Syngle Mouse, Syngle Keyboard

At work I've been given a new Dell Precision M60 for my development work to replace the Dimension 2400 that I've been using up until now. For the time being I've got both on my desk so that I can transfer all my files and settings over and at first it was a bit of a pain to keep changing between my desktop's keyboard and mouse to the laptop's keyboard and touchpad.

Then I remembered the there was a program available that Scoot showed me a while ago that could solve my problems: Synergy. I got it installed with a minumum of fuss and was soon moving the pointer from the left edge of the monitor onto the right edge of the laptop screen, typing away, and even copying and pasting between machines. Seemlessly. Well worth a look if you're using more than one computer side by side. Currently it works for Windows and Unix/Linux, but it looks like a MacOS port might be on the way.

Sort-of related: MaxiVista lets you use other machines as secondary monitors. The video demo (wmv) looks very slick.

...One Year Later

Last Thursday evening I was up in Camden at the Caernarvon Castle pub to see Blackbud. They Rocked. I first saw them play at a birthday party last year, and since then they have come a long, long way. Keep an eye out for them!

False Sense of Security

For the last three days I've been commuting up to Reading to attend a Security Summit, a free event organised by Microsoft. Although I'm certainly not accustomed to setting my alarm for 06:30 every morning, I found it easier than I thought it would be to get up at that time.

The first two days were aimed at IT Professionals whereas the last day was aimed at Developers, which is certainly the category that I fit into of the two. Despite this, I think that I learned a lot from the first two days because I new so little about Windows network admin to start with, whereas the developer day was, in essence, affirming what common programming sense says already.

Thomas Lee was the main speaker on the first day. He talked very well about the topics he covered and kept the attention of the audience by keeping things varied and interspersing anecdotes and real life examples at appropriate times.

The second day was run by Fred Baumhardt who was also an excellent speaker. The topics he covered were more technically focussed and so I think I got more benefit out of this day. A lot of the security pinciples he talked about were backed by ad-libbed demonstrations done in front of us on his laptop, which certainly made the presentation more interesting and educational.

Andy Thomson took the final day, and regardless of the change of focus from admin to a developer's perspective the biggest change was the speaker himself: a relatively quiet guy with a faint Scottish accent was quite a contrast from the fairly loud American and Canadian accents from the previous two days. As I mentioned earlier, a lot of the topics covered were really just a case of stating the obvious, although admittedly this wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Overall, the event was well worth attending. Other than the travel cost, it was free, the content was interesting, and the catering (tea, coffee, buffet lunch) was excellent. No such thing as a free lunch, huh? Find out for yourself...

Canterbury Tale

Last Saturday I went to visit an ex-uni friend in Canterbury. The train journey at first seemed to be a bit of a trek: 2hr 45mins with 2 changes, but it actually went very quickly.

So, after meeting the family and checking out the house I'd be staying in that night, we headed out for a beergarden to make the most of the sunshine. And so, at the Bishop's Finger, I had my first pint of Oranjeboom. Great stuff.

For food, we headed over to Pinocchio's and all decided on pizza of some kind. The food was excellent and very reasonably priced, although the Quattro Stagioni didn't have the "traditional" ingredients that are usually served in other Italian restaurants.

That night we went to a houseparty, with the usual: music, beer, playing the trust game (falling backwards to be caught by a complete stranger) while drunk.

The next day I felt like utter crap. However, a full English breakfast and a trip to Whitstable Beach soon sorted me out. I was quite happy to lie in the sun and do very little other than eat Pom-Bear crisps. Meanwhile, Will showed off his skills controlling a Sky Tiger kite in very close proximity to several families with small children. The parents seemed a bit wary about this for some reason.

The journey back was fairly uneventful, and a combination of the previous night's antics with the fresh seaside air meant I slept like a log soon after getting back home.

A Stomping Night Out

First, a delicious 2 course meal at the Rock Garden.

Then, a quick walk to over to see STOMP.

Finally, a few cheeky pints of Sleeman (yes, there is an 'l' in there) at The Maple Leaf round the corner.

Stomp was great fun to go and see. I'd strongly advise you to go along if you've ever thought of going, and strongly advise you to think of going if you haven't. I don't think it's worth trying to describe it or write some kind of review, because it really just has to be seen and heard.

The only downside was that, sat in the Upper Circle, I missed "one 5 minute Scene" as stated on the ticket. I could still hear everything that was going on, only there was nothing to see other than a few feet moving around as the action had moved to the back of the stage due to a big wall being in the way. It was only 5 of 100 mins so it was hardly a big problem. Perhaps if you sneak down to the front of the upper circle, just after the "chair" scene you'll get to see a bit more.

Hand-picked b3ta pics

not Donnie Darko (which is a rubbish film)

and

How Tube posters are made

both by this guy.

'Twas brillig... or was it?

"These are from the fourth Awardsmaster's Challenge in April 2001. The challenge was to anagram the first stanza of Jabberwocky into a "translation" of Carroll's nonsense original, keeping to the original metre and rhyme as much as possible."

The winner's entry is excellent. If smut is more your style, scroll down to the other offerings.

(link found at bluejoh. ta.)

On a par with a night of heavy drinking

Carrying on the new trend of Wednesday nights at the local Odeon, thanks to the current Orange promotion, tonight I saw Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Previously I'd only seen the trailer and hadn't read any reviews, and after hearing that the screenplay was by Charlie Kaufman who also wrote Adaptation which I saw last year, I was curous to find out exactly what it was all about.

I really enjoyed it. It certainly is a "different" film to the norm, akin to its predecessors, and for me it had a clever plot that kept things interesting and sometimes confusing, but never over-complicated. As cool as I thought Resident Evil was a few nights ago, films like "Eternal Sunshine" always make a refreshing change.

Everyone I went with seemed to enjoy the film, although the usual post-mortem was replaced by a discussion of the excellent cover of Everybody's gotta learn sometime by Beck. Very chilled.

If you've yet to see the film, I'd sugget you go and watch it without reading too much about it first. Mind you, I say that about any film; ideally I like to go to the cinema knowing only the title of the film I'm there to see. You never get that fresh view of it ever again, so make the most of it.

After you've seen it, check out the Lacuna Inc. website. The techie-minded amongst you might want to have a peek at this article from Kuro5hin.

Weekend o' Wonder

How was your bank holiday weekend? Mine was fun. On Friday I was out for a work leaving do, at the end of which I managed to end up eating a curry in the same place as the night before!

On Saturday I was over in North Clapham at The Falcon for a friend's birthday. It was a bit of a trek to get there (train to Clapham Junction [30 mins], then a number 345 bus from opposite another "The Falcon" [15 mins]) but worth it just to go somewhere different, even if we did only stay for 2 hours. The atmosphere was pretty good, although it was very noisy (people drowning out the music) inside; there were tables out the front and back which would no doubt have been quieter. Despite a hefty cost for a Sol and a Malibu & Coke (okay, I admit I'm still not used to London prices) I thought that the food (Thai menu) was reasonably priced, was served quickly, and tasted delicious. I think I'd like to go back again in better weather and sit out in the beer garden next time. And take my own beer.

On Sunday I headed up to London with Lisa and her housemates to London Zoo, a trip we'd been talking about doing for a while and recently decided to actually get off our asses and do. Taking advantage of a 2 for 1 offer it was only £6.50 each, on top of £8.05 for a Day Travelcard from Guildford with a Young Person's Railcard. We got the tube to Camden Town (passing the legendary Mornington Crescent), then jumped the first bus from the signposted stop. Jumping off at the first sight of a sign for the zoo, we followed the groups of people round to the main entrance and queued for about 20 mins, although it felt like hours with little shits kids directly behind around us in the queue.

Once in, we followed the recommended route which is basically a green painted line running clockwise around the zoo.

There were no mainstream fast-food brands there, and we settled for the café / restaurant instead of the chips and fried stuff option for lunch. The food was rather expensive (as expected) but was pretty good with generous portions, with a decent selection to choose from.

As a whole it was good fun, and despite the stereotypical absence of animals / activity in some parts, there was still plenty to keep us interested. My comedy moment was in "Moonlight World" (for nocturnal animals), looking for the armadillo where it was supposed to be. The glass-fronted room was empty, and so there were, understandably, very few people looking as most took a quick peek, saw nothing, then moved on. A crowd did begin to form when a zoo worker appeared through a door to bring food, and proceeded to search around for the hidden armadillo. "Hidden" slowly changed to "missing" as the guy gradually exhausted the number of places left to search. By the time he was digging into the mound of sand in the front corner there were many bemused people watching and the giggles and muttered comments increased. Zoo man punctuated his fruitless search with a hands-on-hips cursory glance around the enclosure, before disapearing back through the door from whence he came, uneaten food in hand. Ha-ha.

On the way home I passed some time playing the rather odd iForest via my mobile. I'm not entirely convinced I'm going to give up on Battlefield 1942 as my online multiplayer game of choice just yet.