Test

2008-11-27T12:47:00.000-08:00

So will a picture taken on my iPhone, uploaded to blogger, automatically sync over to my picassa account?

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At Work

2008-11-27T12:41:00.000-08:00

Going down to cornwall later on, see the trouble and strife.

Geolocate this post

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Moon

2008-07-31T20:33:00.000-07:00

Were

Pic test

2008-07-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

Test

2008-07-29T11:41:00.000-07:00

Sent from my iPhone

another test!!!!

2008-06-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

Todays Job

2008-06-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

So I'll be rejigging the office soon which means that I had to move Little Monsters machine into the back room. This meant due to the completely unsuspecting possible premature demise of my test rig, did I say that, I meant the family laptop, I had to install a USB laptop camera onto my old 17' LCD. Problem being that there is no where to fit, the girth of the monitor being in excess of the capability of my webcam. The answer turned out to be in the form of an old Dell drive rail glued onto the top of the monitor.

Result, all are happy and I get a monster free iMac and the distinct

possibility of acquiring a test rig

Test mail blog

2008-06-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

Thought I should at least try.

Life is good

2008-04-15T10:36:00.000-07:00

After a heavy power nap whilst listening to the dulcet tones of Terminator 2 I have decided I need a new office. Since the arrival of Little Monster, and the subsequent invasion of my backup computer, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS (youre getting the idea here), means I am rapidly running out of space.

Once again, we must pay worship at the alter of mass produced, yet economical. Swedish furniture. Somewhere is a page on a catalog that will define your lifestyle leaving you feeling distinctly more, hoopi. I spotted on another blog that someone had used 2 table tops with the triangle leg thingamybobs. I like the look of that. So we come down to the age old conundrum of size. 1.5 meters would look OK but I'm worried that it will not leave enough desk space, however 2 meters would rock, but I'm not sure if there's enough room in the, err, room. Remember that this room is my hub, it has to hold a hell of lot of gear. Enough for 2 people now because of Little Monster. I think I may have a play in SketchUp
which I've used before.

Peace

Yet more Photo's

2007-04-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

A few pictures

2007-01-01T09:09:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays all, I thought I'd throw up some pictures of my daughter.

Wii time

2006-12-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

8th December 2006, mark it down. Today via parcel force arrived my shiny new Wii. I've been really cautious on this series of consoles. I was originally holding out for the PS3, then came the delays, more delays, wait for it, yet more delays. For a while the Xbox 360 looked tempting, but the price point is a bit too high for an impulse buy. So, after trading in my PSP for a Nintendo DS I was sold on the Wii. Even my wife wasn't opposed to the idea.

Anyway, back to the grand opening. It comes in a very Apple style box, well packaged in 2 slide out cartons. I couldn't believe how small this thing is. I think its by far the cutest of the consoles, it reminds me of the early Sega consoles, quite angular and functional, but in white. It comes with a bargain basement composite AV lead, yup that's right, no hi-def here. So I plug everything in, nestling the Wii next to my cable, and power up. At which point my 18 month daughter decides to take an interest pressing the reset button during the setup screen. So I plug everything in, again, balancing my precious new toy precariously on top of the TV. Woa, I'm pointing the wii-mote at the screen and that little finger icon is moving, how cool!!! The text is nice and easy to read, even on my trusty old CRT set. After 2 updates we're good to go.

Hardware wise Im sure you all know about it. There 2 flaps on the top which give you access to the 4 Gamecube controller ports and 2 memory card slots. 2 USB ports on the back and a nice slot loading CD/DVD drive which handles Wii discs and Gamecube Discs. And the SD card reader on the front. The main menu screen is based around "channels". Basically a set of tiles you click on, the Mii channel, Disc channel, shop channel etc. The Mii is this little character you create, that interacts in some games and acts as a profile/save point. You can also download other Mii's into a plaza where some kind of interaction goes on, not to sure about that part yet. In Wii sports, the character are your Mii characters, also you can copy your Mii to your Wii-mote. This allows you to take your Wii-mote over to a friends house, then use that Mii character when multi playing. Theres a photo channel where you can play with photos youve put on you're SD card (did I forget to mention it has a SD slot). Onto the Shop channel. This is really cool. You can buy Wii points, I paid 21 quid for 3000. You then exchange these points for classic games from days gone by, this is called "Virtual console", oooohhh. I downloaded Super Mario 64 (1000 points) and Sonic the Hedgehog (800 points). These appear as channels on the main screen. Both played very well using the Gamecube controller.

So how about the games? I feel that Nintendo have done a great disservice to themselves on the graphics here. I think that the games look lovely, very solid textures, no drops in frame rate and not too many jaggies. Sounds nice too. So far Ive only played Wii sports, but what a game. After half an hour of jumping round like a mad man in front of the TV, I was knackered. Wii sports contain 5 games, boxing, bowling, tennis, golf and some american batting game called baseball. Baseball and boxing both suck, theres no way around this, however the remainder all rock. Im nearly a pro at bowling, and my wife remains undefeated at tennis. The wii-mote is really a stunning piece of hardware, it does feel really natural and definitely adds a great dimension to game play. You do need a lot of room though, at least 6 foot by 6 foot. This could be a problem for some people as it does need to be in a living room, unless you've got a cavernous bedroom or office.

Overall Ive got very few bad things to say. You cant copy Gamecube gamesaves to the main memory, which means youre always unplugging you memory cards. And I would love to be able to connect my Ipod and see that as a channel to play MP3's. So there you go, honestly this is the most fun I've had playing games for a long time, and I never in my most disturbed dreams did I ever think I would see my wife take up a controller. However, I can see my daughter taking a wii-mote to the head soon, shes just the right height to intefere with my back hand!!

Gaijin disguise kit

2006-12-06T03:47:00.000-08:00

Now the sites backup, I thought I'd make a quick post. Saw this linked off a forum and being a fan of things from Japan I had to share it. If you dont know what a gaijin is, please click here.

Upgrade me, quickly!!

2006-12-05T05:55:00.000-08:00

Ok then, Im going to be changing my web host today. Main reason is webspace, 2nd is to let my friend host on the same account. Im going to back up everything then its fingers crossed time.

Drift DVD mini review

2006-12-04T07:08:00.000-08:00

I was looking for my Christmas present, then I saw "Drift", a new movie from the spiritual home land of drifting, Japan. Wahey. But DVDs from Japan are waay expensive, only 18 quid delivered. Brilliant. Lets see what other people have ordered. "Drift 2". We're on a roll here. I waited patiently for my super discount insta sava shipping to arrive. The DVDs arrive, I slip the disc into my DVD player, select DTS then hit go. The opening scene is someone taking a grinder to a Silvia. YES!!!

I have peaked.

I'm not one to run around saying negative things, I always like to look on the positive side. But crap on a stick, this has to be one of the worst things I've ever seen. Where to start. Well the lead character drives a PS13 Silva, this particular model had the factory option of hitting 12,500rpm every time it drifts. I know, I know, this was an expensive option. Well its either that or they sped up the video!! Where else can we go. The movie sticks to the rigid Initial D anime regime of talk, drift battle, talk, drift battle. Initial D has the better soundtrack. But wait, here's a corner. Que characters jumping side to side in their bucket seats, and slow motion gear changes acted by someone who's more accustomed to agricultural machinery. Oh no, another corner, repeat above using stock footage. There's a lot of corners on the touge. The storyline is centered around the lead characters family being killed, bear with me here, theres no subtitles, so he exacts revenge by challenging them to drifting. WTF.

"Drift 2" DVD review, please read above, again!!

So there you have it, I'm a technically minded guy, so I guess I'm focusing on the technical side of the movie. Maybe because I'm into drifting I expect higher standards, but I would rate a bad episode of Coronation Street above this. And I hate Coronation Street.

NAS time

2006-12-04T04:52:00.000-08:00

As you may have read, I'm trying to install linux on my other pc. Things started well and then rapidly degressed. Trying to download linux, http link times out, ftp links keep resetting themselves, and then there's no distro's on newsgroups. Bugger. Then I found a link for Freenas. Freenas is a small linux distro that runs from a CD/flash, it turns your pc into a NAS server. Even with my limited abilities, I had it setup within half an hour. Pleased to say it rocks!! The only downside is NTFS support is virtually nil, so I had to reformat a spare disk to test it out. If I switch to it completely Ill have to migrate all my files to a new file system, scary. What really amazed me was the performance. Using my wireless laptop to connect to the server was so fast compared to XP sharing. To give an example, a 1gig divx file, I could scan through it on media player as if it was on my own pc. Really quick access. Cash is tight at the moment. But 400 gig disks are around the 100 quid mark, throw 2 of those in my Dell, put the afore mentioned dell in the garage. Bingo, a nice media server. Even my Xbox running Media Center picked it up straight away.

Its that time of year again, its time for more Linux fun

2006-12-03T04:22:00.000-08:00

About once or twice a year, generally as the winter enters, I like to have a play with Linux. Generally this only lasts for a week or two, until I get frustrated that I cant even share an ntfs partition on my network. Its been spurred on by this whole blogging thing. Ive had this domain for almost a year and I'm just starting to use it, shameful I know. Ultimately Id like to have a web server at home, for no other reason than I've got about 6 gig of photos I'd like to share with Nancy's family who are in china.

This morning I found IIS in XP, this is Microsoft's own web server. Unfortunately it only supports 1 website unless you opt for a server version of XP, I cant see this happening. So, hey, I thought, its that time of year, lets hit up Linux. I'm gonna try suse again, Ive had the most success with this distro. As I type, its downloading via ftp on my, now defunct, main machine, a Dell 8400 with a couple of drives in. Stay tuned for more cursing, swearing, kernel panics and the occasional user panic.

Creepy Crawlies

2006-12-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

One of my friends just finished his latest pic, he's a bit of a CG artiste on the quiet. Thought I'd share it with the world, he goes by the name Error404 and is available for all manor of graphic design and pictorial services (rumour has it he does a mean dragon).

A silvia, and a sil80, on Mount Hakone, viva los Kaido Racer

2006-12-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

Decided I had to try an embeded video, what better than kaido racer on Mt Hakone. No matter how old you get, there should always be time for the PS2.

The congee machine, or 粥 if you prefer

2006-12-02T09:07:00.000-08:00

Ok then, so Nancy makes congee for Anna. Whats congee I hear? Well its an asian dish, rice with a lot of water, (think porridge) and some meat or veggies. She cooks up in batches and freezes it, so I get the honor of cooking. Unfortunatley little Anna is starting to go off it.

So what shall we feed her instead? This is the thing, since I've seen Anna eating this delectable goop and growing into strong and healthy little girl, Ive realised how much of a machine we are. Food goes in, poop and lots of energy go out. Pretty amazing really. This is where parenting gets a little sketchy, I'll have to lead by example. No more gaijin sized big mac's for me!!!

(Please send me a mail if you want a dynamite congee recipe)

Its Alive!!!!!

2006-12-02T05:08:00.000-08:00

Looks like its a good un, managed to upload this all to my own website. Felt a bit stupid because it wasnt working, forgot to clear the cache, DOH!! Ill try to update as much as I can. This will just be a bit about me, my life, and my wife and daugter.

Another picture test

2006-12-02T05:05:00.000-08:00

Test

2006-12-02T04:19:00.000-08:00

Hi there, this is just a test to see how this goes. Im going to try and attach a picture.

The Smiling Catfish

What a nice day

Cans

Still here

Server Core allow MMC firewall

Clustering in VM Ware

These Days

Bugger

DHCP Server

SCSI Drivers in XP

ESXi install with CPUID value error

Finding things

Mount Disks by UUID

Muchos RHEL5

X and Y

Todays command

New Job

Ah bless..

So good I had to post it.

Bye to L-in

Google really is good

Damned if you do

Hail to the King

Yet more snow

I'll be jiggered

Todays Musings

A bit unusual

Not much really

Looks like she may have talent for this

Apple Bluetooth Keyboard on Windows XP

All is good

New Toy...Updates to Follow

This seems to be all over the news today

How cool?

Lunch is served

KITT, meet me round the back!!

Tokto Time Lapse

Hackintosh a gogo

I need to get home and wash the chav off of me

Linux Mint, now with Dual Screen goodness

Dual boot with Mint Linux and XP

6 days and no cigarettes

Back To Blogger

Down in the Wall of Corn

A new year, a new domain?

Out with the old

I do not know or I do not understand?

Back In Black

Andy is Peeling Sprouts **Look at me**

Don't Pick Up A Penguin...srsly

Facebook

Mood:Pensive

Early Morning Shenanagins

Something is amiss at the Chinese supermarket

Wanted On 720p

WD TV

Pic Test

Cornwall

Test Pic Sync

Pic Test

At Work

Moon

Pic test

Test

another test!!!!

Todays Job

Test mail blog

Life is good

Yet more Photo's

A few pictures

Wii time

Gaijin disguise kit

Upgrade me, quickly!!

Drift DVD mini review

NAS time

Its that time of year again, its time for more Linux fun

Creepy Crawlies

A silvia, and a sil80, on Mount Hakone, viva los Kaido Racer

The congee machine, or 粥 if you prefer

Its Alive!!!!!

Andy is Peeling Sprouts Look at me