These are items removed over time from my frontpage.

Older Diary Items

23.06.2016 BT nightmare continues

No end to the line drops so called BT again - the rep admitted that I'd had 170 drops in the past 24 hours!!! After several line tests the rep arranged for an engineer to visit, but not until Monday, so I have a fun weekend ahead! Again, no answers to my technical questions but hopefully that'll be sorted when the BT engineer calls.

22.06.2016 Switched off webcam

With the ongoing problem with BT I've switched off my webcam, as the ftp upload of the images requires prior authorisation of my ip address, and that keeps changing when my line drops. Four hours later and no sign of a BT techie calling as promised.

22.06.2016 BT nightmare continues

This morning got my alarm rather than some music so it was clear that my internet connection was down. It continued to go up and down. I tried the usual, restarting the router, but also resetting it several times, all to no avail. Another call to BT, and a delightful Welsh lass tried very hard to help, but ultimately the problem wasn't going away. She suggested sending another router in case mine was faulty, and at this time I'd try anything, even though it means trying to deactivate BTWifi when it arrives. I've had a wasted and frustrating morning so have turned to roasting a pork joint instead!

21.06.2016 BT nightmare

This afternoon my internet connection with BT kept going up and down, making the service pretty much unusable. The BT status page showed a lot of Xfinity issues but none supposedly affecting my area. Phoned up and spoke to a friendly Indian customer service rep who couldn't help, but he did admit that BT were having some server problems(not indicated on the status page as usual). The rep promised to ring Friday to check how things had gone as the line stayed up during our chat! Afterwards I had a brief period of respite and then it continued for the next 6 hours, so I turned in for the night and hoped it would get better by morning.

15.05.2016 Windows 10 upgrade network problem solved

One annoying problem after the upgrade to Win 10 was that my upgraded machine could no longer be seen by my main machine, although the upgraded machine could see my main machine. After trying all sorts of things I enabled NetBios over TCP/IP on both and suddenly they could both see each other - the strange thing being that back in March I'd turned it off specifically to solve a network problem caused by the latest Win 10 update!!

12.05.2016 Upgraded backup machine to Windows 10

Finally bit the bullet and frankly expected a lengthy and painful process, probably with many programs and device drivers killed but it went smoother than anticipated. Yes it took over 5 hours, two spent apparently 'stuck' on preparing installation. When it was over I had no internet connection but it only took a few minutes to resolve that, and then I had to customise with Classic shell and used O&OShutup to stop Windows data collection, and finally checked out and updated my regular software.

21.03.2016 Namesco host problem

Just tried to update my webpages re the BT issues and ran into a problem. My php code for the sidebar seemed to upload then disappear, removing the old version and thus my site navigation. Spoke to Namesco first line tech support and narrowed the problem down to the script code I use to obfuscate my email address(code I've used for many years across differing hosts) being picked up by the host as a potential risk and being removed? They obviously changed something recently as I had updated this only a day or so ago. As a temporary fix I changed the obfuscation code to simple html and uploaded that, but that too disappeared, until I uploaded to a different directory and moved the file, but at least my site has functional navigation again. Namesco have raised the problem priority, but I'm hoping they'll let me keep the obfuscation code as it avoids spammers scraping the details of my email address.

I've been told that the host system uses Clamav antivirus and it has flagged my file as containing PUA.Win.Trojan.Obfus-269, which is news to Avira and AVG! I've reported the false positive to the Clamav site but haven't yet received even an acknowledgement of the upload or report. Having no experience of Clamav I don't have a clue when this might get resolved, or even if I'll get advised in due course.

Just posted my file to Metadefender and scans with 43 virus checkers gave no positives, including Clamav!!!

21.03.2016 BT engineer visit

BT engineer visited at 08:00 and had the problem resolved by just after 9:15. It appears that a wire in the local junction box had corroded.

17.03.2016 BT nightmare continues

My continuing problems with BT(since the 13th) are documented here. It all started with not being able to ring Karen - the calls went to Glenn on the EE network rather than Karen on the Talk-talk network. It seems that somehow Glenn had been assigned the same number with Sky some 5 years ago although he rarely used it, but he moved to EE last week, and presumably they took some action that resulted in BT routing my calls to him rather than Karen! Since reporting the matter to BT, who weren't very supportive or helpful, I've had innumerable problems both with my phone line and internet connection. Annoyingly I can't get an engineer to visit until Monday, so for now I've disconnected my phone in the hope of keeping my internet connection, as calls seem to frequently(but not always?) disconnect my internet!

12.03.2016 Reduced my physical library

Bit the bullet and disposed of most of my accumulated books - donated them to the local charity shops for the RSPCA and Havens. It was sad to see many of them go as I've had some for over 40 years, but they're never used and if the charity shops can raise a few pounds then so much the better.

06.01.2016 Electrical work - webcam offline

I'm having a new fuse box and some electrical work done today, so my computers and webcam will be offline for a number of hours.

01.01.2016 Happy New Year, and another Windows 10 issue

Happy New year to everyone. My New Year started with another Windows 10 issue which I recorded in my "Windows 10 page.

14.09.2015 A cricket legend passes

It was with some sadness that I noted the passing of Brian Close, ex-captain of England and Yorkshire, and probably the bravest man to ever play the game. I watched the legendary series against the West indies quick bowlers in the 1970s where Close intentionally took many deliveries to his body, and fielded at perhaps a recklessly close catching position on the leg side, and at over 40 years of age. They certainly don't make them like that any more.

08.09.2015 New Windows 10 issues page

To avoid cluttering up my front page with Windows 10 issues/solutions I've created a separate page, which I've also linked in the sidebar.

25.08.2015 New machine now active

Customising my new machine went much better than anticipated, so with most of my key software installed and customised, and the arrival of my new 32" monitor, I decided to instal my new machine as the main one. The only major hiccup so far was that my digital microscope doesn't work with Windows 10(a driver issue), so it'll have to stay with my old machine in due course. My new machine is unbelievably quiet and impressively fast, the monitor is huge, and Windows 10 is thus far better than I feared(despite running it in a virtual machine for the past few months)! Still plenty of software instals to go on my main machine, plus the conversion of my old main machine and decommissioning my secondary machine, so I'll be busy in the coming week or two!!

21.08.2015 New PC

Took delivery of my new PC -
   Intel Core i7-5960X Extreme Edition Processor(8 cores 16 threads)
   be quiet! BK019 cooler
   32 GB of Corsair 2800Mhz memory
   MSI X99A Godlike Gaming motherboard
   Corsair RM1000 Gold Rated Power Supply
   Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X - 12GB GDDR5
   Samsung 850 pro 512GB x2 SSD
   WD Black 3TB x2
   TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-224FB DVD/RW drive x2
   Fractal Design R5 case
Well pleased with it, but will need a lot of software installations and customisations in the coming weeks before I can swap out my old machine. Just ordered a new 32" monitor, the BenQ BL3201PT 32-Inch 3840 x 2160, 4ms, model, which should arrive next week.

06.08.2015 Windows update and other woes

Comodo proved a real pain to resolve. It claimed it had a problem it couldn't fix and asked for a reboot, only for the same issue to return. I tried to unistall/reinstall but the installer failed to remove itself and asked for a reboot - when it again reported a problem and asked for a reboot!! I tried installing over the faulty installation(this sometimes works)but the same issue kept returning. Eventually I tried the well considered Revo uninstaller and it removed Comodo, but left a few odds and sods and when rebooted I no longer had a network connection!! After hours of system restores and trying new options and always returning to the same frustrating issue I located a Registry setting(HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\COMODO\CIS\VolatileData - Pending reboot after install or something like that) and set it to 0. It didn't solve the problem of itself, but it did allow me to try another install which failed but further on in the process, and subsequently let me run uninstall successfully! There were still a number of registry entries but by then(6 hours of grief and countless reboots) I didn't risk removing them!!

Then there were more Windows updates available, so like a fool I tried to install them - more reboot grief as a string of failed updates and the system hanging while 'preparing to configure Windows'. After umpteen attempts to apply the updates, breaking into safe mode to undo the failing updates and finally using system restore to return to a working state without the updates, I finally gave up. My old machine will have to run minus the updates until my new machine arrives(perhaps a couple of weeks).

05.08.2015 Windows repair install

My main PC has been playing up for a month or so(occasional hangups requiring a hardware reboot). The problem was that several system files were corrupt and the backup copies that Windows keeps were also corrupt meaning that System File Checker(sfc) couldn't repair them. Unfortunately this appears to have gone on for some time so my backups were in a similar state. I'd tried copying files from a working Windows 7 machine(tedious job involving taking ownership of individual files and copying hopefully good files over them) but couldn't get close to a clean sfc /scannow so decided that a repair install would be required - didn't fancy a full reinstall as I have so many software products which would then keep me busy for weeks installing and customising. Tried to put it off until I got my new machine(currently being configured/built), but this morning I couldn't even get into Windows - aaah!

Luckily my backup user ID allowed me in, so I bit the bullet and ran the repair install(run setup from Windows disk from within Windows and 'pretended' its an 'upgrade'). Just over an hour later, and multiple reboots I have my machine back, but with a few issues - my network adapters now have new names(which screwed up my Virtualbox networks until I manually edited vbox files), other network settings like DNS were reset to defaults and for some reason my Comodo firewall is misbehaving and appears stuck in an upgrade loop. Currently downloading 140 Windows updates!! Overall I'm delighted at how well the repair install went, and it looks like it saved me a lot of work.

Lesson: runs sfc after all abnormal shutdowns, and perhaps intermittently for good measure

25.06.2015 BT Sport

I currently get BT Sport free with my broadband - however I don't use it or want it. BT sent an email that said they would start charging for their new service which included Champions League football, unless I cancelled/downgraded to BT Sport Lite. BT electing for an opt-out really annoyed me, as I usually ignore messages about BT Sport and might have not realised they would start billing me for this service. The BT help staff moved me to the free lite service, but then immediately afterwards BT sent me an email(probably automated) saying I had signed up for BT Sport and was subject to a 30day notice period!!! A further call to BT help and they said everything was OK and there would be no charges, however they also denied sending me an email, which didn't inspire confidence! I also went onto the MyBT website and again there was no mention of BT Sport lite and no option to unsubscribe from BT Sport! Not impressed with BT customer service.

19.06.2015 Amended webcam page

I've implemented a new webcam page using PHP to select the latest image to display, and also added the option to look at some older images.

08.06.2015 Webcam update problem - Names.co.uk changed caching

Without any notice Names have changed the caching parameters that directly affects my website(and presumably others), in particular my webcam. It seems that caching only refreshes approximately every hour, so webcam images, while they successfully upload to my web server, don't refresh the cache so users may see images up to an hour old and they are static until the next cache refresh. I've raised the issue with their support but am not currently getting any joy. I may have to consider scrapping the webcam feed or change my web host.

02.03.2015 Spurs legend Dave Mackay dies aged 80

Sad to read that Dave Mackay, one of the key players in the great Spurs side of the early 60s has died. He was not only an outstanding player for Spurs but went on to success with Derby both as a player and manager.

01.01.2015 Spurs hit Chelsea for 5!

What a fabulous start to the new year - Spurs 5 Chelsea 3
Despite going a goal down(and which Spurs fan didn't expect the worst at that point?) the team played really well, particularly Kane and Chadli, and thoroughly deserved the win.

27.10.2014 New car and phone

On Friday we picked up Karen's new Renault Clio Medianav(in French blue). We opted for the Clio after VW screwed up our order for a new Polo(after waiting 14 weeks). Karen seems completely delighted with her new toy.
Even better, my new BT8500 phone has given me fabulously cold-call free days since I got it last Wednesday. Having been plagued by up to half a dozen a day this may be my best purchase for some time, even more so as I got a pair for less than £50!

17.07.2014 BT connection now live

The visit of the BT engineer went well and my new BT internet connection appears to be working as expected. I've still got a few network attached devices to update with new network details(and new email setups), but that's simply a tedious slog. The only minor niggle on the horizon is that if my router is disconnected/restarted it will get a different ip address which will screw-up my webcam updates, as my webspace has to specifically allow ip addresses to update it(a security feature). I won't know how much of an issue this may be until I've seen how stable the BT connection is over the next few weeks. With the increased bandwidth the webcam updates have been increased from every 10 minutes to every 5 minutes.

15.07.2014 email update

As of mid-day today all email to my regday.co.uk addresses now correctly routes thanks to technical support at Names(Michael Hodkinson). BT technical support also confirmed that, as a customer, I can use their smtp server to post email from my domain addresses, so I don't need to buy any smtp service elsewhere. Sadly there is no way to disable the BT FON service before my activation, so for a few days a portion of my bandwidth will be available for other BT FON community participants(that's the BT free wi-fi which is actually provided by their customers). Just have to wait for the BT engineer on Thursday.

11.07.2014 ISP move update

My regday.co.uk website now points to the webspace on Names.co.uk. Sadly all @regday.co.uk email addresses still route to my old ISP, but I'm still optimistic this will be sorted by the change of ISP this coming Thursday(17th).

11.07.2014 Chromecast

Treated myself to a Chromecast device(along with an auto switching HDMI unit). It was simple to instal and setup, and the picture quality is excellent.

09.07.2014 Site move update

As of this morning my regday.net address had been successfully moved to my new hosting space, and the regday.co.uk should transfer in the next day or so. My email also appears to be working, but until I get emails from most of my normal contacts I'll reserve a final judgement(feel free to copy any email to my temporary email address regdaytemp@gmx.us). I have received a MAC code, and the change of ISP to BT is currently scheduled for the 17th July, after which I hope to have an up to 76Mb download speed, about 6 times my current speed.

07.07.2014 Site move complete ?

If you're seeing this update then the move to Names.co.uk went without a hitch! My DNS switch was scheduled for 17:00 but it may take up to 72 hrs for the change to be reflected fully. I will update the email position later.

07.07.2014 Moving website and email - update

I've bought webspace with Names.co.uk and will be moving my website and email in the course of the next few days. In theory this should be largely transparent, but having done this several times before I know there may be minor problems due to different operating standards and conventions and different host software setups. If you need to email me in the next week please continue to use my normal email address, but please add a copy to regdaytemp@gmx.us - this is a backup email address.

04.07.2014 Moving website and email

Coms.com, who only recently took over my old ISP ADSL24, have decided to make a radical change to my terms and conditions - they're dumping webspace and email facilities. The immediate impact is that I will be signing up with a hosting company to move this website and my email - hopefully this transfer will be fairly transparent as my regday.net and regday.co.uk will simply be routed to the new service provider. In the longer term I will reconsider my broadband connection and may now be forced to move to a new ISP.

04.07.2014 ISP problems continue...

Had a fun filled day... not. After reporting the status of my problems this morning, and hopefully giving strong hints of where the problems may lay, I've spent most of the day disconnected from FTP and SFTP, so my webcam didn't update and I couldn't post updates here. At 16:15 I got SFTP back and have restarted my webcam (and SSH client). Still waiting on a resolution to the FTP connectivity and for the timezonedb.so file to be placed in the right directory to stop my error_log filling with messages.

03.07.2014 ISP problems continue but webcam back

After a lot of faffing around I was able to access my webspace with SFTP to provide content, however my webcam software was a different issue as it doesn't support SFTP. Luckily I found an SSH client(bitvise - free for home use) that allows me to route FTP traffic to SFTP, so my webcam is now uploading images again. I'm still awaiting answers from Coms.com about FTP and the PHP errors.

01.07.2014 ISP problems with FTP

Looks like Coms.com upgraded their 'security' along with MySQL and PHP on 27th June, which meant I couldn't access my webspace with FTP, causing my webcam not to update the live images and filling my error_log file with tons of error messages. Didn't spot any of this until a friend(thanks Ang) noticed the webcam appeared to be stuck. Reported the problem to Coms.com on 1st July and am still awaiting a resolution.

25.06.2014 New 2TB external hard drive

Just got my latest external hard disk, a 2TB WD My Passport Ultra, and have been busy taking backups to fill it!

01.01.2014 Man Utd 1 Spurs 2

What a great way to start the New Year!! Not only did we once again beat United at Old Trafford, but United were on the wrong side of a refereeing decision - not that I blame the referee with the way United players were throwing themselves to the ground to win free kicks or penalties - even the influential Manchester United fanzine Red Issue have called for their diving culture to end.

23.12.2013 Christmas update

I've been very negligent about updating this site for quite a while now, but a dear friend gave me a nudge(thanks Ang!). The best news is that I shall be spending the holiday season with my fabulous new girlfriend, Karen, and all my preparations are now complete. The backup machine which ran my webcam, and various back-up services for my other machines, has been retired and replaced by an Acer Veriton N4620G, a small machine that's more than adequate and should seriously reduce my electricity bill and background noise.

To anyone foolish enough to be reading this when you could be drinking and having fun with friends or family, well, have a great time over the holidays, happy Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, happy Yule, or whatever seasonal greeting you prefer.

08.04.2013 Tracy Allen died

This is one blog entry I hoped never to make. It's so difficult to know what to say. I've known Tracy for what seems like forever, but it's really only around 20 yrs. She's someone I'd come to be very fond of, almost like the sister I never had, and like such a sister she was forever trying to matchmake me with one of her friends and/or acquaintances! Right now it feels of little consolation that I got to spend an enjoyable evening with her and her family just a couple of days ago, but when the current shock has worn off I'll doubtless look back on the evening with added poignancy. Tracy was only 47, and my thoughts are with her husband Ron, their three boys, James, Miles and Reece, and her extended family. It's often said that people don't truly die while there are others to carry them around in their memories and their hearts, in which case Tracy has a long time left yet.

04.02.2013 Reg Presley of the Troggs died

Sad news. I have a soft spot for The Troggs as they were part of the memorable July 1966 when England won the World Cup. They had two hits in that month, the famous 'Wild Thing' and the less well known 'With a girl like you', but the latter was their only No.1 in the UK. Reg is also famous for writing 'Love is all around' which they had a No.5 hit with in November of 1967 but more famously remembered for the Wet Wet Wet cover that stayed at No.1 in 1994 for what seemed like an eternity, some 15 weeks.

11.11.2012 Took delivery of a Samsung Galaxy Tab2 7 inch Tablet(16GB)

Thought it about time I got an Android based product and the Samsung tablet looked like a good candidate! I also treated myself to a 32Gb SD card to supplement the storage. It was easy to set up and connect through my wifi router, and quickly spent a lot of time looking at various apps. Wish I'd had this when I was working!!

30.09.2012 Ryder Cup comeback - Europe win again!

After yesterday's football result I felt that enough good fortune had come my way and was almost ready to write off the Ryder Cup with Europe 4pts adrift(6 at one point). But a tenacious fightback, winning most of the close matches saw Europe overturn the deficit and win.

29.09.2012 Man.Utd 2 Spurs 3

I've been very lazy this year about keeping this site up to date, but couldn't miss recording the fabulous, and long overdue, victory for my beloved Spurs. We've suffered a string of poor performances at Old Trafford, and a lot of bad luck and some appalling refereeing decisions since the start of the Premier League(quick mention of that Pedro Mendes goal that was feet over the line but not given - that cost us the win, and Champions League football come the end of the 2005 season), so I wasn't too hopeful. But the press vilification of our new manager by newspaper hacks who support other teams made me want it a little more than normal. The victory was all the sweeter as we got a few decisions given our way that in the past would have sunk us. I'm not getting too excited though, the team still needs work, some players still don't seem fit enough for 90 minutes, a couple of defenders need to work on their positioning and some don't seem to be able to concentrate too well, but it would be churlish not to enjoy this victory that we've so often been cruelly robbed of in the past.

15.04.2012 Windows update

I hate Windows updates! Today's one gave me a string of BSODs with my machine falling over within minutes of getting to the Windows start screen, making troubleshooting difficult. Fortunately I got on a backup machine, downloaded an updated BIOS for my motherboard and kept my fingers crossed when installing it - luckily after a few nervous moments my machine booted OK and has stayed stable since.

08.03.2012 Upgraded BIOS on main machine

As I'd been getting BSOD's randomly when running cpu and graphics intensive games that hadn't been resolved by updating all other drivers, I bit the bullet and applied a BIOS update, more in hope than expectation. Got the scare of my life as when the upgrade finished as I couldn't get a network connection... aargh! Luckily it turned out to be easily resolved, once I realised that my network connections had been renamed. Spent over an hour gaming with no crash but that doesn't mean the problem has been solved - only time will tell.

01.03.2012 Ordered a broadband upgrade to 24Mb

With my local exchange now having been upgraded I've taken the plunge and opted to upgrade my 8Mb line to 24Mb. (Due on 14th March)

02.02.2012 New 27" monitor

My new Dell 27 inch U2711(2560 x 1440 WQHD) Flat screen arrived and is up and running, and looks great. My new UPS unit arrived and is also now happily installed.

31.01.2012 Collected my new PC

Collected my new Intel Core i7 3690X based PC today, so my next week will be spent installing/customising software, moving PCs around my network, and preparing one machine to pass on to a friend. The new machine is impressively quiet.

16.12.2011 Christopher Hitchens died last evening

There really are no words to describe the loss I felt this morning on reading the sad news. Few men have ever come close to his erudition, use of the English language or oratory skills, nor any presented a more fearsome opponent in debate, best summed up by a comment I read on one of the many obituaries - "So passes the finest essayist since Montaigne, the sharpest wit since Wilde, and the greatest debater ever."

04.12.2011 Internet outage & network upgrade

Annoyingly my internet connection dropped on Friday morning and I only got it back this morning. I've taken the opportunity to upgrade my network, firstly by installing a BiPac7800N modem router to replace my ageing Netgear DG834G, and a Netgear N300 USB wireless adapter for my secondary machine. The upgrade went painlessly, although getting to grips with the added functionality and menus of the BiPac may take a while longer!

28.07.2011 USB Wireless adaptor

Received my USB Wireless(G/N)adaptor, which only cost £6.49 including postage! Needed to download the updated software from the RALink site, and it provided a few minor problems, but when it connected it gave me a much better connection than my old internal Netgear adaptor, quite impressive for such a cheap device.

27.07.2011 Lost Internet connection

Lost my internet connection for almost four hours, a problem between ADSL24 and BT.

23.07.2011 Backup PC network problem

Spent a few irritating hours trying to identify why my backup PC intermittently drops off my network. Traced to a faulty wireless card, so with no spare I've just ordered a couple of new ones!

22.07.2011 Murdoch scandal - images of key players

As a quick reference in the long running Murdoch saga I've added a page with thumbnail images of the key players.

17.07.2011 Timeline for Murdoch phone hacking and bribery scandal

I've been avidly following the breaking news and felt I needed a ready reference to the many key events in this scandal, and have taken items from a variety of press and internet resources to produce a timeline. I will continue to update with news as it happens and with older items that relate to Murdoch, News Corporation and the hacking scandal.

27.06.2011 Annoying power outage

Just had an annoying power outage that had me briefly power down my machines.

26.06.2011 African Wild Dogs

At long last I've added a page to my site about the plight of the African Wild Dog. Less than a century ago these dogs numbered around half a million, yet now number around a paltry 3-6000, and while they once were numerous in 39 African countries can now only be found in 14, they've been wiped out in 25. They may not have the cute appeal of a Panda, or the obvious photogenic majesty of a Lion or Tiger, but it's a sad indictment of the human race that their near extermination has happened so quickly, and with so few people aware of their plight.

25.06.2011 The Witcher 2

I've had this game for a couple of weeks and consider it one of the best for a long time. The graphics are superb, the more adult nature of the dialogue and storyline, like the original, is welcome and my only real gripe is that the release of this game on consoles has undoubtedly influenced some of the controls and interface design. I won't be writing a full review as there are already many extensive ones out there, and I have nothing substantive to add to them. Perhaps the game can best be judged by the many unplanned hours I've already lost to the game, while still only being around 1/3 of the way through it. Full marks to the producers CD Projekt who've yet again kept faith with their fans and allowed user modifications, and were very quick to issue fixes for early problems - just the kind of game producers I like to encourage.

03.05.2011 Spurs Champions League campaign

Thought I'd leave it a while before commenting on our unfortunate demise in the Champions League. The disastrous performance in Madrid, following the dismissal of Crouch, pretty much put paid to any hopes we had. Nonetheless, it's fair to say that our performance in the competition was more than most expected. Sadly our recent form in the league is making a repeat next year look unlikely. The squad needs a few addditions for next season if we're going to get back in the top 4, and we need to retain our best players.

15.02.2011 AC Milan 0 Tottenham 1

It's taken me a couple of days to fully digest the excellent Spurs performance, and I've visited the forums of other clubs to get a more balanced perspective, including AC Milan's. Despite the many grim forecasts of a good-hiding, Spurs were clearly the better side and fully deserved the victory. It could have been more if the referee had given the obvious penalty in the first couple of minutes and had the courage to red-card Flamini and Gattuso. To be fair he did deny Milan a last minute equaliser after his linesman flagged for the push on Dawson, but some referees might have over-ruled him in the cauldron of the San Siro. For many of the neutrals the Milan tactics, the Flamini horror tackle, and the Gattuso behaviour had most of them rooting for Spurs long before the end.

Both sides were without a number of key players, and the 1-0 lead doesn't make the return in a few weeks the formality that many seem to think. However, this was an all round team performance that speaks volumes of the fantastic team spirit currently at the club.

03.02.2011 Networking hassles

There are times when I wonder why I bother to run a small network, and hate the problems that can take so long to resolve. This morning I suddenly lost connection on one of my wireless attached PCs, and there were no obvious clues, the machine hadn't rebooted, the wireless adapter was working, the network settings seemed to be ok.... well after an irritating search it appears a network glitch had caused some of my machines to have lost connection and my music server had grabbed the fixed IP of the machine that wasn't working. It's always so obvious afterwards, but so annoying!!

07.01.2011 My thoughts on the Ashes 2010-11

Now that England have run out 3-1 winners of the Ashes series it seemed the right time to record my thoughts on what has been a heart-warming crushing of the Aussies. Even trying to keep it brief it's needed a separate page, which can be found here.

01.01.2011 Happy New Year

Well now the holiday season is all but over it's nice to reflect on success for Spurs with 3 wins out of 3, including two great wins with only 10 men, and the retention of the Ashes with yet another crushing victory over the Aussies. I hope your holiday season was as happy as mine and hope the New Year brings you all you need, and a little more!

20.11.2010 Arsenal 2 Tottenham 3

What a fantastic birthday present!! After an abysmal first half, and gifting Arsenal a 2 goal lead, the team turn it around and record a priceless win at the Emirates.

11.11.2010 Tumble Dryer repair

Having put a large load of damp washing in my Hotpoint dryer it was annoying to come back an hour later and find it displaying an error number. The user manual simply said to contact the service centre, so my immediate reaction was to consider if I wanted the hassle of a repair or simply get a new one as I'd normally do, but this time I decided to see what the error number meant. A quick internet search even revealed a possible solution which involved taking the back off to get at the heating unit, finding the thermostat control and then to reset it. It was a bit fiddly, but when I put it back together it sprang into life and saved me some money and inconvenience!! It does however raise the perennial problem of poor design, why couldn't there be a way to reset the thermostat without disassembling the machine? Is this yet another way that manufacturers try to ensure a stream of expensive maintenance work?

02.11.2010 Tottenham 3 Inter Milan 1

This has to be one of the club's best results ever, a stunning win against the Champions League champions! Gareth Bale was yet again on fire even if not on the score sheet.

29.08.2010 Sad day for cricket

There I was looking forward to seeing England finish off the current test series with another emphatic win only to hear the gut-wrenching news of the accusations against a number of Pakistani cricketers. The evidence against a few looks pretty damning, and there are suggestions that even more are implicated. The Pakistani cricket board have to share a degree of responsibility in view of their lax approach in the past. It's a sad day for cricket.

25.08.2010 Tottenham 4 Young Boys 0

Does a night of European football get much better? A comprehensive win for Spurs, and a well taken Crouch hat-trick. Now we can look forward to the bigger names in the Champions League proper, and on this performance there should be some good games ahead.

12.08.2010 Power outage

It's only when you get a power outage that you really appreciate just how dependent you are on electricity. Minor outages don't cause many problems as I have battery backup devices on my computers, but longer outages (like the hour long one this morning) are a real pain - no web surfing, no television or radio, no music to play.... can't even make a cup of tea!

24.07.2010 Alex Higgins died

I was sad to see that Alex Higgins had lost his battle with throat cancer. He was a unique talent that lit up the snooker world and made it exciting. I recall the 1983 UK championship when he was 7-0 down to Steve Davis foolishly making a bet that he would still win, and the amazing comeback and his unlikely, but thrilling, 16-15 victory. Sadly his mercurial talent was paired with a self-destructive personality, and a disrespect for authority, that plagued his career with run-ins with the snooker authorities. His early career was an inspiration to many including Jimmy White and Ronnie O'Sullivan and he'll be greatly missed.

24.06.2010 England beat Aussies again

While everyone has been concentrating on the football World Cup, the English cricket team just recorded it's second straight victory in the current 5 match 50 over series against Australia. Strong all round performances augur well for the future.

16.05.2010 England World T20 champions

The English cricket team comprehensively beat the Aussies to lift their first world title in a short form of the game. Unexpectedly dominant throughout the tournament, they outplayed a strong Aussie team in all aspects of the game in the final.

13.05.2010 Backup machine back up!

My backup machine is up and running, so my webcam is again operational.

05.05.2010 Man City 0 Tottenham 1

A strong performance, and deserved victory via a Crouch header, gives Spurs Champions league football next season!

05.05.2010 Backup machine disk problem

My backup machine has another disk problem so my webcam will be offline for a few days.

01.05.2010 Not my best week!

This past week hasn't been my best, and not because Spurs lost at Man U, or my favoured players exited the snooker World Championships. Some pulled/torn muscles in my lower back have made even sitting or lying down comfortably somewhat challenging! On the bright side, it has given me a better appreciation of the pain felt by a couple of friends who suffer from longer term back problems, but I do wish it'd heal quicker!

22.04.2010 Fun and games with BT

Evening before last I discovered my phone line had been disconnected, probably for some weeks, although the ADSL connection was still fine. Trying to report this to BT showed some awful useability issues on their website, I could only report the fault using another line, how daft is that, and some other reporting pages also required a second phone number - crazy?! Fortunately a neighbour helped me contact the Indian call-centre(thanks Ron) and eventually the fault was reported and fixed yesterday morning, the engineer phoned me afterwards and was very helpful. When I went to see the online fault report it contained errors including claiming that they couldn't contact me - priceless!! I filed a complaint and just had a helpful customer service gentleman call me and say all the right things, but.... call me cynical. If only the rest of BT was as good as their engineers.

17.04.2010 Tottenham 2 Chelsea 1

Does a week in football get much better? First we beat Arsenal, and now Chelsea. Easily the better side, we should have scored more, but a late Chelsea goal, 2 minutes into 5 extra, gave us a few worrying minutes. After the recent fixture congestion and spate of injuries, simply magnificent!

14.04.2010 Tottenham 2 Arsenal 1

What better way to recover from a disappointing exit from the FA cup than a magnificent win against Arsenal in the league, the first since November 1999. An amazing 30 yard volley from Danny Rose after 10 mins, and a second half goal from Gareth Bale saw us home; but not before a nail bitting last 5min + 4 added after a Bendtner goal gave Arsenal some late hope.

24.03.2010 FA Cup Q/F Tottenham 3 Fulham 1

After a poor first half, conceding the opening goal to an impressively workmanlike Fulham, it all turned around in a scintillating 25min spell at the start of the second half that yielded 3 goals.

26.02.2010 ADSL24 switch from Entanet to Murphx

The switchover from Entanet to Murphx was totally painfree, taking only seconds. Early indications show that performance is generally good, although I've yet to hit the 8Mb/s mark for downloads that I frequently got with Entanet. However, with downloads at 7Mb/s and good ping times for gaming and better YouTube video performance and general web access times it's a good start.

10.02.2010 Backup Machine now up

Have restored basic functionality to my backup machine, including my webcam.

02.02.2010 Backup Machine hard disk issues

Quite remarkably I have problems on 3 of it's 4 hard disks, all less than 2 years old. Despite having my boot disk mirrored and taking regular backups to another disk, there's no way to recover and I'll have to reinstal everything when I get new hard disk replacements. One of the boot disks(Raptors) failed due to bad sectors, while the other had a scrambled partition table that couldn't be recovered. Of course the other disk that failed due to bad sectors contained my backup images!

30.01.2010 Backup Machine crashed

Found my backup machine had crashed, which means that my webcam page will be unavailable for a while.

18.10.2009 Runes of Magic and YouTube

For the past couple of months I've been spending a lot of time either playing Runes of Magic(RoM) or watching, commenting and discussing matters on YouTube. As a free to play MMORPG RoM has been surprisingly good, although there were some annoying bugs that really should have been corrected more quickly. For those who don't wish to pay monthly fees for WoW it can be recommended.

21.06.2009 Replaced Yawcam with Fwink for webcam

Due to problems with Yawcam interfacing with my webcam on Vista I've had to stop using it. I've currently switched to Fwink, but this doesn't allow me to use motion detection or give me the level of control over local saved images.

15.06.2009 Separate Hardware & Software page

Updated my hardware and software setup and decided to provide a separate page.

11.06.2009 New i7-975 based machine

Took delivery of my new PC. It has the new Intel i7-975 processor with 12Gb memory, dual Intel X-25M SSDs, dual 1Tb SATA disks, dual 22x DVD writers, Nvidia GTX295 graphics card all in a nice Antec P183 case.

20.05.2009 Apophysis images

Having spent a few months playing with Apophysis, and writing some scripts, I decided it was time to put up some images. I've also added a link in the side to my Apophysis images page. I've included a few thumbnails below just to liven up my frontpage!

16.05.2009 Veho VMS-004 Microscope

Took delivery of my new USB microscope. It captures images at up to 400x and works surprisingly well, although the software that accompanies it is poorly designed.

27.04.2009 500Gb USB Drive

Took delivery of my new Western Digital WDME5000TE My Passport Essential 500GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive. Needed it to take backups before I get my new machine, hopefully next month.

21.02.2009 Apophysis

Just discovered Apophysis, a nice free application that generates a huge range of fractals. It has a variety of plugins and uses scripting to provide further fractal generating possibilities. Can thoroughly recommend it.

17.01.2009 Religion and Atheism

Having updated my local webserver, I decided it was time to update my site and also decided to bite the bullet and add a section and some pages about religion and atheism.

16.01.2009 XAMPP

Installed the latest version of XAMPP to update my local webserver that I use for development. At first sight it works well, so if you need a local Apache/PHP/MySQL server setup that's a real breeze to instal, look no further.

01.09.2008 Vista

I had half expected to dump Vista by now in favour of Linux, but surprisingly after some early driver issues I'm now quite happy with Vista. I also ran into some unexpected issues installing Ubuntu, so have been spending time customising Vista and getting familiar with it's idiosyncrasies.

01.08.2008 Year at ADSL24

I've now been with ADSL24 for 12 months, and have been very pleased with their service. As an Enta reseller, they have a good core offering and they have been very helpful on the few occasions I've need some help. If you're looking to change your ADSL supplier, I'd be happy to recommend ADSL24.

30.04.2008 Hauppage TV card

Just bought and installed a Wintv Hvr1300, a line splitter and booster unit, and now have quite good TV on my main PC. The included software is very "clunky" and could do with a serious makeover, but at least it works on my Vista64 machine, unlike some other software - did someone say Nero?

18.04.2008 The Witcher

Added a page of my early experiences of The Witcher. Overall a game I'd recommend if you have a fairly high spec machine.

15.04.2008 New webcams

Just installed my new webcams. The Logitech Quickcam Sphere AF gives a really good quality image, whereas the Sandberg Nightcam 2 has a less impressive image, but does better in low light.

08.04.2008 New machine arrives!

Took delivery of my new machine, a Quad 3Ghz Penryn with 8Gb memory and dual 8800GTs. The machine has over a 1Tb of disk space for general storage, with two fast disks for the various operating systems I plan to instal. I've now updated my personal page with my new system details. Had a few teething problems, and had a couple of BSoDs and eventually did my first Vista re-instal. I've partitioned the disks in readiness for the Linux instals ahead and started to instal my must have apps. Added Supergrub and Gparted to my list of recommended software. Both proved to be invaluable when I was setting up the various Linux distros.

05.02.2008 Logitech driver installation

In an attempt to get a working webcam with Linux I bought an old cheap Logitech webcam. Sadly I couldn't get it to work with Linux, so I made the mistake of installing it under Windows. When I later uninstalled it my other webcam(Creative) stopped working properly, and despite various attempts to uninstall/reinstall nothing worked. I had to resort to reinstalling the Logitech drivers and then reinstall the Creative ones before everything worked again!! I've avoided Logitech kit for some years (due to problems with drivers) and this experience won't encourage me to buy their kit again.

04.02.2008 Harddisk replaced

Due to a harddisk 'failing', I had to replace it. Big thank you to Andy at Solidisk for bitcopying it and saving me having to reinstall everything.

22.10.2007 Changed to Yawcam webcam software

Tried Yawcam and was sufficiently impressed to start using it for my webcam uploads.

03.10.2007 Wireless back to G

Following weeks of problems with my wireless setup I decided to switch from my Netgear 834N back to my Netgear 834G. I can't be certain that the router was the source of the signal strength problems, but the switch seems to have had a positive effect.

12.09.2007 Philips ToUcam fails

Just wasted a lot of time on what I thought might be a driver issue and turned out to be a random hardware failure, quite unusual for a simple webcam. I've had to install a Creative model I had, but for some reason the Splitcam software no longer provides feeds that can be input to my two recording products, really irritating. The feed to my website has been restored but not as I'd like..... guess I'll have to look at it again when I have a little more time, and inclination!

11.08.2007 Movie time

It's been a strange week. It's been spent mainly catching up with movies I've missed over the past year and some recent releases. The latest ones, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Simpsons, The Transformers and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix were all OK but in some respect(s) disappointing. Older ones such as The Fantastic Four-rise of the Silver Surfer, Spiderman 3, Casino Royale were of a similar ilk, but the standout for me was 300. Not that 300 was without problems. Why weren't Xerxes and his immortals portrayed more like the Persians they were, rather than a piercing freak and some form of samurai warriors? And surely the disfigured betrayer didn't have to be excessively freakish? It would have played better if his disfigurement was very slight. But, even though these things irritated, the sumptuous visual feast made almost anything forgiveable.

01.08.2007 Connected to ADSL24

Waiting impatiently this morning for BT to switch me from Pipex to ADSL24 and upgrade to 8Mb, I was trying my new logon details hourly. At 13:00 I successfully connected and immediately saw the anticipated increase in my download speeds. That was all very pain free, just hope that Pipex billing proves the same!

26.07.2007 Network Upgrade

Just installed a Netgear DG834N Modem/router and a Netgear WG311B PCI adapter. The installations went very smoothly, although it was interesting to note that when I'd only installed the router the wireless strength registering on my old D-Link airplus was much poorer than before, but when I'd installed the new card I was soon getting a very strong signal.

24.07.2007 Got my MAC !

My MAC arrived by email 25hrs after requesting it. I've filled out the online application at ADSL24 and got prompt email replies from them and Entanet, and duly completed my financial details. Hopefully I'll be migrated in about a week, but have to remember to check my credit card for any 'late' Pipex payments.

23.07.2007 Rang Pipex to ask for MAC

Rang Pipex and was surprised by a quick response and no attempt to retain me or ask for a reason for leaving. They advised me that I had to contact my credit card company/bank to stop my continuous authority which is incorrect; only a retailer can stop them - sounds typical of the level of training being reported by others?! Just have to hope that they send my MAC promptly, but just in case of any problems I sent them a letter by recorded delivery confirming my telephone conversation.

21.07.2007 Bought 90Gb Usenet allowance from Astraweb for $25

In anticipation of moving ISP I had a look at the various Usenet suppliers, and decided that Astraweb provided the best value from a name supplier. The 90Gb allowance doesn't include headers and has an unlimited time to use, although I'll probably use it in around 10 months. Most other name suppliers sell a monthly allowance with no carry over of unused Gb, and most count headers towards the allowance. After a few hours searching I got out my credit card and joined Astraweb, and initial usage has been impressive, easily maxing out my 2Mb line with only a few connections, so, with 50 connections allowed, I should be able to easily max my 8Mb line when I get upgraded!

20.07.2007 New website went live

After messing around for ages I decided to implement the new look website and trash the old.

18.07.2007 Comodo Firewall

Having tried the FREE Comodo firewall, and been sufficiently impressed, I've taken the plunge and converted to using it on all my machines. I'll certainly be recommending this rather than Kerio or ZoneAlarm in future.

07.07.2007 New microcode for Nokia N800

The new microcode now enables full use of 2 x 8Gb SDHC cards and the arrival of Skype!

12.06.2007 Nokia N800 Internet tablet

Just taken delivery of my latest toy. It's quite impressive, a Linux computer in a handheld with a great 4inch screen. I've bought a few SD/HC cards to enable me to carry my music and key docs around with me. It not only plays music and movies but also internet radio and FM radio, all quite good quality. The catalogue of add-on software is very impressive. Controlling my desktop computers through VNC on my N800 is somewhat impressive!

11.6.2007 New Belkin 1000va UPS & new Canon Lide 600F Scanner

Treated myself to another UPS so all my machines are now protected. While I was spending decided to treat myself to a new scanner!

29.05.2007 Pipex screw up webspace

Somewhat ironic that as I eventually start to redesign my website that once again Pipex should start messing around with their webspace! All day http access has been up and down, while FTP access has been more stable, but still patchy - sometimes active mode was required, other times passive, and for a while both???

19.05.2007 4Gb Pretec thumbdrive

Treated myself to another Pretec thumbdrive. This time it cost less than £30 for a 4gb drive smaller than the top joint of your thumb!

01.04.2007 Tony MacDonald dies

I had to make mention of what was my saddest day in a long time. My good friend Tony Mac sadly had a fatal heart attack as he settled in to watch a game of football: it was quick and probably painless, the way he would have chosen to go. I've known Tony for a lot of years and he was good company, a loyal friend and always a gentleman; he'll be missed.

21.04.2006 Pipex screw up webspace

For the first time in ages Pipex have managed to screw up their webspace service on the 19th April. As usual they didn't advise users of any work that was to be done, and initially they denied any problem. Despite assurances that the problem would be fixed by the end of the day(both on the 19th and 20th) the problems persist. My big gripe with Pipex isn't the failure of the webspace but the lack of customer respect shown. Whilst they hide changes to terms and conditions on their MyPipex pages they continually fail to highlight imminent system changes, or accurately report on ongoing problems(they still show no problems!). They even fail to keep their customer service people up to date so that when you eventually get through to them they can give some meaningful information. In the same timeframe others have reported problems with their MyPipex and Netmail services, so it suggests that some significant works were going on. I've been with Pipex for over 4 years and have been delighted with the rock solid connection, but I can no longer recommend them as an ISP, and will have to consider moving elsewhere if this continues for much longer.

15.04.2006 BT and WindowsUpdate grief

After a pleasurable few weeks playing Oblivion (looks fabulous in 1920*1200 with all video candy on, and the gameplay is very good), I've just had to pay the price! Firstly I lost my internet access for a day, BT claimed that a water leakage had caused the problem, and it felt very strange without it - so easy to get almost dependent! Then after installing the latest Microsoft updates I had a variety of problems with my wireless link which deprived me of internet access to my primary machine. Trying to recover was a nightmare, nothing seemed to work, tried a variety of network changes, Windows restore, changing the wireless card (big thanks to Andy at Solidisk), my DriveImage 7 wouldn't restore a recent image, so eventually I tried a Windows instal/repair. Big horror, the repair instal hung with the infamous 34minutes left every time I tried it, however I also tried restarting the process via F8 and selecting last working setup and this time it carried on...yes!!! Having reconfigured the wireless settings I was back online to download the 40 windows updates, which all went smoothly. Everything seems to be working OK again, with one strange exception, using Perfmon to monitor the Network activity on the wireless card now shows values around double the actuals? Oh well I can live with that for now, but again thanks to MS for another update that caused a lot of grief.

15.12.2005 New AMD machine

My first AMD machine so I was keen to get my hands on it, although I was disappointed that I could only get one of the overclocked XFX 7800GTX cards(I had wanted to put 2 in an SLI config). Had some 'fun and games' getting the new machine setup. Found the NVidia firewall and Network software caused all sorts of problems but a new build without these worked. Also had some problems getting the Dlink card to work with my Netgear based network, the throughput could be measured in bytes per minute. Having spent hours playing with just about every config option offered by the Dlink utility and Windows I got a miraculous result from changing my Netgear network to channel 6 - suddenly the machine could connect to everything at full speed!! The new machine 'flies', but guess I'll be spending the next week or so installing software and customising everything.

08.12.2005 - Saitek A250 wireless speakers

A new hardware 'toy' that lets me listen to my music around the house. Was well impressed with Saitek technical support, prompt response to an email query and very competent technical advice.

20.11.2005 Harry Potter - Goblet of Fire

Just watched the latest Harry Potter. Perhaps I'm showing my age when I say that the performances by some of the character actors was the most memorable feature! Undoubtedly the best of the HP franchise, there was far more atmosphere, but perhaps familiarity with the series is taking off some of the gloss/magic.

04.11.2005 - Games

Spent the last month playing some of the new games, Age of Empires III, Dragonshard and Dungeon Seige II. As a fan of the AoE series from the beginning I was really looking forward to the latest offering, but was to be disappointed. The graphics had been improved but not much, the options extended but not much and the gameplay.... well I was not impressed. The new home town feature undoubtedly added new strategic options but left me cold. Overall a good game but somewhere along the line the original magic and addictive qualities seem to have been lost.

Dragonshard was an all together different proposition, a first game with the DnD 'badge' something many DnD'ers would have been looking forward to for some time. Dragonshard has a very console type feel with garish graphics and more emphasis on action than plot or character development. The player options are very limited and although the game has a few novel features this was not enough. After forcing myself to play for a few days, in the hope that perhaps I would hit some new features or that the gameplay would improve, I deleted the game from my machine, enough said! The original Dungeon Seige was a very so-so attempt to put a Microsoft badge on an adventure/DnD type game, and although it had some nice features the gamplay was very linear and hence disappointing. Despite my misgivings I was pleasantly surprised. The linear plot was gone and there were plenty of new features.... loved the pets! I spent a few weeks playing(on and off) before I hit the main limitation. The game has 3 levels, but the two higher levels have no real new features, and you simply play against harder opponents with your higher level characters with improved armour and weapons, but basically replay the same missions with the same maps.

05.10.2005 - New hardware!

Recently bought a Dell 24" monitor(2405FPW) from Overclockers and was pleased with the price and speedy delivery. The monitor is excellent and working in 1920*1200 is a joy. The only drawback is that some games don't support this resolution, but newer ones such as Guild Wars fortunately do!

This morning I took delivery of my new Buffalo Linkstation Network Storage Centre, 250Gb, which I've attached to my router, and allows me to attach my printer and another external disk and share these on my network. I'll use it to store backups from my PCs and as a central store for my music and books. Setting it up was a pain as the manual said that only specific printers(postcript or Epson) could attach. However, I seem to have got around this and have successfully printed, but need to do further tests.

I'm currently speccing a new machine based on the AMD64 4800(one of the X2 dual processor line), with dual Nvidia 7800 GTXs, 4Gb memory, 400GB disk(4 SATA drives in RAID 0+1 mode), 16x DVDRW(dual layer) etc. I'm still unsure if I should use XP or XP64 as my Windows operating system, as 64bit driver support is till a bit thin on the ground, and a lot of my favourite utilities are not available in 64bit mode(some still use 16bit installers which are a no-no for XP64).

09.03.2005 - Upgraded from 512 to 2Mb ADSL

Had a pleasant surprise this morning when I discovered that my upgrade from 512k to 2Mb ADSL link with Pipex had gone through. Downloading has suddenly become a whole lot easier!

10.10.2004 - Upgraded XP to SP2

Have eventually upgraded my two XP machines to SP2, but what a pain

03.10.2004 - More Linux - SUSE 9.1

Got brave after some positive experience with Knoppix, so gave SUSE 9.1 a try.

19.06.2004 - New Wacom pen/pad/mouse

I've also just installed a new Wacom Intuos2 A6 Tablet/Pen/mouse, and early experience is very positive. The devices are quite stylish, work precisely and are a delight to use. The only drawback is that the price was substantially more than competing products, but then you pay a premium for quality.