Hall Floored

Not much been happing in the house for a while, finally got phone cable and went back down under the hatch, getting to know my way around down here and was down and back up again in 5 min's.

Next step was to sand the door frames and skirting boards for a quick lick of paint.  Managed to get the skirting boards and the bottom of the door frames finished just in time for my Dad having a few days off work.

With his couple of days off he floored the hall, great only room which I never had to do any flooring.  This was also the hardest room to do because of the door angles and raised bathroom and kitchen floors.

Needless to say an excellent job done here.

Some before and after pictures:

Harry Potter is Star Wars

Always thought J.K Rowling stole her ideas from somewhere never once crossed my mind that it was indeed Star Wars.

Here's the Proof!

PS3 vs Wii

Nintendo going for the Apple approach here....

Pro Evo 6 Tournement

Konami and street-wear retailer Fenchurch are putting on a Pro Evolution Soccer 6 PS2 tournament at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium in North London, the publisher said today.

With the game due out this Friday, you'll have a month to get yourself in shape before the 128-player tournament kicks off, with first and second round group stages followed by knock-outs and a final.

The tournament's taking place on 25th and 26th November and 9th and 10th December, with 1600 quid available as a cash prize, and an extra 100 in cash and vouchers from Fenchurch for the runners-up.

All sounds good shame its not closer to home! 

More info can be found here

Windows Defender Final

For those people who suffer from spyware, Microsoft have finally released a program to combat this.  Windows Defender, this has been in Beta for what seems an age, I have used this on a few test machines at work and found it to be annoying.

Now with the Final release I thought time to give this a shot on my own machine.  Done a scan and no spyware found, result!  One thing I never liked about the Beta's were the system tray icon that looked like it was a dart board, this has been replaced with what looks like a castle wall.

Will have to try this on a machine that is riddled and see if we can get away with using just one spyware program instead of spybot and adaware.

If you have any p2p software installed have a quick read of the release notes as it looks like it may delete all your files if you save in default locations!

Release Notes

Download

Firefox 2.0

Looking like a week later after IE7, Firefox 2.0 will be officially released.  I stumbled across the install yesterday even though Mozilla are saying they have not released it yet.

Ah well, knew additions that I can see are spell check and a new tab closure.  One feature i like is resuming your browser session after a crash, still not have the pleasure of this yet.  As usual there is probably a lot more security involved as well.

Now just need to wait on some of my add ins being updated.

Release Notes

XP SP3

XP service pack 3 has been delayed it was due 1st half of 2007, and now due 1st half of 2008.  That would mean there was 4 years between sp2 and 3 (if they don't can that)

2003 server has also been delayed.

Windows Service Pack Roadmap

Microsoft Releases Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP:

MS have beat off Mozilla to get the new browser out the door.  I dare say that this will be followed by patch's for security holes.

Looks like this will be pushed through automatic updates in November.

If you cant wait then you can download here

If you plan to install this go make a coffee! as it needs 2 reboots and about 15 min's of installation.

Source

Super Mario DS

Gave this game a few hours.  Starts off like any other Mario game Bowser stealing Princess Peach.

This version of Mario brings back the original from the NES and incorporates ideas form the newer versions.  If you are not familiar with the NES game then you've been stuck in a hole for 15 years.

Right from world 1 the old feel of sidescrolling Mario is back feeling like the original with the jump for the flag pole at the end of the level.  New additions to the power ups are shell Mario and mega Mario, both come as a good addition.

Music has been remixed but its still the same Mario tunes.  Graphics on this are great with 3D bosses and nice use of backgrounds and surrounds, I am liking the underwater scenes.

In the few hours I played I made it to world 5, here's me thinking this game is not going to be very challenging, that's true the fact Michele is on world 6!

Being a gamer and a Mario fan I am always looking for secrets exits to levels, slightly annoying not know what levels have secrets unlike super Mario on the SNES which had red dots.  So far I have found a few odds and ends taking me further along the levels.  I think the real challenge will be collecting all 3 coins in every level, this will keep me going for a while.

DS Lite

Finally grabbed a DS Lite from gamestation.  With the £109.99 with any game I picked up the new mario.  Went with  a Black DS Lite.

First impressions of this are great.  Being used to playing the GameBoy Micro this feels slightly big even though its a Lite, god only knows how big the original feels. 

One thing I am impressed with is the screen size and the sound.  Still not figured out how to change the brightness levels.

Still not tried the GBA games from this, probably not going to either as the micro is super portable.

Looking forward to building my game collection for this.

Hoodwinked

This movie brings a new look to the old fable of Little Red Riding Hood mixed with a who done it theme.  4 different story's are told which all cross paths Granny, Wolf, Red and a mad axe man.

The computer images do look a bit outdated, with some bits standing out as shoddy.

Not a movie I would run out and see, having the luxury of cineworld unlimited passes you can just turn up and see what's on.

All in I was pleasantly surprised as it kept me entertained form start to end.

Being a U I thought it would be a total kids feast, not at all, mostly adults in the theater as it was 8 after all.

Rocky Balboa

Good God, Rocky Balboa is the 6th and final Rocky (I will believe that when sly is dead!).  Due for release in the States December 22, not sure of release date here.

Another movie that I will probably dodge!  Any way high res movie poster can be found here for all you Rocky fans.

IE7 Is Coming This Month...Are you Ready?

The final release of IE7 is fast approaching & and I mean really fast & and will be delivered to customers via Automatic Updates a few weeks after It's available for download.

This is going to cause users problems!  The fact that its going to be a critical update means users will just install.  Next thing they know Google or yahoo will look different, with strange tabs along the top.  Best dust my WSUS server and get all my clients into them to save me some hassle.

Running the Beta just now, its just a firefox rip off.

IEBlog : IE7 Is Coming This Month...Are you Ready?

New Design

This came about by mistake, On Saturday I was messing about with the Templates.  Turns out that it kept the last one,  when I went to upload a picture it also changed my template.

Ah well.

Feedback on new look welcome.

Don't you open that Trapdoor!

I have now turned my attention to finally finishing the hall.  Last time I was down the crawl space running speaker cable and aerial , I left some cat5 cable and other aerial cable for the other rooms.  Now that the rooms are finished and we know where things are going it was time to get back under and drill some holes.

While underneath I came across some interesting items 1 bike frame and tyres scattered in the hall.  Odd.  Also came across a decapitated mouse, lovely.

With holes drilled and back up the hatch, noticed that I need to actually go back down!  Missed the fact for ADSL I need to use phone cable.  No biggie as the phone box is located in the hall near the hatch.  Buy some phone cable and feed it through to the 2nd bedroom, again near the hatch.

So with this note I never got round to flooring the hall this weekend!

Two new 360 pads?

Looks like M$ have the fear over the PES franchise, its no secret that the Sony pad is the best for this game.  Fair enough PES6 will be out on 360 before the PS3 is even released.

Source

300

I have been reading a bit about this movie.  Trailer now out, looks good.....

Based on the epic graphic novel by Frank Miller, 300 is a ferocious retelling of the ancient Battle of Thermopylae in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army. Facing insurmountable odds, their valor and sacrifice inspire all of Greece to unite.

Trailer - 300

Friday 13th Remake

Just read this articale over in cinematical.....Remakes of old horror movies are really strating to bug me.  I remember this starting with physco and the trend has not stopped, what next remakes of Nightmare on Elm Street? 

Link to They're Still Planning That F13 Remake? - Cinematical

Here Comes Windows Vista RC2

Its almost time for Vista.....

Microsoft this Friday will ship the final pre-release version of Windows Vista and, unexpectedly, will name the release as Release Candidate 2 (RC2). Previously, Microsoft had publicly asserted that it would not ship an RC2 milestone release of Windows Vista. But don't let the name fool you: RC2 is really just a standard interim build of Vista and will not be given out to millions of users as was RC1.

Source: Here Comes Windows Vista RC2

Windows XP Service Pack 1

On October 10, 2006, Microsoft will end all public assisted support for Windows XP Service Pack1 (SP1). After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide any incident support options or security updates for this retired service pack under the policies defined by the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy.

To enhance the security of your computer and to continue to receive updates for Windows XP, we recommend you upgrade your computer, for free, to Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2).

Suppose I best get patching these users.....

Microsoft Source

Its me Mario!

With the waste pipe in, two of us managed to get the washing machine in and dishwasher.  Few bits and bobs missing which required a B & Q trip and some plumbing skills.

On the Sunday after having some cake at Sophie's 1st birthday party it was time to do some plumbing. 

Started with lowering the washing machine as the legs were too high. Plumbed this in, easy enough nothing to hard here.  Next I done the dishwasher thought the same.

Being a man I had no idea how to use any of them and could not get the dishwasher to work.  Left this for Michele and her Mum to try, who got the dishwasher to work.

Starts to fill up, goes through its cycle while some TV is watched, Michele checks up on it to see a puddle on the floor....oops

I never attached the waste hose to the waste pipe, all sorts of crap all over the floor.

Lesson to be learned here.... don't try as you will end up having to do more work!

Mr Driller

Since we moved in we have not had a washing machine or dishwasher plumed in, this was down to the waste pipe location.  The dishwasher would not sit in its correct location due to this pipe, consequently the pipe had to be moved.  The only way we could see this being done was to drill a hole in the wall to outside and stick the waste pipe out.

Michele's uncle turned up with the tools on Saturday to do this, here I was thinking I was going to have a easy day at the cinema.  Turns out I was drilling holes in walls.  Through 6 inch's of brick and then another of black brick.  Solid that stuff.

Finally we got an end result.  Looks a bit naff from the outside, need to paint the pipes and stick a quick growing bush in front of it.