Topgear - Space Shuttle.

I am a great great fan of BBC's Topgear, for those of you who have never seen it, it is a Motoring Television programme by the British Broadcasting Corporation hosted by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond (aka Hampster) and James May (aka Captain Slow).
On each show they review and rate new cars that have come out, mainly sport or supercars driven on the Isle of Mann, give news about the motoring industry, put a star in a reasonably priced car (Where celebs race around the Topgear circuit to acheive a ranking on the leader board) and they also do a short film about something a little random (including buying a supercar for Mondeo money, trying to destroy a Toyota Hilux, Racing across Europe in a car against planes and trains, etc.)
This short clip is one of my favourites, as the amount of prep and excitment over the whole production, only to watch it go terribly wrong at the last minute.

Oosiks - In the news.

This is a truly bizarre story about what people throughout the world get up to and even worse is what some people will buy.

A guy in Alaskan faces a possible one year's jail and a $20,000 fine, for "violating" (literally) the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Read more

Torrent - P2P - Online Content

I have never been very big on the whole Torrent thing, to be honest even being technical, I still have problems trying to get my head around the whole thing.

For years I have been using Limewire as a P2P client, for downloading, of course due to legal reasons, I only download music and films I already own for archiving reasons........... ;-)

Anyway, recently I have found that clients like Limewire seem to have been bombarded with snippets of films and music, example: you download the whole song, but it is only the first 10 seconds on a constant loop.

Yesterday however I stumbled across TV Links a site that links through to a whole host of movies and TV series (Spent 3 hours last night watching the Battlestar Galactica Season 3)

Browse through, I am sure you'll find something enjoyable to watch.

The first recorded IT professional

I use to work for NTL (Virgin media) broadband technical Support, in the Center of excellence in Swansea.

My role was to fix connectivity and email issues over the phone for NTL's client base.

During this period I heard and actually lived some wonderful support calls, from high end technical support to the down right numpties that really should not have a computer in the first place.

This video reminds me of the latter.

Xbox 360 Racing Wheel

Well after being harassed into buying Forza Motorsport 2, I have now taken the next step and purchased the Official Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel.

I popped into Digifan in Haarlem, my local Console Retailer, to check if they had one, which they did. The first thing the young pimpled sales clerk said was "Do you know is 139.99 Euros?" which I knew full well, but what the hell. Whilst there I also traded in 2 games that i very rarely play, Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham Racing 3 (PGR3 will become aparent later on)

The unit came in a huge, tres heavy box, which I carted back to my apartment.

I started peeling off the layers of packaging and removed all the components.

1. Main wheel assembly


2. Table-top holder/bracket


3. Foot pedal assembly


4. Communications cable for the wheel to foot pedal assemblies


5. AC Power pack and cable (optionally used)


6. 2 AA batteries


7. Setup pamphlet


8. Owner’s manual


9. PGR 3 game disc (special version)

After removing all the packaging I started to assemble the wheel and accessories. First thing was to take a pair of scissors to cut off the straps holding down the foot pedals. I then attached the table-top holder/bracket to the main wheel assembly. Removing the side cover of the main wheel, I added the 2 AA batteries to the battery holder and placed the battery holder and cover back into place.

All I had available to mount the wheel was a low coffee table, which was not as ideal as I’d liked but it had to do. I opened the wheel table-top holder/bracket by pulling on the front latch. The latch allows the bracket to swing down. There is a tension knob which allows adjustment for different thicknesses of tables. Once the knob was adjusted and the wheel mounted on the table, the front latch was tensioned back into its locked position.

I placed the foot pedal assembly under the table and used the supplied communications cable to connect the main wheel assembly to the foot pedal assembly. I did not connect the AC power supply at this time. The wheel assembly communicates to the Xbox 360 wirelessly and can be used with just the 2 AA batteries but this option does not allow for force feedback.

The special PGR 3 game disc notes the wheel drivers are on it, but I already had them from the Spring Download. I started up the Xbox 360 by pressing the main power button. I placed the game disc in the drive and PGR 3 started up. I then pressed the guide button (X logo button) on the wireless wheel. This powered up the wheel and the lights around the guide button started to flash. I then pressed the sync button on the Xbox 360, located next to the memory slot, and then pressed the sync button on the wheel dashboard. This allowed the wheel and the Xbox 360 to sync together in controller position 1. I then plugged in my headset in the provided receptacle next to the sync button on the wheel dashboard.

Everything was now set up and ready for a test run. I sat down on my couch and adjusted the table and foot pedals in comfortable positions.

I started by selecting a race of 3 laps using Novice difficulty. The countdown started and I pressed the acceleration pedal to the floor. Once the race started everything went downhill very quickly! The car started to fish tale and I kept over compensating. I could not control the car and had to remove my foot off the acceleration pedal altogether until I got control again. I then slowly started to apply acceleration and had little luck with keeping the car from hitting everything in sight! I found it very hard to drive. I wasn’t expecting that at all!

So right now I am thinking I have just spunked a fair few bucks on a worthless pile of poo.

I then decided to plug in the AC power cable into the wheel. The AC power allows the use of the force feedback systems in the wheel. There is a green light which lights up on the wheel dashboard when the wheel is on AC power.

All I have to say is WOW! The wheel straightened itself out immediately to center position. That was much better. Before applying the AC power the wheel was very loose and too sensitive but now there was resistance and it allowed for better control.

With the force feedback on I then had to learn how to drive again. It was still pretty hard and I kept hitting walls and other cars. The force feedback is strong and modulates the force depending on the driving circumstances. If too much steering was used the feedback put more pressure to try and straighten the wheels and it added more realism to the driving. By the 3rd lap of the race I was holding my own and getting used to the feel of the wheel, pedals and force feedback.

To make the wheel work with the correct controller profile I had to select Wheel A in the game menu More>Options>Controllers then pressed A to save.

The wheel has a few extra options available. The normal hand controller buttons are there: D-pad on the left wheel cross-member, the coloured ABXY buttons on the right, the back and start buttons, and the guide button in the middle. There are also 2 levers, one on each side of the wheel, which are reached with your fingers. These are the manual shifting levers used when you select the manual transmission option in the game. All the buttons and the 2 levers are ergonomically placed and comfortable to use. The wheel itself has a very realistic feel to it. One of the options missing in the game menu of PGR 3 is the force feedback. I would have expected an option to increase or decrease the feedback.

After a few hours of playing I am really enjoying using the wheel instead of a regular controller. But now I need to find a place to store the wheel when not playing racing games! LOL

In conclusion, there is a learning curve with using the wheel either with or without force feedback. I personally did not like using the wheel without the force feedback (no AC) option. The wheel is wireless but if you want the full effect of the wheel you will need to use the AC power cord. Overall I like the wheel and I am sure most gamers who like racing games would love to use one of these wheels.

Worst way to get dumped

A very good friend of mine, sent me a link to the following.

Just listen

Forza 2 Xbox 360 - First Impression

Well over the weekend in London Heathrow airport, where I seem to be spending most of my life at the moment, I purchased Forza Motorsport 2.

Now I firstly have to admit that I am not a driving game fan, as I find them a little boring, and no matter what the quality of the game, its not really my cup of tea.

Anyway after a lot of hassle from my mates in the UK, I succumbed and bought it, along with Shadowrun. (I wanted the latter)

OK well first impression were not good, I popped in the disk, started the game and played Arcade mode, and thought oh dear another driving style game........ after 10 mins I'd had enough and played Shadowrun.

Last night though, with a lot of peer pressure from my mate, Gay Ray, I gave it a proper go and played career mode. Again first impressions were another racing game, but as I got into it a little more, the graphics, handling and AI of the game were actually very very good, I started off with a Mini Cooper S, which was ok, then went onto a Mazda MX5, which handled completely different, and so on so forth.......

After this I had a few online races with Gay Ray, or Gaymondo as we like to call him, were I raced in a Pagani Zonder, which was fantastic.

Stats for the night:
Gaymondo = 13 Wins (48 hours training)
Bishop = 7 Wins (2 hours training)

So all in all it was a good Craic.

I have not been reformed into loving Driving games by Forza, but would have no problem in playing it more and more.

Overall Rating 8-10

New Mobile - Think HTC

Being a recruitment consultant I am constantly on the telephone, and in a business were speed is of the essence

time kills all deals

need to have constant access to my emails, diary and contact.

About a year ago I wore out a suit a month with amount of gadgets and gizmo knocking around my pockets (Mobile, iPod, Blackberry, Smokes, Wallet, Keys, Door and Alarm Fobs, bluetooth headsets, etc.) and the car was a joke with the amount of cables to connect and charge all of the respecting equipment.

Well that is all over now, recently I am the proud owner of a Orange SPV M650. (Also know as a HTC P3300/Artemis/T-Mobile MDA Compact3, SPV M650, XDA Orbit, Dopod P800)

The phone/PDA is made by a company in Taiwan, that have been making Windows Mobile enabled units for many years under different names or the units have been branded by the respecting carriers, hence all the different names for the same thing, but they have now branded themselves as the manufacturer, supplier and retailer.

Anyway this phone, and I use the term loosely, is rock and roll. It is a touch screen phone, connects to my exchange/email server for emails, diary and contacts, Full Tomtom GPS built in, MP3 player, Camera, FM Radio and PDA out of the box.

One of the down sides to the unit is that it has no buttons, all touch screen, which means you have to do all imputting with the stylus but as there is a huge amount of Open-Source developers in the arena that can do some fantastic stuff to customise your Dog and bone to suit your needs, my current setup makes my phone look, feel and act like the impending iPhone. so I never need to take the stylus out of the unit.

Madness for sale

I have recently stumbled across this rather odd item on Ebay

UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY - A GAS TURBINE (JET ENGINE) POWERED GO KART WITH AFTERBURNER/REHEAT.

This kart is the result of several thousands of pounds and many, many man hours of work and was designed, constructed and operated by a qualified aircraft engineer.

Fitted with a MILITARY spec JFS-100 jet engine normally used as a jet fuel starter for the US Navy A7 corsair carrier aircraft.

Additionally, and possibly uniquely, it is fitted with a superb AFTERBURNER unit creating extra thrust, noise and spectacular fire and smoke effects. Perfect for shows! Push one button to inject fuel, then push the other to ignite!

Full autostart system means easy starting, NO airbottles needed, comes with its own 24v starting unit.

Excellent instrumentation fitted including EGT gauge to monitor engine running and a digital % RPM gauge too.

The kart sits very,very low and handles like it's on rails, totally rocksteady at speed.

Everywhere this kart goes it draws large crowds and could be a show winner or suitable for sponsorship.

Top speed is unknown, and I have no figures for 0-60 or quarter mile speeds.

What worries me slightly is that last sentence, coupled with the fact that none of the snaps show the beast fired up. Mind you, the idea of giving a speed camera the finger while doing Mach 0.6 round the M25 is rather appealing

Why am I in Holland???

OK well this could take up pages, but I'll give you the condensed version.......

because i love it over here.

I moved over to The Netherlands, back in 1999/2000 for a previous company, to set up their new office, after spending 2-3 years here I moved back to Wales for several years.

The long and short of it, even though most people who visit Holland (Amsterdam) come for the smoke, pancakes and red lights, it is a very peaceful place that takes life at its own pace (Probably the smoke part kicking in).
The trains run on time, a little to efficient sometime, its an incredibly healthy place, just today I cycled past a little old lady who must of been in her 80's cycling along without a care in the world or a grimaced look on her face, and finally the Dutch have an excellent outlook on life.

Life is for living, not working........

If you do one thing in your life, wear sunscreen and spend a good amount of time in Holland (OK that's two things, but who cares)