Goodbye 2006

Well what a month that was, I have been (pretending to be) so busy that I haven't even been able to update my blog,

My Christmas partying started 3rd December with a family party to celebrate half of them pissing off to South Africa as well as 2 family birthdays.

So the bad luck began, I managed to "lose" my beloved camera (Sony DSC-P12) while sitting at the restaurant table all night, to the theiving bastard in the Kings Corner Pub where we ate, I hope you enjoy it/rot in hell for keeping hold of the camera rather than doing the decent thing and handing it in/Selling it on eBay.

My lovely home insurance have come good though and I'll be replacing it With the Sony DSC-T9, so with new camera comes new year and heres to 2006. 'Appy New Year.

Unlike Mr Cookie T' Big Foot, I will be making new years resolutions and they are as follows

1. Clear out crap from the House
2. Clear out crap from the body (The Diet & Exercise way)
3. Clear out crap from life
4. Enjoy Life
   

That's about it, I have tonnes of rubbish that I need to 'Bay, Bin or give to charity shops, I have binged for the last 9 months on junk food and beer while working away so can now work on that.

I've made a great start, purchased The Food Doctors book, although I don't watch Richard & Judy*, a "friend" mentioned this guy Ian Marber aka The Food Doctor who helps people with a tasty & healthy Diet.



One more party to go and "The Diet Starts Tomorrow"

Happy New Year Everyone.

Perfect... ilo CA3000V

Walmart in the good ol' U.S of A, are selling this wonderous machine that needs to be in my car.

The Price - A measly $176.37 (£102.00)

Check the Specs.

• SD Card slot for playback of digital image and music files.
• Plays MP3-CDs
• 2" TFT-LCD Display
• XM-Ready AM/FM Tuner
• SD Card slot reads JPG images and MP3 files
• 160W Total Power
• Detachable Face Plate provides security

Trouble is, I have already tried to buy it from Walmart as I am pretty sure my Local ASDA won't be selling them, but the small disclaimer on Walmarts' site that says "We do not ship to Canada or other destinations outside the United States"

GUTTED...

So it's day 5 (or something) of the low cholesterol diet and SWMBO made me a fry up. Not just any fry up mind, but SWMBO approved, no oil, 1 egg etc. Very tasty, even beats my jacket potato and cottage cheese 2 days ago.


At least I have the support from my colleagues at work whoch means a lot, they Monday being the first full week of healthy eating.... and they all went to McDonalds, I managed to skip food as for some strange reason I was working.

at least my blood pressure has now gone down to 120/70 (considerable decrease since my last scare/test)

Rest assures I'll be all fit and healthy before you can say Mushroom Bhuna.
(must ... be ...... strong.... must..... resist

Sunday Surfing

Aint Sundays great, spend mornings having a veggie bacon and egg sancwich to get over the "Saturday Night Jack Attack, mummy dong Sunday dinner, watching the "BIG GAME", having a fry up for tea and surfing the Interweb. I clearly can't have the start/end of day cholesterol giver, but I'm not giving up ANYTHING ELSE...

Found some good sites today, and some of which are moving me away from Micro$oft.

Torrent Plugin for Mozilla Firefox (Mozilla Firefox available Here)
Moztorrent - Similar to above
Open Office is a great (and free) alternative to MS Office
Google Web Accelerator - Not sure about the privacy issues on this one though
Google SMS - Useful search tool for mobile phones, and you only pay normal rates to send the SMS.

Bye Bye Fry-Ups

Had a health check at work today, Denial really is the best form of cure... Have been told I have High Cholesterol Level (6.19) and High Blood Pressure (160/105). WHO ME !!!!!?

Even h Jim at 85 years of age* is healthier than me it appears, I demand a re-match, testing me at 8.45am isn't fair. My drive to work would have caused increased stress levels.

I have been "advised" to cut down on the types of food I eat and start excercising. Worse still SWMBO says I can't have fry-ups and no more crap.

* Jim is 50 really

Being a Veggie also means these levels are worrying as I can't blame it on the Meat.
Still... I keep meaning to go to the gym, Now I have the motivation.

Now then. Anyone have some Tasty Recipes... Tao, You're a part-time veggie, Suggest something Nice?

Who You Calling Ipoddy




Been a while since my last post (Sorry Ian - I know you've been waiting)

I think I have now found the pefect PDA/Phone thing- The Qtek 9100/iMate K-Jam/02 XDA Mini S, great as a phone, as a keyboard, and not huge either, only downside is no 3G but then I have no-one to video call and there's hardly any coverage so not much to miss out on really.

So much Trouble...
...Anyone out there that recorded the part 2 of "Walk Away and I Stumble" last week, please please let me have a copy, (I don't have a video so will need to be a Deev), trouble with SWMBO as I accidently deleted it. The old chestnut of "at least I recorded the first episode" didn't go down too well either.

Got my hands on a copy of MSN Messenger 8, Needs a patch applying to make it work and it'd not that different to the last version I was using (7.5), but ipoddy as I am, Had to get the latest version. Quite a few features apparently, I'm just waiting for them to combine MSN and Yahoo Messenger so I can get my yahoo emails from the Messenger box. The only other thing I use is the voice calls function but will one day invest in a Skype phone, which will need other people using it too, (I talk to myself enough as it is).

MSN 8.0 Feature list
• Change of Messenger Skins
• Real-time Emotions
• Messenger Built Internal Windows Media Player 10
• Pause/Resumed File Transfers (File Blocked Extension Applied)
• Detailed File Transfer (Download/Upload Speed)
• Animated Display Pictures (.gif .jpg .png (File Support under Consideration))
• Mood Status
• Faster Contact List Loading and scrolling
• Public Profile and MSN Spaces Combined
• More MSN Space features• New Hotmail and MSN Messenger Integration
• Downloadable MSN Messenger on Mobile
• News Updates according to Location
• Top 10 MSN Music Radio
• New Stylish Notifier Pop-up
• Downloadable Skins for MSN (Contact Window & Conversation Window)
• Complete Integration with Windows XP® & Windows Vista® Codename: Longhorn®
• Offline Voice/Message Machine
• Animated Buddy Icon Helper
• Display Picture Ratings

Gadget of the day #1

Fuji Finepix S9500 at just over 400 quid, this might just be my venture into decent photography instead of taking drunken night out photos.





Gadget of the day #2
although lacking space in my TV/Video cabinet, I am very tempted by this, although I have my Sky+ , Divx player, home cinema system, DVD recorder and PS2, this seems a must buy.... the slot for a PC hard drive may just mean something gets relocated to the bedroom (where all the older kit goes).

Sunday again...

Usual Sunday spent looking around the interweb brought up a few things.... decided to go to suprnovas' website to see if they have stayed on the correct side of the law and not host torrents, Yup unfortunately they have, however newnova is an exact replica of the legend that was Suprnova, It's in it's very early stages so is quite buggy and up and down like a..... yo-yo, but definately has potential I have bookmarked it...

Suprnova contains links and news, nothing else.











Now here's s a phone I wouldn't mind upgrading to,the Nokia 888 concept phonehas speech recognition, touch screen and looks pretty cool too (important factors for an ipoddy life). Although I love my XDA Exec, it's not too great as a mobile phone. Then again, I am waiting for the iMate SP5m

Hey... almost forgot, Uncle Steve is back in Eastenders... Welcome back Psycho Steve

I was reading in Men's Health magazine this month, the new craze at the gym is to download a workout to your Ipod/Mp3 player and have your very own personal trainer in your ears, This is almost an excellent way to get me vack to the gym to lose those extra "comfortable kilos".

I then noticed after the revies of 3 downloads, this funny little "£" sign. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this means I am expected to pay for the priviledge of having someone making me excercise, if this be the case, I would have paid the bloody personal trainer.

After searching the interweb to attempt a cheaper (free) alternative, I found this one , which has high energy, walking, stretching and lots of other excercise podcasts relevant to your workout needs (No drinking JD at the pub exercise ones mind). I have subscribed to a few and will try the walking one this weekend.

Have to have an early night now, apparently it's good for you, not to mention my flight tomorrow leaves at 6:50am (oh and the fry-up and 3 pints for tea has made me tired)

...Diet starts tomorrow .... in Glasgow

Old Timer

So I have today turned 31, Sad news that I no longer qualify for those Club 18-30 holidays . SWMBO will have to buy me the pipe & slippers I forgot to put on my list.

The young man in me had 2 consecutive nights out (1) (2) with my good friends Jack and Stella (Daniels & Artois), however the old man in me will probably need a month off.

All those things I should have done by now and haven't, I'll have re-re-do that list of things to do before I'm 30 - 31 32...

Number 1 - London to Brighton Bike Ride 2006 (8 Months to prepare)


iPoddy - (Cont'd)

So the latest gadget is finally here...

I Must say I think this is the one (for this week anyway) O2 have actually done something good here, 3G, PDA, mobile phone, video calling, wi-fi, proper connection (USB), decent battery life, keyboard that me and my fat fingers can use...

....Only trouble is, the lack of 3G coverage from O2, the nice (useless) bloke in my local O2 shop said "O2 are aiming to have 100% coverage for 3G...... before the end of 2006".

Well done O2, stocking and selling equipement with such great technology but failing to let anyone use it. Bring on Vodafone and Orange......

Pipex have just bought up yet another competitor, (Freedom2Surf), I am getting ever-so-close to the magic 24Mb/s Super-Duper-faster-internet.

Unfortunately, Pipex have also changed their Acceptable Use Policy which aims to stop people taking the piss when downloading, anyone caught doing so will be sent an email/letter, advising them, they are downloading too much and are given 2 weeks to "change their ways", if it continues they are then sent a final email before they have their Internet service "Managed" or given the option to leave Pipex without being charged.

Although Pipex haven't disclosed what defines "taking the piss", it seems to be roughly downloading 50-100Gb per month. Luckily I don't quite reach this amount, (I haven't had the email...Yet), But when they introduce ADSL2+, My downloads will be 12 times faster which equates to downloading a DVD every 30 minutes (hmmm). This means reaching the acceptable monthly usage after just 10 hours.

We'll See...

Project Management

PM Jim asked me about Starwreck and what I thought of it which has reminded me I must Re-download it, For some reason it didn't work (Ran out of Hard drive space again), Even PM Jim has beaten me to a download (not counting "Lost" as it had french subtitles) and he's even watched it , his in-depth review can be found below. Typical Project Managers huh, nothing to do but give everyone else work (and drink Guinness), It's a hard life eh Jim.

Project Manager Job Description (1) (2) (3)

In depth review

"its good"

That Friday Feeling - aka POETS Day

Dont ya just love Fridays, the day where we all wind down (in the pub), plan the weekend (in the pub) , clean the house*, finish work early (to go to the pub), see the family (in the pub). Have been deliberating and cogitating about the Ipod Video, almost wanting one, then deciding against it, I now don't want one. I want a Mobile DVR. !!!! (Ipoddies and geeks only need click the link).SWMBO - PVR please !!! and a curry night, and some beers and.....


*Lie

SWMBO - I have found my birthday present

Darling!!! SWMBO (& Mum, & Mum2). Here it is, Apples big announcement. The odds of it being a video Ipod were apparently 6/5 , not really worth putting a tenner on I guess.

Bet I know whos gonna be second to get one. Mr Ipoddy himself, Tha (work) Boss .

Update :- Apparently not - Boss says "Screen is too small", so has now put me off too....

Back to the drawing board then...

Ipod Video Pt II

Rumours, Rumours Rumours - It seems as though theres more news about the Ipod Video that I,(and seemingly the whole world) am waiting to hear. Let's just wait and see hey,

Update - Woo Hoo !!!

Finally... A Legal P2P download

Here it is, One of the FIRST EVER !!! Legal P2P (Peer 2 Peer) downloads, 100% not a threat in site from the authorities, and what is it, Star Wreck, a parody made by Sci-Fi fans, although I'm definately not a trekkie (I hate Star Trek) and am not into Babylon 5, Stargate etc, I am downloading it for the following reasons


1. Its 100% legal
2. Its 100% free
3. Spreaing the word helps the people who created it and lets me link to a bittorrent file.

DOWNLOAD IT ¦ IMDB ¦ BBC NEWS ¦ ADSL GUIDE

Sundays - Just waiting to go to work


After months and months of ignoring the craze that is Sudoku , I thought I'd have a go on my Mong out "Day After the night before", as I wasn't really in the mood to do anything else. Not too bad, but 'm not really one for having to use my brain on a Sunday (clearly I don't use it during the week). It's more a day for football (watching, obviously), Mums' or Mum2s' Sunday Dinner, Motor racing and the forthcoming perfect Sunday Night TV (Dream Team, Nip/Tuck, 24 etc).

Dearest SWMBO

As requested by your good self, I have put together a birthday list, apparently being hard to buy presents for (not that I really want anything) I have gathered a list of stuff that I need to buy. Hope this is ok. (List on the right ----->)

But Darling... Not too big a party this year lol

Video Ipod

So there I was doing my daily gadget scan when I came across an entry on Engadget stating Apple were having a press release, could it be, oh could it just be they were finally announcing to the world they are to do the Video Ipod. Alas no, they are just releasing new Apple iMacs, great, like who cares about that

Come on Apple, stop the sceptics and make the damn thing.... Please




07/10 - Surely this confirms it !!!

White Rabbits Old Boy

Woo Hoo !!!! Its a coming, goodbye slow 2Mb Forget 8Mb, Hello 24Mb. "I Love My Pipex" :-)

SWMBO woke me yesterday pointing to the pillows on the bed and sticking 2 fingers up either side of her head. Just the being the usual crazy woman I thought, then realised she was trying to get me to say white rabbits (obviously).

She then cheered me up by telling me I will be 31 this month. Cheers Darling, love you too.

OK so its a new month, so Im going to compile my to do list for the month.

(and my birthday list), now where's them links ???

Damn you Coookie !!!!

You and your Jamaica Feet got me into this biking Lark, I left you guys in the dungeon in Brum, After reading your article, I feel the need to get back on my bike. Now I would love to jump in my car and go to the Chase Trails, But thing is a) it's a bit far to drive for a 5 min.comute ride before I'm knackered and 2) SWMBO wouldn't be up for the big ride, she can 'Almost' manage the 4.7 miles from my house to her parents, but then needs a 3 week rest.

I Think I'll start with somewhere Local (1) or (2) but I like the idea of the trails, Hmmm, hoping there is somewhere close.

Long QT - No-ones' heard of it !!!!!

Wow - My (Girlfriends') Grandma has just been diagnosed with a condition called Long QT Syndrome (LQTS), THis is a a rare heart condition that affects one in 7000 people and makes their heart beat in a strange way, unfortnuately my girlfriend lost her sister a few years ago, this was put down down to Adult Cot Death Syndrome, however after her mum looked into it, it turns out that is was more than likely LQTS, My G/F has also has it as has her mum (now has a defibrilator fitted to her heart). Its amazing that G-Ma has only just been diagnosed at 81 though. and moreso that it was diagnosed by her own daughter (The Doctors has never heard of it) !!!!.
Still they looked it up on the internet and now know (Good old Google !!!) .

This is what killed Mark Vivien Foe a couple of years ago.

Get well soon G-Ma !!!!! xxx

More Links

CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young)
Yahoo Groups
Blog

No to The Apple NoNo
Well I'm glad I didn't buy an Ipod NoNo, after all the press over the past week such as BBC News and Mac World. Dodgy screens, easy to scratch, saved myself £130 there then. If you have a NoNo then good luck to you.
I Wonder if Garstang has broke his yet (Taoski?).

Looks like I'll have to think of something else to spend my hard-earned on then....

Some New Wheels/
Some Faster T'Internet
Better Sky(+) (Meaning I'll have to get a Better TV)

These gadgets are coming out faster than my budget allows.

Back working in Bristol again as I have for the past few months as part of a Project at work, sitting here in my Days Inn Apartment type thing, What a wonderful idea of someones, ringbring, you look through the menu for food of all kind (Chinese, Curry, Pizza, Italian etc), along with anything from the Off Licence, any Dry Cleaning, DVDs, call them up and everything is brought or collected from your door, great when living out of hotels, sure beats sitting alone in restaurants anyway. Although I could do with working off the huge curry I just had, never mind, Back to the footy.

Decisions Decisions Decisions,

Looks Like I'm feeling all Ipoddy as usual,

Been looking for some PDAs for work, Boss being the Boss, has become bored with his Collection of Phones/PDAs (iMate Jam, Sony Ericsson P910 and Qtek 2020i) and now wants a Windows Mobile 5 device (and who can blame him) .

Looks like l will have to start windows shopping. So far it's down to the Qtek 9100 , the S110 or whatever else they bring out before an order can be placed.So now it's almost time to upgrade, looking at my usual links (1) and (2), looks like it'll be the SPV C600

To my own needs then - Ipod Nano or hold out until they finally announce and release the Ipod Video.
I guess I can give up the need for the Nano as I already have a Ipod mini, don't really need an almost exact replica (apart from the lovely smaller size)... Do I ?

Decided, I,m gonna use this one as my blog site despite hating that 'l'
Have signed up to flickr for some photo hosting created a blog for my "Good" pics at damospics.blogspot.com (creative huh!!!_) and added a wishlist in Froogle, all this before 10 am

Think I'll go and wake SWMBO now

Hmmm, It now seems I have 2 Blogs damianlbyrne and damian-byrne, all I wanted was damianbyrne but apparently that is taken (although I suspect it is also Me). anyhoo, I will post to both until I decide which one I am going to use.