Another day in the Internship

So, I have been working at an internship for two weeks now at a local company that has sites distributed throughout Scotland. At the minute the work is not hard. In fact, the toughest part about it is trying to find some of the sites as they are literally houses with rooms converted into offices, and sometimes there are patients living in them that I must contend with.

Well, having gotten most of the city sites out of the way - I must say, I am rather enjoying the more remote sites. Today I took a drive along the country roads out to Aylith, via Meigle and past Glamis through to Forfar. I ended up cutting the trip short as the Mrs needed me to come watch the kids - so Im currently sat at home working on the paperwork that comes with the position (the downside of it I guess! - lots of documentation.). I must admit though, it was very relaxing, driving about down the quiet country roads, listening to some Sonata Artica and Nightwish. Very chillaxing, if only every day at work was like this!

I have been trying to tag all the places I go to on FourSquare - but I have come to the conclusion that the Android App SUCKS... IF I manage to get a GPS signal to find out the local area, it can take several minutes for it to show - and there doesn't seem to be any way to refresh your location save hitting refresh on the places page, after using the google maps App to pinpoint my location...

More later. Work to do.
-V

Stoo's Reviews. Star Wars: Episode 5 - The Empire Strikes Back.

Noooooooooo....

The Empire Strikes back.

Yep, watching the next movie today so I thought I would take more notes.

Off the bat: Luke looks OLD - but then this installment is a few years later and he had a Car Crash. I think the new look makes him look much more rugged and tougher - a good move from the last movie.

A much bigger budget is also apparent. Its like going from Old Star Trek to Star Trek 2009 - big flashy things and quality jump.

Haha, Han Solo is a douch... but a caring one about his friends i guess :p even knowingly sacrifices a "Tang tang??" to go find him. Aww.

Interesting... Luke suspended (somehow) in that... things cave. (lets call it a Yeti...) - and his face is all smashed in... Why do I get the impression that was a cover up for the scarring? Also... why didn't he just stay in the cave? Yeti burgers!

Nomnom bedofinnards...

And them medical droids freak the fuck out of me... reminds me of getting your ship blown up in Xwing...

Ah, incest. The latin word for re-entry...

Vader Kill count: = 1.

Umm... how did they get those AT-AT Walkers onto the planet?? Anyway. Boom Boom booooomage!

Jebus... how do they get the resources for all their battles?! Everyone that flies into battle with Luke dies (Except Red 5, cos he is awesomesauce) I think when Obi Wan tells him the force is an energy field that is drawn from all life - he must have meant by sacrificing them - like in Black & White... hehe.

Rocks! Rocks! Rocks! Hahaha, silly little tie fighters.

Trees! Trees! Trees! Dinosaur! AArrgh! hehehe

Oh no... I just remembered Yoda is about to appear... Senile Yoda is just irritating...

MMm. Found someone you have!

Ah, Emoerir Palpatine. Stopped using the Oil of Olay I see! you should go see them fellas from Star Trek: Insurrection.

Ooh, a Wookie Crossbow! Aint seen one of them outside Star Wars Galaxies :o

Yoda bigging it up for the geek crew there - crude matter, matter not *wiggles lukes muscle*.

Vader kill count: 2 - does he ever kill his enemies outside of flying a Tie-Advanced?!

Huh, torture works...

Cowardly imperial commander is cowardly... using Leia as a human shield... how apparently bin ladenesque...

FYI: The child lost interest long ago. Not enough explosions :p although Chewy is being called "Puppy! puppy! puppy!

Join Vader and bring order to the Galaxy? That doesn't sound so bad daddy!

Dont fancy those friction burns from the tube-slide... Oh no siree bob!

Back to the medi-droids! and teehee at the Oh Noes stare from the admiral as the Falcon hyperspaced out.

I wanna know... where the hell are they at the end? Outside the Galaxy? Is that possible? StarGate says bad idea....

Anyway, fun film - again, been like a decade since I seen it last!

-V

Stoo's Reviews. Star Wars: Episode 4 - A New Hope.

So a mate gave me the box set for Episodes 4-6 the other day, and I finally got around to sitting down with my son to watch... and I cant help but document my thoughts as we watch. The last time I seen these was at the cinema when the remastered versions were shown. I have been enjoying it so far, but a few things have popped up... And it is all Family Guys fault...

Heres a running commentary of my thoughts as I watch, and my son stuffs his face with grapes watching the explosions...

"But I was gonna go to Toshley station to get Power Convertors" - Waah waah waah, say hello to the main protoganist folks...

So many dead Jawas...
#Winning! - they do remind me of the Dinkdink disneyland folks from Spaceballs - I guess they modelled them well in Spaceballs :p

"Dont worry he knows a few manouvers"... *continue flying straight*

Random fact: Harrison Ford was working as a cleaner when Lucas stumbled upon him and auditioned him for the role of Solo.

I remember playing a demo of the star wars FPS game made in the late 90s - those floor scuttering things... BOOM! Batteries!

And how come Han and Luke are such expert marksmen - yet elite trained troopers cant shoot for shit ^.^ - the issue with all action movies i guess hehe.

"Im here with your R2 unit and Ben Konobie"
"Ben Konobie?! Where is he!"

- huh? she doesnt know a Ben Konobie... does she?

Trash chute by an endless corridor! (save after 6 foot its clearly a printed board :D) - and you gotta love how Luke can be yoinked under the trash when to everyone else the ground is solid, even where he was.

Thinking about it - the start of the film seemed to follow on quite well from Episode 3, or at least what I remember of it... I dont know if I have the willpower to watch the first 3, although the choreography is great!

visited IMDB, wow - 35 year old movie almost...

"cover me Porkins"... Insert fat pilot... okay...

Teehee, fun film. Has been a long time since I last watched, but fun times :)

Now, back to the dreaded housework!! And screamy kids.

Google maps playtime! creating custom maps with multiple map-pins.

Not to be out dated - Google have now made a tutorial on this! Enjoy.

 --------------------------------  Original Post  ------------------------

I had been wondering for a while how to get google maps to display multiple pins. I wanted to be able to put multiple addresses in, so that I could for example track holiday destinations or destinations I need to travel to and from with my new job. I thought in order to do this I was going to have to make use of the Google Maps API in order to generate a map filled with pins from a pre-assembled list of map coordinates - or addresses thrown into the Geocoder API...

But horray, its so much simpler!

If you log into your Google account when on Google maps (Come now, you know you have a google account... any self respecting geek is going to be using somewhere to hold their RSS feeds...) you have a function on the left of the screen called "my maps".

Adding a map to Google Maps.

Simple as that, you can create your own custom map. Now whenever you search a location on the map - you can click the map-pin and "save to map". When you view your "my map" which it is saved in, you can see the map pin - and edit details about it such as the location (dragging it) name or note.

I have spent WAY too much time fiddling with this...

-V

Confessions of a Geek:

Something I only just realised last night: I really wanna watch all the Star Wars movies - and get my son to watch them alongside, I think it would be a fun few days of movie going...

The catch: I have not got a single piece of star wars stuff in my house... no movies, no toys, posters, not even a picture on my computer...

Zilcho Star Warsness...

Weird huh?

I admit I am more of a star trek fan than a star wars fan, but I always liked them (well, with some exceptions in the new 3). Ah well, I think a friend is donating me his collectors edition of the original 3 on DVD since he has multiple copies... thats a good start :)

I suppose we have the option of going to the cinema to see it all when it is re-released in 3D, but I dont think Im willing to line the already padded pockets of Mr Lucas re-scrounge of the genre... even if we did go to see it, we would watch it in 2D :p


-V

Mini GeekGasm - The Axel.

So - my placement began a few days ago - and I have been doing the hardware audit for the company that is employing me, and on said job - I have come across a device called the "AXEL". It is described as a "Thin Client" - what it basically does is act like a pc server on a network. You hook a mouse, keyboard and monitor into this device thats smaller than your typical modem - and can be mounted to your monitor - and voila - you (with some fiddling with settings etc to set it all up) basically have a virtual PC thats connected to a hub PC on the network. I think these are fantastic.

When I first came across them it was in a small office where there was one main PC and three workstations around the room... They all work seperately using the main PC to host their services. I want one! In our new house we have a monitor in the kitchen that is there to be connected up to a base unit so that you have a working PC in the kitchen for entertainments or web access, recipes, etc etc - with the thin client terminal - I could have this working without having to sort a seperate base unit for it... Considering I have seen these things going on eBay for like £10-20 (up to hundreds - Im guessing the capabilities of the devices are tied to some specification within, and cheap can be nasty.) so for a very simple access terminal to get recipes etc, it looks awesome :D

-V

How wave energy could destroy the world as we know it

Also known as WTF physics :p

So - had a drunken night with family around last night, and one of the topics of conversation was generating electricity, and how renewable power sources cost more than they save - they are merely subsidised to make them affordable. Anyway, the topic turned to Wave energy and my brother in law (to be) popped up with a pen and paper and started some diagrams to explain something.

Background: The moon has an effect on the tides at present - it rotates around the earth and with it, pulls the current with it. The force of said wall of water has the effect of slowing the earths rotational speed so that 2 extra seconds are added to the each year (Or something along those lines. A tiny amount of time in the way of things, but it is an effect) - apparently - with the barriers and technology that  would harness wave energy - the effects are sped up, due to the current from this water being blocked when it tries to flow back - which would counter the slowing of the earths rotation. In essence we are leeching energy from the earths Kinetic energy of the rotation. Scary stuff. Accurate? I dont know, correct? Bugger knows... I did find an interesting Article on the effects of the Earth and Moon on tides...

But none the less - entertaining party banter!

There was also a half hour on economics and how Scotland will go down the shitter if SNP is left to roam unchecked ^.^

I <3 my family, haha :)

Also - had a few friends round, and I managed to nab a deadpool comic off of Ebay that my mate has been trying to get a hold of for years ^.^ yey!

And that is how you associate Deadpool with renewable energy sources. And bad governments that happen to just be the lesser of 3 evils :o

?!-V-!?

Freedom! Exams over.

That is the final exam over and done with. Assuming nothing went drastically wrong, I am now the proud owner of a Bsc in Applied Computing on top of my BEng in Electronics & Electrical Engineering.

Woot!

It feels good to be free, but my agenda is no less busy. I have a meeting tomorrow for my summer work placement as an IT assistant at a local housing company. I will most likely be starting on Monday. In addition to this, I am going to be starting a web-design business to work on part time over the summer and after I start back at uni after the summer. I have a few projects to get on the go, and I am quite looking forward to getting started on them!

The witcher 2 collectors edition is pre-ordered. Little treat for me and the missus!

Anyway - we finally got around to tidying/unpacking from the move in 2 weeks ago. Lots still to be done, so I am off back to it!

The Witcher 2 - Collectors edition.

So yeah, The Witcher 2 comes out next week. I must say, after an impulse purchase if a discounted copy of the collectors edition of The Witcher back in Jan 2008, The Witcher is one of the best games I have played in years.

As you can imagine: I am quite keen to get my mits on the sequel. Now, heres an interesting thing. There is a preorder only collectors edition (I.E - order the collectors edition for the release date and you get it - after that date it is unavailable.) the cost of the collectors edition is... quite a lot. £80+ in most places (At least - in all the respectable places) - a bit much... but I think we might go for it, we liked the first one that much.

The original was some of the only entertainment that my wife and I had when we moved to Somerset for work back in January 2008 when she was pregnant with our son. We would lay in bed all day and play The Witcher, so we have a soft spot for the game.

Heres the craziest part though...

People are selling copies of the collectors edition on Ebay (Ordering a number of copies and putting them on ebay to see how many they can sell.) - £120 each... and people are buying them...

Is that nuts? I dont know...

I remember when World of Warcraft first came out - there was a lot of copies on the shelves around here - and down in the south of England they sold out... I actually managed to buy up at least a dozen copies and sell them on Ebay for a tidy profit... I made some money - they got their game shipped in from another part of the country the day after buying... it seemed a fair deal to me :) - Im seriously tempted to buy a copy or two of the collectors edition as an experiment, give it a week from launch then stick them on Ebay... It is a big gamble though, and it is a lot of money... in fact its a prohibitive amount... there is a big margain for loss...

hmm...

I shall ponder on this more before I head into town and pre-order it for £72 with student discount :D

-V

Exams, Webless, Senile.

So I am onto exam 3 today: Internet programming. I still dont have internet at the new flat... And I appear to be losing my mind!

WHeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!