Saturday 14 May 2011

Pre Holiday posting

This will be the last post for a good few weeks as I am off on holiday.  Here are some photographs of a blosom tree in our back garden to cheer everyone up.



Will speak to you all soon, until then take care and stay healthy.

Tuesday 10 May 2011

Quick posting

A quick posting today with lots to do.  The night sky for May 2011:- http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/

http://www.formula1.com/  I really like the layout for this site.

Advanced notice - I shall be away on holiday for four weeks from next Tuesday.  It is unlikely there will be any postings during that time, unless I can get to an internet cafe somewhere :)

Am still having problems with my Dell Dimension desktop PC.  I had Windows XP loaded and booting fine at ten to twelve on Saturday evening.  Then I managed to set up a network using a BT Home Hub - quite chuffed really, then the automatic updates started and we crashed trying to install service pack 2 which is needed to upgrade to Vista.  Now as I type the machine is format the hard drive again, as it went trhouh that many restarts I figured it best to start again and I hadn't put anything apart from a word processor (The excellent Open Office) on it.  So we wait with fingers crossed.

Tomorrow I'll put some photo's of our blosom tree that until recent winds was doing quite nicely.

Have a great Tuesday.

Thursday 5 May 2011

Trouble with PC

For those of you who stop by this blog on a regular basis, thank you.  Thanks also to those who are following this blog.  I have been having some PC problems of late.  Namely my Dell Dimension desktop hard drive refuses to boot internally.  I suspect it's been on the way out for sometime.  Fortunately, having built a PC for my father I am able to blog and do other computer stuff using that one.

The main problem has been getting hold of a replacement hard drive for the Dell.  Easy, you may think, but no, nothing in life is easy!  Having removed the Dell's covers to get at and remove the existing hard drive I then go on eBay and find a reasonably priced replacement 250 GB drive - great, the seller assures me that it will fit inside the Dell.  Hooray, much excitement and anticipation awaiting it's arrival.  As per usual I'm left feeling flat as the Dell's hard drive requires SATA connections and the replacement drive is IDE - not a good start as I was planning to have two drives with two different operating systems on.  One that I could just use for internet purposes only.

After searching Google I found the Dimensions operating manual and also found that additional cables from Dell would cost GBP15.00.  Doing a web search I found a natty little device which converts SATA and IDE to USB.  Brilliant!  However, there is a catch, you cannot boot from a USB drive (or at least I do not know how to).  But thankfully the data on the existing Dell drive is safe, which is one good thing.

To cut a long story short, I found yet again on eBay a SATA drive for just under twenty pounds including shipping, which I'm waiting for at the moment.  Delayed due to the holiday weekend.

As for the IDE drive, well that's now in another desktop and running okay.  Words of wisdom - never think upgrading a PC is going to be an easy task!

Upgrading and Repairing PCs (19th Edition)Upgrading and Repairing PCs (19th Edition)

Unfortunately my Second Life project has been put on the back burner, hopefully all will be sorted next week, as we have not had any post at all for two days.

The Hoff in Blackpool

I couldn't write a blog that deals with television and movies without mentioning that BGT  Judge David Hasselhoff was in Blackpool yesterday 4th May (Wednesday) http://www.blackpoolpleasurebeach.com/blog/view_blog.php?id=170  The Baywatch and Night Rider star was in town to launch Nickelodeon Land at the Pleasure Beach.

Wednesday 4 May 2011

Crystal Skulls

One of the most interesting books I read was The Mystery Of The Crystal Skulls (Chris Morton and Ceri Louise Thomas).  I stumbled upon the subject through researching Atlantis over a number of years.




It's a fascinating subject, I never got round to seeing the one in the British Museum, but I still enjoy reading about them.  I was intrigued by the title of the fourth Indiana Jones Movie - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  The somewhat predictable ending was a little disappointing but good old Indiana Jones fun along the way.

More postings over the weekend, I tell you about my computer woes soon.............................



Tuesday 3 May 2011

Well done John Higgins

A great snooker final yesterday http://www.worldsnooker.com/page/Home/0,,13165,00.html John Higgins beat Judd Trump 18 - 15 in an exciting match.

Good way to finish off a holiday weekend.......................

It's good to be back.

It's nice to be back after the holiday weekend, where someone got married!  I avoided the Royal Wedding as much as possible although it was on in the house.  At least it went smoothly and was well organised with nothing apart from a hangover on the Saturday morning to complain about.  Whilst there were some arrests, from the little I saw of it - it made you feel proud to be British.

Yesterday, I managed to catch up with some television programmes that I had recorded on Sky Plus.  One of which was a UFO Files documentary which had been on History Channel.  It was about the Rendlesham Forest UFO incident.




http://www.nickpope.net/rendlesham-forest-ufo-incident.htm

For those readers still interested just Google search Rendlesham Forest UFO incident and you'll get many pages of info.


Open Skies, Closed MindsOpen Skies, Closed Minds