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This weekend was pretty busy, but it felt longer because we had Friday afternoon off. The reason? We were going to see Muse at the O2 🙂 We left mid afternoon and got there in good time. We got free entry into the British Music Exhibition with our tickets, so we had a quick look round beforehand. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to go round the whole thing but what we did see was interesting, and we’ll have to go back and check it out more next time! They have a roomful of guitars / drums / pianos you can play around on which was pretty cool.

Anyway. The support act were called The Big Pink, who we’d never heard of before. They were OK – quite dramatic music and I liked the arrangements, but unfortunately it seemed a bit too loud and the tunes weren’t very strong. Still, I did check them out on Spotify afterwards so they must have done something right!

After that, Muse came on. They were amazing. Really, really good live. We were saying afterwards, it’s the knid of music that lends itself very well to being played live: Keane pretty much played their songs as they were on the album, Coldplay were a bit different, but Muse really rocked out. Brilliant stuff. They started out with ‘Uprising’, then ‘Resistance’, and then played a selection of new songs mixed with a few from ‘Black Holes and Revelations’ and their previous albums. I was quite pleased with how many older songs they did play actually, it was so great to hear them live. There were a few surprises in there. I didn’t think they’d play ‘Supermassive Black Hole’, ‘Cave’ (from the first album) or ‘Hysteria’ but all three went down really well.

It was a shame they didn’t play ‘Space Dementia’ or ‘Butterflies and Hurricanes’ but you can’t have everything! They finished with ‘Knights of Cydonia’ which was amaaaaaazing live and had everyone going. All in all, it was worth every penny and I’d definitely love to see them again.

Anyway, so. That was a good evening 🙂 On Saturday afternoon we headed down to stay with Philippa’s parents overnight. It was a horrible day (the Dartford Bridge was closed, they diverted the traffic through one of the tunnels instead) but we got there safely. Then on Sunday morning we drove down to Reading to see Phil’s sister Roz.

Roz is engaged to be married, and although we had met her fiance (obviously) we hadn’t met the rest of his family. So we went to Roz’s church in the morning, and then afterwards went round to their house for lunch.

It was a really nice lunch and a very enjoyable time. Matt’s family all seem nice, and they seem to get on well with each other which strikes me as being a good sign! So that was a lovely time.

Then we came back home and watched Top Gear and “The Waters of Mars”, the new Doctor Who special. It was indeed a good episode – probably one of the best that Russell T. Davies has written. I like it when they show a slightly darker side to the Doctor, show that he isn’t invulnerable. The ending of the episode was actually quite unsettling. I’m looking forward to the last two episodes of Tennant’s Doctor now, I think it’s going to be interesting what they do with the character! If anything, though, that episode proved (as if you need any more proof) that Doctor Who is not just a kids’ show.

Yesterday my new Zoom G1XN arrived. For those of you who aren’t into guitars, it’s basically an effects pedal that gives you a whole load of options for how you want your guitar to sound – heavily overdriven, reverb, delay, chorus, modulation, compression – that sort of thing.

Anyway, it’s really good fun. I had a play with it last night, and even without much experience playing with it I think it makes my playing more interesting (though it wouldn’t take much, to be honest). I don’t want to do myself down as a guitar player, but… I am not great. And I can use any help I can get with making my playing sound better! Plus, I think it will be really useful when playing at Sunday@6 (for example) and I am playing with another guitarist. Having a bit of reverb and the like will hopefully let me be a bit more creative in filling out the sound.

What I really want to get at the moment though is a decent amp. I was borrowing a friend’s amp for a week or so (Peavey Classic 30 – proper valve amplifier) and it sounded sweeeeet. Solid state amps just aren’t the same! Still, the effects should give me somewhere to start for the moment 😉

A year after migrating to Linux, I wrote:

But what I wanted to say is: would I ever go back to Windows? Never. I’m experienced the power of the Open-Source side, and I have to say I am a convert!

Well, guess what? I’m going back to Windows!

As you will probably know if you read my last post, I’ve just bought a new laptop. It came preloaded with a copy of Windows 7. As you may know, Windows 7 is the latest and greatest operating system from Microsoft. But what’s so great about it that would make me desert linux, especially given that I’ve been singing the praises of Linux for the past few years?

Well, there are several reasons – some of which are to do with Linux, some of which are to do with Windows.

• Ubuntu is great for hardware support and the software repository – but there are still issues. I spent literally hours on Phil’s old laptop trying to get the wireless card to work. In the end I gave up. And although I’m not an ‘advanced’ Linux user, I like to think I know my way around by now (having been using it for four years). I’m not afraid of the command line – it just defeated me.
• A lot of software is only available for Windows only. Admittedly this isn’t always an issue because there are open-source replacements, but sometimes when you want to e.g. connect to a VPN at work, running Linux can be a pain in the arse. A couple of months ago I installed Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 on Phil’s laptop and had a whale of a time playing through it again. It wasn’t working on wine for some reason.
• Windows 7 is … actually, pretty damn good. I know a few people who it’s won over, and although I’ve only been using it for a few days I really like it now as well. Microsoft seem to have done a good job on this one.
• Microsoft seem to have turned a corner in regards to open-source software. They seem to have realised that in the world we live in, if they want to survive they’re going to have to embrace it and ditch the shady practices of the past. So Microsoft aren’t all kittens and rainbows now, but they’ve definitely improved.
• There’s very little I can do in Linux which I can’t do in Windows. Yes, the Windows command line is pretty woeful. But you can download Python for Windows, you can get Cygwin… there are options. You know the I blogged about the Fordham CD Uploader script I wrote? Well, I’ve written a Java utility (utilising some command-line programs available for Windows) which does exactly the same thing. I could have done the same in Python. Windows is no restriction there.

That’s a summary of what I think at the moment 😉 I will miss Linux at times I am sure, in fact I may well install it on a partition and dual boot, but for now I’m happy being a Windows user again.

I’ve just received a new laptop. I’ve been looking longingly at new computers for a while now – ever since Phil got her new laptop. My computer is getting a bit old now and suffering a little from the problems that seem to come with age. So I decided that I needed a new computer, and I began looking at desktops to replace my current one.

However, after a while it dawned on me that buying a laptop was probably a more sensible choice. Since Phil has had her new laptop, I’ve found that I use it quite a lot. It’s actually very convenient to have something downstairs which you can use in front of the TV, or at the table, or wherever. And really, laptops these days are just as good as their desktop counterparts: you may lose out on some of the “upgradeability” (if there is such a word) – but in reality, I haven’t actually touched my desktop in the four or so years that I’ve had it. (Well, only once, to transfer the wireless card across from my old computer).

The other thing is, when I started looking for PCs I was looking for fairly high-spec ones: I’m a software developer, I do occasionally do processor-intensive activities on my machine! But then I realised, actually at home I don’t really do much programming. I just don’t have the time these days! It’s a far cry from when I was at uni and used to have to do lots of Java assignments on my machine. Plus, most computers these days are good enough for doing development work – unless you’re building a HUGE project it probably doesn’t make much difference. And, in reality, the only development work I’ll likely do on my machine is a bit of Java coding occasionally and the odd bit of PHP development. Neither of which will require a quad-core beast of a machine!

So, there you have it. I’ve ordered a new HP Pavilion laptop which looks pretty good (dual core, 4GB RAM – like Phil’s laptop but with a bigger screen. Oh, and Windows 7 – unfortunately Phil’s laptop was bought too soon to get a free 7 upgrade) and, with a bit of luck, it will do me well over the next few years.

I’ll probably donate my old computer (along with Phil’s old laptop, which we still haven’t got rid of) to ComputerAid.

If you don’t hear any more blog posts from me on this topic, assume that the laptop is working well 😉

As I posted up on my Twitter account recently, we’ve been having a few internet problems. Basically I noticed that our Eclipse broadband account was a bit out of date. They’ve restructured their pricing but we were still on the old price, so we were actually paying over the odds for our broadband! Anyway, I regraded the account so we’re on the cheaper plan. Unfortunately that seems to have knocked out our ADSL for the time being.

I’m currently sitting here writing this on Phil’s laptop using the 3G connection from my new phone. It’s pretty nifty, I have to say. The connection is good enough (for the most part) to listen to Spotify and do a bit of web browsing as well.

To think that I’m getting a faster connection than I was ten years ago via dialup is actually pretty cool. The me of ten years ago would be pretty jealous of the me today, I think! I know that 3G has been around for a fair amount of time now, but I’ve never actually used it before (well, not like this). Ok, so I’ve caught up with what the state of the art was five years ago, you can’t have it all :p

It was half-term last week, so we had no 21 to go to! Phil was wedding dress shopping with her sister though, so I was left on my own. Fortunately, Alison had a birthday meal on Friday night so I was able to go to that 🙂 It was a really nice evening – we went to the Lemon Tree, and then the Hospital Arms. The dinner was lovely, and then I discovered at the Hospital Arms that they serve Bitburger (a beer which I first had visiting Andy C in Trier). They also had a Weizen beer which looked interesting but I didn’t get around to having any. Afterwards, as Alex was staying round, we stayed up light chatting about random things (ah, I’ve missed those crazy random chats from uni days!)

On Saturday, most of the morning was spent doing various catch up things (i.e. shopping). In the evening we went round to Phil and Jenny’s for Jenny’s birthday party (“we” being Phil, Alex, Phil P, Esther, and myself). It was a great evening – really good to catch up with a few people I hadn’t seen in a while, including Steve and Karen and Chris and Louise, as well as the aforementioned Phil P and Esther.

So, two parties in one weekend, I’m such a party animal 😉

On Sunday we went to church in the morning and then went out for lunch with the Reynolds, with a few other students who had been working on some sort of drama together (long story, don’t ask). And then we went to Sunday@6 in the evening! So… a full weekend. But we didn’t have to cook once, not bad going!

My latest article on Crossring is up. It’s based on Mark 6:14-29 (the death of John the Baptist).

You can read it here 🙂

…the cats will play. Or, did I get that the wrong way round? Anyway! Phil was away this weekend, so it was just me for the most part. On Friday evening we went to Rollerworld for the 21 social, which was good fun! I didn’t skate, but I did play Quasar.

On Saturday, my parents and sister came round with my niece and nephews, and we all had lunch together. Then in the afternoon they went home and I did a bit of shopping. In the evening I went round to Tom’s flat to have a curry and watch Zoolander with a few other people.

On Sunday I basically didn’t do much all day until I went to Sunday@6! Still, it was nice to have relaxing day, I think I needed it! So that’s pretty much it 🙂

This is a quote of mine from an earlier post:

The whole experience has made me realise, though — I never want to have someone come round the house again on a sales-oriented call

Guess what we did on Tuesday night? That’s right, have a salesperson round!

Let me explain a little bit. The people who previously owned our house bought new windows and doors from Zenith Staybrite. Although this all occured way before we moved in, we were aware of it. A couple of weeks ago, someone from Zenith rang up to say that someone had seen our windows and doors, and decided they were going to make a purchase from Zenith. Apparently this made us eligible for a discount on any more work that we wanted done, which I believe is fairly standard industry practice (typical referral scheme, nothing dodgy there).

Anyway, he asked if we wanted any work done, and all I could think of was the front door: we are the only house (bar one) in our road which hasn’t had the door moved out to be level with the front of the house. Doing this would give us more hallway space and would generally be more convenient. I said as much, and the guy said they would send someone round to look at it on Tuesday evening.

It turns out that the person who arrived was actually a salesman. I was expecting someone more technical! He was a little bemused really – we didn’t actually need to be sold anything exactly. All we wanted is for the door to be moved, and just wanted a quote to that effect. The door is a good one – only a few years old – and so there really is no need to replace us.

And to be fair to him, he did call up his manager and ask whether this would be possible. (I should be quite clear that this guy was great all the way through – we didn’t get any pressure from him. The main problem came from the company itself, but more on that later). Apparently it wasn’t, and we were told we would have to buy a new door!

So, we went through the procedure, we chose the door that we wanted and had it priced up. The actual price came to over £5,000! Strangely enough, we weren’t too keen on that price 😉 But, surprise surprise, Zenith Staybrite could do it cheaper than that. Because our house is close to town, we check pretty much all the boxes (the salesman’s manager said that we had pretty much everything except for an airport near us).

He asked to talk to me, and then offered me a best price of about £2,500. In fact, he as good as told me that they were pretty desperate to get our house because we were in such a “convenient” location for them (even if no-one actually walks past our house because we’re in a cul-de-sac off of an estate with only one entrance and exit. But still).

Having learned from our mistake with Solar Home (see the linked post above), I basically said that there was no price he could offer us that would make us take it up that night. (a) we couldn’t really justify spending that much money on a door when we already had a perfectly good one, (b) I just resent being blackmailed like that!

So, that was the end of that. So we thought. We’d been getting missed calls from a number we didn’t recognise. Eventually they rang at a time we were actually in, and it turned out to be Zenith. They said that they were “doing some work in our area”, and were willing to reduce the price a bit more. Although they weren’t completely sure what the price would be, it would be “under £2,000”. This smacks of a sales tactic to me – they’re only based in Chelmsford for goodness’ sake, it’s not like they need to stay in a hotel in Colchester to do the work! Needless to say, we’ve declined their offer again. Something about it smacks of desperation, which actually is inclined to put me off rather than make me say “oh, what a deal! This is unmissable!” It’s reverse psychology, except that it’s working against them.

It did remind me of why we decided never to have salespeople round though. I think the problem was, we weren’t really expecting a salesperson! Hopefully this is a pretty rare situation and so won’t happen again. But if it does happen I know what to say – “No thanks, I already have a penguin”. (Well, perhaps I won’t mention the penguin part. But something similar).

What we might do with the door is get a local builders to come and see if they can do something about moving the door. It seems bizarre to actually buy a whole new door when the existing one is perfectly good, and still pretty new. Even if it’s a similar price, it will at least be more environmentally sound and support local business (if we manage to find a decent local builder).

*phew* apologies for the length of this rant, it’s been a while since my last one!

Quick weekend type summary. Apologies for not writing more on the blog recently, I have been busy – and suffering from a syndrome known as “lack of ideas” (my usual state of affairs, to be honest!) I do have an article due to be published on Crossring in the next month, so that’s, um, something to look forward to?!

Anyway. The weekend. On Friday we helped out at 21. Then on Saturday afternoon we went down to Hounslow for my brother-in-law’s tenth anniversary service – he’s been the pastor of his church now for ten years. Anyway, we went down on the train with my parents, and apart from a minor hitch with the underground, we had no problems getting there and back. It was really nice to see family again, as it’s been quite a while since last time! My niece is now in year 11 which is quite a scary thought. And it was just a really nice time in general.

On Sunday we went to church in the morning, did a bit of Moore Course in the afternoon, and then headed out for the youth service in the evening. After that, we watched “East of Ipswich“, a film by Michael Palin.

I really liked it. It was a painfully well observed light drama / comedy about a young man who goes on holiday with his parents to a village on the coast near Ipswich. What I really liked was how it seemed to draw on a memory that I didn’t quite have, i.e. it was similar but not too similar to those awful holidays we’ve all been on where there is very little to do! Anyway, it’s well worth watching if you have a spare hour (it’s really not that long – only about 1:15).