4 Months Later

There I was sitting in my 'Advanced Sharepoint' training session, where we were being taught the blogging part of the software. The trainer said, well who reads blogs anyway? to which the wonderful Mrs Parker turned and said 'I read Damians'. - Cue an embarrassed Me.

Thanks Laura, and as promised, here is a blog dedicated to just you.
----------------Photo coming soon -----------------------
What is on my Blog? - 'gadgets and technology' she said

What's new in gadget land

As you may already know I ended up getting an iPhone despite being anti-apple and not wanting to jump on the apple bandwagon.

6 months on and am I happy with it?

I now have a HTC Desire....
Sitting in my windowsill at home, unused... and why?

Because it's not an iPhone, I agree it's improved loads since my HTC Magic (still the 2nd best phone I have ever owned), with its multi-touch screen and fantastic camera (with flash), but it's still not there. So yes I am still using my iPhone, I did have a while where I couldn't use it however due to an issue around it crashing

Which meant a restore
... Which meant an upgrade to the firmware (3.1.3)
..... Which meant I couldn't Jailbreak
......... Which meant I couldn't unlock
............Which meant I couldn't use it on Orange
................Which meant it was quite useless really.

Luckily those geeky people in unlock land came to my rescue in the form of the Spirit Jailbreak, and a bit of effort meant I was able to unlock it again, so my iPhone is back up and working again.

What Next

The iPhone 4

Although you can now Jailbreak the iPhone 4. It's apparently the easiest Jailbreak yet (you can do if from the iPhones web browser - www.jailbreakme.com), but you can keep your iPhone 4.

I can't believe apple could release a device that doesn't work properly (you have to hold it a certain way). How do they fix this - they telll you to hold it a certain way and give everyone a 'free' case.

Come on Jobsy - You're not Microsoft. Absorb the cost and recall them - ALL, fix them and send out working ones.

As it shows I'm in no hurry to get the iPhone 4. In fact after that shambolic release, I don't think I'd touch another apple device, certainly not something that's only just been released. I'm not the sort of person to jump-on-the-bandwag......

Oh wait - I have an iPad

Damn, I've done it again, 64Gb Wi-Fi,3G pleasure.
Jailbroken !!!!

There you go Laura !!!! an gadgety, techy, update.

...OK I'll go First then Shall I ?

My fellow bloggers out in blogworld appear to be as lazy as me and haven't bothered posting for a while so I'll get the ball (re) rolling.. (Cue Cookie, Tao et al)

Previously in Blog World

Remembering I was in love

... The Android / Magic / Google Phone.

What an amazing phone this was/is, take all previous smartphones, thrown them in a bag, add all the things missing from them, add a slighlty I-phoney marketplace interface and you have an Android phone.

Since my last post way back in June of last year, it seems the world has gone Android mad and a hell of a lot of phones have been release using this operating system, although I love mine loads, I am envious of the Nexus One, although wouldn't fork out silly (ANY) money for one.

One of the best applications to be released was Google Map Navigation, a FREE Sat Nav application/plugin to google map giving 3d, navigation using google streetmaps.

Perfect ...
So perfect it was only released in the USA, after a little bit of looking around, I managed to get mine working in good old blighty..... Until I updated google maps where they realised it was being used outside the US and plugged the hole (not much you can do when you need to connect to Google to get the map view).

More recently, an Archos (remember them) tablet has just been released, running Android too.

Go Google, take on the world

So after 6 months of having my Android, what do I think....

Brilliant, best phone I've ever had, get a 32Gb Micro SD Card for it and you almost have an iPhone...

ALMOST....

Sorry Androiders, I've turned to the dark side, iPoddy as ever, I now have an iPhone 32Gb 3GS.

The iPhone Well It had to happen didn't it, Over-Hyped, over subscribed, over here and over my dead body.

I now have an iPhone, I hate myself, I really do I said I would never jump on the bandwagon and get one and I've gone and got one. ( I also said I wouldn't get an iPod and it appears I have about 7).

Thoughts

Abso'kin'lutely brilliant.

CONS

• It doesn't have the 'cool factor' of the Android phones everyone and their children have an iPhone.
• It doesn't have the widget style interface that the Android phones have
• You need iTunes.... before you can even use the iPhone you have to connect it to a PC running iTunes. - who doesn't hate iTunes
• Apple own you - You are given the 'chance' to register your phone with Apple.
• Apple own you (2) - Apple decide what goes in their store and have just removed a lot of adult content from their store.
• Apple own you (3) - iTunes checks the software version of your iPhone and encourages you to download the lateste version (every flipping time you connect), the latest update (3.1.3) ruins the party for a lot of people as it prevents -Jailbreaking and unlocking (More on this later).
• The camera doesn't have a flash
• Battery life isn't brilliant
• The price or the tariff - £455 to buy outright or a daft tarriff if you go down that route

PROS

• Its an iPhone, a phone and an iPod in one
• The apps store is huge
• 32 GIGABYTES MAN, that's more than ANYONE will EVER need......isn't it? (No)
• Email - Yahoo mail, Gmail, Exchange mail - set up in less than 30 seconds and nothing to pay
• Safari - half decent web browser
• The first keyboardless device with an onscreen keyboard I can actually use.

PRO PROs

• Jailbreaking - Jailbreaking allows you to

• a) Use 2rd party apps that you wouldn't in the iTunes store
• b) use not so legal applications that you WOULD find in the iTunes store, however without the associated cost !!!!
• c) unlock your phone to other networks

The above all depend on the firmware and baseband of your device - Don't upgrade to firmware 3.1.3 if you intend on doing any of the PRO PROs.

There you go, a 5 minute review of my iPhone....

Lucky Apple aren't thinking of bringing a new device out in the near future...

(What do you mean iPad, iPhone 4 - I'm not listening..... Bother !!)

My Car :-(

As most people know, I loved my car, obviously I wasn't the only person who loved my car.....
Someone must have loved it a whole lot more as they decided they wanted it (a lot) and so, had it. Taken from outside my house overnight, and doesn't look like it will be seen again, the really helpful policeman who came to take the details said cars are now being stolen to order and has been heppening a lot during the snowy weather. He was very honest and said I will probably never see it again (Cheers PC Man)

Needless to say, after several grillings from my insurance company, they have paid out - looks like that is confirmation I 'will' never see it again.

It appears there is also a lot of fraud going on, what was wierd though, is the police were really really helpful keeping me updated as often as possible whereas the insurance company started by treating me like a criminal before being helpful.

The Seat Leon Cupra R - A gas guzzling Monster (This is not mine)

Now my car is 'elsewhere' I have to replace it, with what though, a Golf GTi/R32, a Civic Type R, a Porsche, the newer Seat Leon.....

Nope. I have gone and bought...

A FORD....


MONDEO...............


DIESEL.

A 'Sensible, boring, family car', Old age is hitting me hard,

(Why don't Nissan do a GTR that has 4 doors, big boot space, and does 50MPG for £6k, they're really missing a huge market there).

My last topic of discussion for now, My last holiday...

I managed to break my head on holiday in Tenerife (September).

While bouncing along in the sea (Only up to my chest mind), the waves became choppy, very quickly, I noticed a couple of slightly larger waves comin towards me and decided it was time to get back to beach, unfortunately, water travels faster than Damo and before I knew it, one wave had lifted my up and turned me upside-down while the second wave had threw me to the bottom of the sea (only a metre of so).

I picked my location with pinpoint accuracy and smacked my head on a rock which kinda hurt, someone up there was clearly looking out for me as I managed to get out f the sea and collapse on the beach. The Baywatch people came along and did a fantastic job of helping, and scaring the bejesus out of me before I was carted off in an ambulance to hospital.

A few hours, a few stitches, a number of taxi rides (for my good lady) and a bill of £250 later, I was back in the hotel.... the best thing about it all, realising SWMBO does 'really' love me, despite what she sometimes says, the worse thing, I couldn't drink for 2 days afterwards.

I love you Stella SWMBO.

I'm in Love (again)

My Touch Diamond died a while ago when once again, I left it in my back pocket and broke the screen, I reverted to my trusted HTC S710 while I waited for something great to come along.

I waited and waited until last week I was shown the "Google Phone", before this time I wasn't really fussed about this as I have been a lover and owner of smart phones since they came along in 2003 (I think), however I am a changed man. The Google Phone (running Googles' "Android" OS), is absolutely amazing. I have had this phone less than 12 hours and already think I'd be lost without it.

Unboxing


The Phone comes with charger (not shown), sync cable, pouch and some books (that I never read) and headphones (not shown).


The main home screen (Left) and the application screen (Right) which you drag from the bottom in a similar fasihion to te Touch-Flo system on HTCs. (I have installed "A LOT" of applications already).

My Bedside clock which is looking favourite to replace my iHome bedside clock due to it's "Stupidly bright display"

First impression

This is the future, there is a "Market Place" for apps which are either free or very cheap, every app you can think of is available, I have downloaded for example.

The Clock seen above, Sky Planner (with remote record facility for Sky+/HD), compare everywhere (barcode scanner that compares prices), facebook (of course) various GPS trackers for biking & running, fitness apps for gym work, Roadsync (Exchange synchronisation) media players to stream music and videos from the net or my own shared music at home).

There is no keyboard, input is via the onscreen keyboard which I admit, altough I like 'real' keyboards, the onscreen one is very good and others are available via the marketplace. There is also no stylus meaning your finger is good enough.

A 2Gb Micro SD card is included with it and 16Gb cards are readily available from eBay for around £30

Does this mean there is finally something to beat the iPod touch / iPhone - in my opinion, Absolutely, I will need to test the media playing capabilities, so will reserve complete judgement, but if you can get your hands on one of these beauties, hurry up.

They are currently only available via T-Mobile or Vodafone (or eBay) but there's rumours of an Orange version later in the year.

9.5/10


Quick Update : 9.5/10 - Have just remebered "Beebplayer" which is a version of iPlayer and lets you watch BBC programmes, tested withh Episode 11 of the Apprentice - works perfectly !!!

The Garden Project

I have been made decided to do the back garden to;

• Make it look bigger
• Make it private
• Give Leah somewhere to play
• Give me somewhere to relax in the sun

This involves digging (deep), pulling (plants and trees) and fencing (fence panels not swordy type things !!!)

So far so good, I have managed to put fence posts in straight, which makes attaching fence panels a lot easier. Plants (weeds) have been removed in preparation for the decking (Uncle Steve) and what SWMBO describes as "Readymade grass" (turf to you and me, all that remains is to dig the already made grass up.

Before


During

So Far

The Boss helping (Giving her Orders)

Britains Got Talent 2009

Ladies and Gentleman, the winner of Britains' Got Talent 2009 is


Flawless


... and a massive "Big Up" to Steady, from Derby.

(New Years) Resolutions

At a time when most people have fallen of the new years resolution bandwagon, I am about to start mine, albeit the same as it is every year (get fit, lose weight, save money - It actually gets quite boring).

The best thing about starting this in February is...

• I can finish all the rubbish left over from Christmas (Chocolates, Beers, Cheese etc)
• I can still have a good January without feeling guilty
• Everyone else will have given up now so there will be none of the "you can't eat that - how many calories"

Today I managed to get a heart health check at work. To say I was shocked would be an understatement. If you know me, you'll know that I eat quite a lot of junk food. in the last 7 days alone I have had 2 Dominos pizzas, been to a party, out for a curry, and out on a beer session (Derby v Forest forced that one).

I was expecting to get my results and be scared into a dramatic change of lifetsyle, I am, however happy to report the following results.

• Height :- 6' 2.25" (I seem to have grown a quarter of an inch)
• Weight :- 14st 10lb
• BMI :- 26
• Waist :- 35"
• Blood Pressure :- 140/106 (I demanded a recount which was 137/94)
• Cholesterol (Total) :- 4.35
• Cholesterol (HDL) :- 1.40
• Cholesterol (Ratio) :- 3:1
• Blood Glucose :- 5.55
• Risk of Heart Disease in the next 10 years :- 1.8%

Although some of these are bad (especially the Blood pressure), I am 3 days away from changing this, My goals are:

• Lose 2 stone of bodyfat while maintaining a weight of 14 stone (if that makes sense), thus lowering my BMI
• Target BMI 20-22)
• My bloodpressure was high because I have had a stressful week, going to the gym will help this.
• Cholesterol is ok however with my change in diet, this is also likely to drop.
• Waist :- 34"

My office is full of unhealthy males (one healthy female) who also have similar goals, this should make it easy during the day, SWMBO eats 99% healthy (at home anyway) so I have no temptations at home... in theory, this should be easy.

Harrison, Dhadli, hLacey, Johnson, Hallam, Lort, Earp....Bring on the weight loss challenge.

Happy(ish) New Year

Long time no post and what a crazy time it has been in the world of... everything
Companies are disappearing from our high streets and the internet (Zavvi, Woolworths, Empire Direct, Adams etc).
Car firms are stopping production for the time being and some car dealers are doing BOGOF on Vauxhalls. Whereas Land Rover, Jaguar, Honda and others are worringly shedding jobs.

The interest rate has dropped so low that people are actually glad to be on a variable rate although first time buyers still can't get houses as there's about 3 mortgages available to everyone.
My Xbox had the dreaded red ring on Christmas Eve, meaning a whole two weeks of no Xbox playing. I had to resort to spending time with the 'real' family rather than the online one, I don't even have a Wii as a backup.

I guess I should count myself lucky, I have no plans to move house, no need to buy or sell my car, I don't work in retail. Although you can't predict the future and I wouldn't try to.

New years resolutions started on 1st January and were quickly postponed to 1st February due to the insane amount of chocolate and beers that were left over after Christmas.

My Little Darling can count to 13 and loves her kicthen (like father like daughter) and her bouncy zebra thing.
My older darling loves her Girls Aloud concert tickets although doesnt want anyone to know (oops!!!)

My mother darling loves her new iPod although wants a manual type thing so she can learn how to use it.I only have 1 new gadget to report on - the new Palm Treo Pro (running Windows 6.1) is very nice. I have been using it for a month now so it must be good.

In other News... it's business as usual as The Rams (Derby County) continue to play as dreadful as ever, although we now have a "Clough" in charge to get it sorted (we hope).

EPMD - The Return

I have loved Hip Hop/Rap Music for years, my first rap album (and by album I mean record/LP) was NWA - Straight outta Compton purchased in 1988 from BPM Records in Derby. (you may not have heard of N.W.A. but moreso 4 of the founding members, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren and Eazy E - RIP.

An album I bought soon after this however was EPMD, which I loved, EPMD (Erick Parrish Making Dollars), were fantastic, where NWA was hardcore, hated everyone from women to the police and censorship, EPMD were softer albeit slightly.

It's great then, to hear that EPMD are back and about to release a new album "We Mean Business"(15/12/08) - I have pre-ordered mine from Play.com I'll let you know what I think when it arrives.

Other albums from the the last 80's early 90's I bought include;

• Digital Underground - Sex Packets (2Pac was a memer of this group before he was famous in his own right). - Check out tracks ""Freaks of the Industry" "Humpty Dance" and "Sex Packets"
• Nice 'n' Smooth - Nice 'n' Smooth- "Funky for you" and "Perfect Harmony"
• Public Enemy - Apocalypse '91 - "Shut em Down", "Can't Truss it", "By the Time I Get to Arizona" and "Get the F*** Outta Dodge"

Don't you just love those classics

It's too late for Blame


This is a photograph of a beautiful little boy who, until a few days ago no-one would have taken a second look at.

That was until this photograph was put to the name of "Baby P" or Baby Peter.

This poor defenceless little boy was subjected to months of torture and abuse, so much so that I cannot even write them on my blog as, firstly I have been unable to bring myself to read the things that were done, and secondly I wouldn't want to upset anyone else, I don't mind admitting that reading it myself brought tears to my eyes.

But what makes this even worse, is the people that did the things to him, was his own mother, along with her boyfriend and the lodger

Re-read that "His own Mother"

There are no words I can think of that will describe these "people",

From the small amount I have actually read, the police, social workers, health visitors and doctors visited this baby more than 60 times and still he wasn't removed for his own care (and safety.

I imagine those responsible for the failings which cost Baby Peter his life will never be brought to account, I hope justice will prevail - I am guessing the murderers will be locked away away from other prisoners (unless the wardens accidently leave the doors unlocked).

The news today reports a Child Trust Board will be set up in every area of England, do you really think this will help?

What we need is every adult, parent, child, teacher or friend to not be afraid to raise concerns for someone they are worried about.

while I am sure there are no plans to release photos and names of the people for killing this baby, Freedom of Speech on the internet will ensue and someone will release such information on a blog somewhere in the interweb *<- LINK.

It would seem however that this kind of cruelty is a one-off, another case making the headlines today in New Zealand of yet another Mother being charged for manslaughter, or failing to protect their child.

I quote from the BBC News article

...Neighbours who saw some of the abuse have told reporters they will live with the guilt of not having informed the authorities sooner. "

You may have to live with the guilt, but at least you are given the option to live.

Let's protect the worlds' children, they are our future.

*Thanks to Cookie for the 1st Link

This is it...
The time has come, After Derby Countys' less than brilliant performance in the Premiership last year and F*rests' "lucky streak", the 2 teams are set to meet tomorrow.

Come on you RAMS !!!!!

Oh Per-Lease...

The whole Russell Brand and Jonathon Ross issue has got slightly out of hand.

It has made front page news for the past 3 days and over what...

A "Jibe" over an actors grand daughter, the same actor that offended a generation of Spanish citizens, and his grand daughter who, until last week, no-one had heard of.

Now we see there have been nearlty 30,000 complaints regarding the comments made by Mr Brand and Mr Ross.

Brand has since quit the BBC, and Ross has been suspended for 3 months...

...suspended, ... 3 months, does Mr Ross not earn £16 grand a day for the BBC, does that not cost us, the tax paying, licence paying public.

Ok they cocked up and upset said person/s, but am I not alone in thinking something is not right, Gordon Brown and possibly other politicians putting their oar in and "expressing the views of the general public" speaking for the people, Mr Brown, when have you ever spoke for the people, if you did that, then you'd step down or call an election to see what people really think of you !!! (I DARE YOU).

So now we are left paying our licence fee to not watch the Jonathon Ross show on FRidays, which, to be honest, is the best chat show on TV, I dont really listen to Radio 2 as I'm not old enough just yet.

Ok they went a bit too far, but how many people who complained actually heard the show (I think 3) and how many people complained for something to do.

Don't worry, you'll feel a lot better come Sunday, because you'll be able to watch Top Gear that you hata agnd complain about that come Monday.

Still, takes the focus off the fact we're in a recession, can't afford food, petrol and our mortgage.

Does anyone else think this has gone too far.

Whatever next, people complaining about a Black US President !!!!

Note: Apparently Jonathon Ross has been suspended without pay - NOTE TO Mr Ross - QUIT THE BBC AND GO TO CHANNEL 4 .... We'll watch you there...

More Gadgets

I have had my HTC Diamond for a couple of months now, at first I didn't like the lack of keyboard and almost went back to my old trusted s710, I continued and now quite like it.
I have now been given a shiny new device however, The HTC Touch Pro - Which is the same as the Diamond, but with a keyboard.
This must be perfection I thought... Nope, now it has the keyboard which I wanted, the device is too big, its double the depth of the Diamond. - It also doesn't have 4Gb internal storage like the Diamond has, it does allow for MicroSD however.

I will continue to play, I have already begun by wiping the Vodafone software by flashing the ROM to a more Damo friendly OS.

More soon

5K - Bring it On

Fresh from my 5K run last Saturday, I have come to the conclusion that I actually enjoyed it and not only will I be doing it again next year, but will be "Raising my game" and running the "Derby 10K" in April (Sunday 19 April).

This time I plan on doing more training, I say "More" I should actually mean "Some", rather than the 1 5k run in Tenerife and a pathetic 3K attempt the sunday before my run, I'll plan properly and aim for a time of less than 60 minutes.

I have ages - 7 months to ready myself for this one, how hard can it be.

Tao - Are you joining me?

The Holiday

I'd get round to it in the end and yesterdays' news prompted me.

After 3 weeks of worrying wether or not our flight company would still be around to get us to Tenerife, we managed to get there, the weather was great, the restaurants were nice as usual and the nightlife was...

...Dead.

Tenerife must be going through the credit crisis along with the rest of the world. the usually busy Veronicas strip was empty, the pubs were pumping out music but had no-one in them, the people that usually hassle you to death until you go into their pub for a "buy one - get one free" were standing around talking to each other, occasionally asking "where you were going later".

I'm not sure whether this was down to the recent problems with holiday companies and airlines going bust, prices in most of the restaurants increased, the Euro dropped from 1.6 to 1.2 meant this is not the cheap as chips holiday it once was.


Thanks to the in-laws though who take us with us at extra expense to their timeshare, this means we managed to get a rest when they took Leah on their daily walks, as well as an on-call babysitter.

... 2 weeks after returning to the UK, our flight company (LTE) went bust....