Fri 29 Jan 2010
Testing posts from the BlackBerry
Testing
Wed 15 Jul 2009
Wel, helo i pawb unwaith eto. Wedi bod yn amser weddol prysur i mi, ond nid efo gwaith. Wedi ‘n ysbrydoli gan fformat @jenlong yn cofnod diweddaraf o’i blog ar Kruger Labs, dw i’n cynnig hwn:
5 peth dw i wedi gwneud ers y tro diwethaf i mi flogio
Wedi cael car newydd
Do, dw i wedi cael car newydd. Mini Cooper Diesel. Newid sylweddol i’r hen Volkswagen Polo oedd gen i. Gyflymach, rhatach i rhedeg a lot fwy o hwyl i yrru.
Dw i ddim am ysgrifennu lot fawr amdano, ond mae ‘n dod efo lot o’r stwff neis mae BMW yn rhoi ar eu ceir newydd (e.e. injan Start-Stop, sy ‘n diffodd yr injan os bod y car mewn niwtral).
Gweld yr Oysterband yn fyw
Bues lawr i Garedydd i weld yr Oysterband yn fyw yn Neuadd Dewi Sant gyda Telsa ag Alan. Sioe gwych, gyda June Tabor a One String Loose yn cefnogi. Perfformiadau gwych gan pawb, gan gynnwys fersiwn o All along the Watchtower, Love will tear us appart a cryn dipyn o traciau oddi ar y cryno ddisg newydd.
Gweld Caerdydd
Tra bo fi lawr ochrau ‘na, fe gefais gyfle i fynd lawr i Bae Caerdydd i edrych o gwmpas. Fydd rhaid i mi cyfaddef nawr fy mod i ond ‘di bod lawr i Caerdydd unwaith cyn y penwythnos diwethaf, a dwi ‘n difaru peidio dod yng hynt ar ôl cael gweld y lle.
Fe gefais gyfle i cael edrych o gwmpas adeilad y Senedd, sy ‘n rhywbeth dw i wedi bod yn meddwl gwneud ers peth amser:
Adeilad hyfryd dros ben, agored, golau, a reit tawel (ond dw i’n amau fod hin brysur iawn pan fod y Cynulliad yn eistedd). Thy allan, ym Mhlas Roald Dahl, gawsom cyfle i edrych trwy ‘r ffair bwyd a mwynhau bwyta bwyd da a haul cyn mynd draw i weld arddangosfa Doctor Who mewn adeilad cyfagos.
Trefnu trip lawr i’r Eisteddfod
Yn ystod hyn i gyd, mi fues i digon ffodus i cael cynnig llety ar gyfer Eisteddfod Cenedlaethol Meirion a’r Cyffiniau, draw ym Mala (Diolch Menna!). Dwi ‘n edrych ‘mlaen ar gyfer Gorsedd y Gîcs, sef cyfarfod pobl rhaglennwyr, blogwyr, ffans gwefannau cymdeithasol, dylunwyr gwe neu nerds teclynnau (yn cael ei drefnu gan criw Metastwnsh).
Pigo lan CDs newydd
Ie, oce… twyllo rhywfaint, ond feh. Dwi wedi bod gwrando mwy yn diweddar ar sioeau radio pobl fel @adamwalton, @huwstephens a @BethanElfyn. A trwy nhw, dwi wedi bod yn cymeryd mwy o amser i ail-wrando trwy’n hen CDs ac arbrofi gyda rhai newydd. Ers Glastonbury, dwi wedi bod yn ail-wrando ar Blur (a hefyd Oasis) ac yn cael atgofion o trip Ysgol lan i Blackpool ar gyfer sioe gerdd. Cefnogwyr Blur ar un ochor, Oasis ar y llall, pob ochr yn ymladd i ceisio cael rhoi tap nhw ‘mlaen.
Hefyd o diddordeb yw podlediad y Vinyl Vendettas (sef casgliad o DJs sy ‘n chwarae pob nos Sadwrn yng Nghlwb Ifor Bach yng Nhaerdydd).
Diolch o galon i Telsa ag Alan am rhoi fi lan am y penwythnos hir.
Dyna ni rili. Tan tro nesaf.
B
Well, hello everyone once again. It’s been a busy few weeks, but not with work for a change. Inspired by format of @jenlong’s latest entry on her log on Kruger Labs, I offer you this:
5 things I’ve done since my last blogpost
Got a new car
Yes, I’ve got myself a new car. A Mini Cooper Diesel. A substantial change on my old Volkswagen Polo. Quicker, cheaper to run and a lot more fun to drive.
I’m not going to write a great deal about it, except to say that in contains a lot of funky stuff BMW pack into their cars these days (e.g. Start-Stop engine, which switches off the engine if the car is in neutral).
Saw the Oysterband live.
I went down to Cardiff to see The Oysterband live at Saint David’s Hall with Telsa and Alan. Fantastic show, with June Tabor and One String Loose supporting. Fantastic performances by everyone, with included a cover of All along the Watchtower, Love will tear us apart and a fair few tracks from the new album.
Seen Cardiff Bay
Whilst I was down in that neck of the woods, I had the chance to go down and see Cardiff Bay and have a look around. I should confess at this stage that before this last weekend, I’d only been down to Cardiff once before. I regret not going down to see the place sooner.
I also took the opportunity to have a look around the National Assembly building, something I’ve been meaning to do for a while:
A wonderful building, open, clean, light and really quiet (I rather suspect it gets a lot noisier and busier when the Senedd is in session). Outside, in Roald Dahl Plass, we got a chance to look around the food fair and enjoy eating some damned good food and the sunshine. Before heading over to see the Doctor Who exhibition.
Arranged a trip down to the Eisteddfod
During all this activity, I was quite fortunate to be offered a place to stay for the National Eisteddfod in Meirionydd, this year in Bala (Diolch Menna!). I’m looking forward a great deal for the Gorsedd y Gîcs, a meeting for Welsh programmers, bloggers, social networking users, web designers and gadget geeks (all organised by the crew of Metastwnsh).
Picked up some new CDs
Yeah, I know… cheating slightly, but feh. I’ve been listening quite a bit to the radio shows of @adamwalton, @huwstephens and @BethanElfyn. Through them, I’ve been taking some time to revist old CDs and experiment with a few new ones. Also, since Glastonbury, I’ve been re-listening to a lot of Blur (and Oasis) nad it’s been bringing back memories of school trips up to Blackpool to see a production of something-or-other. Blur fans on one side, Oasis on the other, each fighting to gain control of the tape machine to get theirs played.
Also of interest was the Vinyl Vendettas podcast (a collection DJs who play every Saturday in Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff).
Thanks a great lot to Telsa and Alan for putting me up for the long weekend.
That’s it really, until next time.
B
Tue 23 Jun 2009
It’s been a while since I’ve wasted all of your time with the trivialities of what’s going on in my life.
It’s the same old excuses I have, but the truth is that it’s lazyness combined with a complete lack of any idea about what to write that’s kept me from logging into the blog. Oh sure, I’ve been to nearly every corner of the country (Except for Cornwall… not that I’m complaining about that). The truth is, I find it a lot easier to send a message to Twitter than sit down and write something substantial.
In anycase, I’ll endevour not to ignore this little website. If anything, It’ll give me a chance to restart writing in Welsh. (As a note, I truly do appologise for any spelling or grammar errors… it’s been nearly 8 years since I’ve written properly in Welsh).
Bye for now!
Thu 2 Apr 2009
Today saw the launch of the Women’s Aid Cut Movie video campaign on the World-wide-web and Television. Featuring Keira Knightley, it seeks to raise awareness of domestic violence.
Having worked previously with the Amnesty International:UK Stop Violence Against Women campaign, I’ve seen the rather shocking statistics surrounding domestic violence in the UK (Women’s Aid have compiled some here) and heard first hand the accounts of its victims.
The film is quite shocking, and it certainly does ram the message home. In the classic newsman voice, some of you may find this quite distressing: Cut Movie – The Video in Full.
B
Sun 29 Mar 2009
I figured it was high time to get back into the habit of writing regular blog-posts. I wish I could proffer any form of reason or excuse as to why I’ve not been doing so, half the battle for me seems to be finding something worth writing about.
Recently, I was invited to join the team putting together the Freenode Podcast – Free as in Node as one of the guest presenters. It’s been an interesting departure for me, as I usually prefer working behind the scenes. Those who know me won’t be surprised to find me reciting a bad joke at the end of the two episodes we’ve recorded so far.
During an idle afternoon on the web, I began clicking through the Twitter pages of people I follow for anything particularly interesting. One of the things that grabbed my attention was the Welsh music tweeters. I’ll confess at this stage that I’ve been horribly out of touch with the whole thing since I left Bethel for Aberystwyth. I’d had passing contact through various friends whilst at Aberystwyth (as well as the rather fabulous Castell Rock festival). I resolved to try and catch a few more live music events.
With that in mind, I ventured out last night to see The Mams play live at The Telfords Warehouse in Chester. The band, a 4 piece music combo from Llanelli in South Wales, had quite a decent mix of tracks on their MySpace page, which meant I felt slightly less of a prat going there on my own.
The set seemed to start a little quieter than I’d expected, which I think explains the rather muted response from the crowd. It did however build up quite quickly, getting on to tracks such “Respect your Elders”, “I’m not a work in progress” and “Never say never but no”. The tunes seemed to get a bit more anthemic, which drew in a few more people onto the dancefloor. The encore “No Fun Anymore” was a fine finish to a very good set. Definitely one to see live if you get the chance, had quite bit of an 80s feel, quite lively and certainly a lot of fun to watch.
The Mams – Telfords Warehouse 28th March 2009 – Set List:
- Better Opening
- I was fine until I met myself
- A Bridge (in Betws y Coed)
- You’re no fun anymore
- I’m not a work in progress
- Never say never but no
- Respect your Elders
- Neighbourhood Watch
Encore:
- No Fun Anymore
Adam Walton (BBC Wales) wrote a rather more comprehensive review on his personal blog – Wham Bammed by The Mams.
Bryn
Tue 11 Nov 2008
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them
Laurence Binyon (1869-1943), For The Fallen (1914)
Fri 19 Sep 2008
I decided to get a photo of the view from my room during my recent stay in Prague. It’s been stiched together using the Hugin panorama tool. If you look, you can see the same van twice on the road on the right hand side of the picture.
Fri 29 Aug 2008
I was slightly puzzled yesterday when I spotted the above message from PC Suite. You might wonder why, as it’s just saying that Ratbert (my phone) has connected via bluetooth. The problem is, Ratbert was in pieces infront of me (battery out, SIM out).
I did a scan for bluetooth devices using my Blackberry, then using my Nokia and found only one device had active bluetooth (my coworker’s phone), and that was named something completely different.
Given PC Suite was using Windows’ bluetooth stack, I worked on the premise that the fault lay at the door of Windows, so I gave it a little poke.
A search for active devices revealed:
You may ask “what’s wrong with that scan?”. Well…
- The Blackberry had its bluetooth disabled at the time of the scan.
- Wally (my old phone) is off, in a drawer, 25 miles away.
Clever that…
It gets weirder, I removed Wally from list of trusted devices and scanned again:
It seems to have picked it up again and implies it can be paired with.
Anyone else experienced simmilar oddities when dealing with Bluetooth?
B
Mon 11 Aug 2008
I had the misfortune of catching the first two episodes of [Spooks] Code 9. I thought “well, Spooks was amusing enough, maybe this’ll be alright”.
It starts out with a decent enough premise, Terrorists detonate a nuclear bomb at the start of the Olympic Games in London (killing hundreds of thousands of people). The south coast of England is reduced to a desolate waste ground. The Government is relocated to the North of England along with the population (some now dying of radiation poisoning).
Sounds like a decent setup doesn’t it?
Well, it goes downhill shortly after it becomes a cross between Hollyoaks, Spooks and Skins.
The first episode centres on a plot to kill the Prime Minister. Throughout the show, the Scooby gang go around shaking down their sources, shooting arms dealers in the foot and tracking down the world’s most dangerous hitman through his favourite food order. The most dangerous hitman eventually turns out to be a 15yo hoodie armed with an AK-47 sniper rifle (yes, I know, the AK-47 isn’t a sniper rifle, I’m just telling you stuff from the show).
It eventually turns out that the Prime Minister wasn’t the target after all, the head of this new MI5 unit was! Shock! You didn’t see that coming did you?!
It’s unclear why they felt the need to do this (possibly some ham-fisted attempt to do replicate the effect of killing Lisa Faulkner in the second episode of the grown up version) beyond setting up the series story arc of some big conspiracy.
To be fair, the warning signs were there at the start. One of the main characters says during a selection interview that the reason she wants to be in MI5 is because the terrorists are getting younger. It gave me the rather silly image of two parents discussing pre-school:
“oh Darling, shall we send little Timmy to Osama in Diapers Nursery or the Security Crèche?”
I did also wonder how in this dystopian future, the defenders of freedom looked like they’d just finished a fashion shoot. Defeating terrorists whilst waiting for next season’s clothes to be made.
Watching the characters, none of them seem to be able to deliver any of their lines with any conviction. Paris Hilton could act as a quantum physicist with greater aplomb. The only convincing piece of acting I saw was when the maths geek was put in charge and froze in fear after being confronted by an emergency. I imagined a little voice in his head saying “OMG… they’re wanting me to act! What do I do?!”
My prediction is that by the end of the series, it’ll turn out that there’s a shadowy conspiracy which knew about the nuclear bomb and did nothing so they could subjugate the masses and make money (or something as equally cliché).
All in all, it served to be a pretty rubbish waste of potentially good airtime and concept. It left me wondering “Has BBC 3 actually delivered anything worth watching?”. I couldn’t think of any original programming it’d done which was any good.
*storms off*
B
