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Run Melbourne 2009

Run Melbourne 2009 , originally uploaded by davstar8.

10KM time: 50.10m

Love this

(via http://yimmyayo.tumblr.com/post/133860366)

A familiar face visits

Google Maps movie locations

On Total Film, They have compiled a list of cool movie locations from Street View in Google Maps. I've visiting some for myself below can you guess which film these 3 buildings are from...


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McLean I want my detonators. This is Nakotomi Plaza in L.A and was used for one of my favourite films - Die Hard. In reality it’s the just plain Fox Plaza, home of Fox Studios who made the film.


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This is the headquarters of OCP from the film Robocop. Its an odd looking building with the windows facing the ground and is in fact the City Hall in Dallas, Texas.


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This one is easy and another classic. Its the firehouse from Ghostbusters. In reality, its the Tribeca firehouse and is still operational.

Twoogle

Check this out Twoogle is a tool that provides the best of both worlds, this lets you search both Google and Twitter at the same time.

This is great if like me you have been looking at cameras to buy as mine unfortunately went Kaput at Belmont a couple of weeks ago.

Once on the homepage you enter your search term e.g. Canon Ixus 980IS. Twoogle will provide results in a split-screen format, with Twitter search listings on the left and Google on the right.

The Google search will return the usual best place to buy a digital camera and all the reviews etc, whilst the Twitter search will tell you what people are saying about the Canon Ixus 980IS right now, Nice!

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UPDATE

Following on from 'find out what people are saying about something' theme as mentioned in Twoogle posting. I've found there are several web services that offer this feature.

Topic Hawk is one service that I found that looks useful and provides feedback on the topic you search, live index updates are from recent Tweets, Google News articles, recent blog postings and YouTube Videos.

Another one that uses a real-time search is Scoopler.com which has a more slick look to it. This is a real-time search engine that will aggregate and organize content being shared on the internet as it happens, a bit like eye-witness reports of breaking news, photos and videos from big events. Live Topic Hawk Scoopler will index live updates from services including Twitter, Flickr, Digg, Delicious and more.

http://www.scoopler.com
http://topichawk.com/

Cotswold Bike Ride 17/05/09

Cotswold Bike Ride 09, originally uploaded by davstar8.

Today I took part in the 19th Cotswold Bike Ride in aid of British Heart Foundation. This a 40 mile ride that takes you through many Cotswolds villages including Whittington, Brockhampton, Temple Guiting, Didbrook, Winchcombe, Greton, Alstone, Dixton and Gotherington.

I last did this about 10 years ago on a mountain bike and the route hasn't changed since then. Today I was on my racer so was less painful going up hills. It is a very scenic ride but unfortunately today it rained very heavily for the first hour and then the wind picked up to make it worse. It was really nice to warm up with a cup of tea and some classic bourbon and custard cream biscuits half way around the course. Tres Bon!

Belmont Golf Weekend

Countdown to Papa Bouba

Super slow-motion surfing

I stumbled upon this video via Wired artical that Toby tweeted. The video is in HD for extra quality and is a trailer for the BBC2 series called South Pacific, the clip features surfer Dylan Longbottom in a 12-foot monster barrel wave.

Trainers

Been checking what trainers are around to buy, preferably there would be a good deal to be had online as I know my size in most makes. I stumbled accross these grey Nikes with a London theme with River Thames snaking on the side. They look fairly plain but these are ultra collectible and cost a staggering £800.00!

Taylor Made

Yesterday was a good day for golf, I played 18 holes at Brickhampton Court Golf Complex in the inaugural Jugglers Golf Society competition (organised by the Brown Jug). The format was 5 teams of 4-balls and players of all levels. Our team came third but we were probably all playing off a slightly higher handicap than we should have been so we could have been placed higher but for me insisting we play off lower handicaps. Overall though this did not stop us getting 2 x longest drives prizes and a nearest pin prize so we walked away with pride intact.

I hit one of our longest drives on the 8th hole this was helped by some new technology I have recently invested in - the new TaylorMade Burner 09 which was on deal at American Golf. Having used the same driver for over 7 years now this club upgrade was well overdue.

Golf banter from yesterday 'you hit that further than I go on holiday'. Check it out...

Twittering

Since starting to use Twitter more I've found that I get more followers, some of these are friends and some are re-follows from interesting twitterers i started to follow.

However I am now finding that I get more annoying spammers who follow me just to promote their own site or think i might be interested in their tweeted advertisements.

One of the easiest ways to spot Twitter Spammers so you can block them is by the number of posts they have on their home page or by their follower, following ratio. i.e Following 6000, Followers 3

If anything will be death of twitter it could spam. I see it changing so they integrate more advanced optional security like facebook. You can keep your tweets private but I'm not sure of the point in that as its interesting to partake in and view trending and if your twitter was private you couldn't do this.

Gonna Fly Now

Seeing a friends video of his recent skydive in NZ prompted me to upload the video of my experience back in 2003 at Mission Beach in North Queensland. It was the most amazing experience and very enjoyable. I was back at the hostel when two girls came back from their skydive, seeing and hearing their story made me think well if they can do it so can I. My tandem partner that day was a really cool guy who when I asked what could go wrong his reply were exactly the words i didn't want to hear about chutes failing etc, but we were confident it would all go OK if we did what we were shown in the training.



Unfortunately YouTube have muted the sound and music for copyright reasons so had to go with one of their tracks. So to make up for that here is the Rocky training scene & soundtrack (Gonna Fly Now) that should motivate anyone have a go at their challenge...

Yeah Buddy!

Back in the day after I had finished the Sunday paper round I used to get home, sometimes with a mate and we'd watch recorded highlights of the previous nights Hitman and Her usually taped on our top-loading VHS VCR with wire connecting remote control. The show was a late night clubbing show which toured various nightclub establishments around the country it was a really cheesey show as I think this video shows, but fun to watch at the time.

- please be aware no mullets were harmed during this live recording:



Anyway it was on this show that I first heard the classic 'Yeah Buddy by Royal House', I promptly bought the 12", one of my first and then this purchase also introduced me to Todd Terry who was responsible for lots of great records at the time. The music became more popular and was known as Hip-house. The following video playlist I've made contains a selection of Essential Hip-House from the era so Turn Up the Bass and enjoy...

Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com

(tracklisting courtesy of Fact Mag)

Fuller's Trip

Picture 077, originally uploaded by tobold4.

Had a great day on Friday, left work early and went on a tour of the Fuller's Brewery in London for a friends birthday. The hour long tour was quite interesting but the free tastings at the end made it all worth it

Tuesday Tune

Is HERE!

Saturday Bike ride

Only 20KM's today trying to ease myself back into the regime - Leckhampton - Churchdown - Brockworth - Shurdington - Cheltenham - Leckhampton

Bike ride - A417, originally uploaded by davstar8.

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Sat bike ride Gloucs., originally uploaded by davstar8.

Slap down from Barrack

Nixon St. Ives

Take the surname of US president in the year you were born + last seaside town visited = West Indian cricketer name.

New England Shirt

England unveiled their new shirt on Saturday which will take them up to next years World Cup, they'll be wearing it against Ukraine tomorrow night too.



There's only one word to describe it and that's 'white'. I think it would look a lot better with traditional blue shorts but playing in all white shouldn't be too much of an issue. The shirt also has the look of a casual polo shirt which will suit people who like to wear the england shirt down the street. I do like football shirts but have never owned an England one, I do think they could have done better with this one though and time will tell how its selling by how many you see out on the street.

My personal fave was 1982 World Cup shirt (C)

Mail Goggles

Mail you send late on Friday night or the weekends may be useful but you may regret it the next morning if you send email after a few to many drinks.

This new feature offered by Google Mail means you must solve some simple math problems before sending late night email. Otherwise if you cant solve the puzzle better get a good night's sleep and try again in the morning

This feature would certainly be useful for a certain Director at a company I used to work who was prone to send quite strongly worded emails to the LAN Support team, the emails were date stamped late at night late and contained a fair bit of blue air!

Official Gmail Blog: New in Labs: Stop sending mail you later regret

Last Night Changed It All

I've quite enjoyed the Guardian's recent lists of '1000 Songs you must hear' The songs are of Love, People & Places, Politics and a few more themes. Below are my highlights from their Best Party songs. You can hear on Spotify by clicking on title, in fact spotify playlists for all of the themes would be excellent...

1000 songs everyone must hear

Party songs: part seven of 1000 songs everyone must hear

My selection of 47 from the Guardian.co.uk list of 162

• Pacific State (808 State, 1989)
• Back in Black (AC/DC, 1980)
• Uptown Top Ranking (Althea and Donna, 1977)
• I Bet You Look Good On the Dancefloor (Arctic Monkeys, 2005)
• Bourgie Bourgie (Ashford and Simpson, 1979)
• (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party) (Beastie Boys, 1987)
• Let’s Dance (David Bowie, 1983)
• Le Freak (Chic, 1978)
• Machine Gun (Commodores, 1974)
• Da Funk (Daft Punk, 1995)
• Groove Is in the Heart (Deee-Lite, 1990)
• Cokane in My Brain (Dillinger, 1976)
• Long Train Runnin’ (Doobie Brothers, 1973)
• Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (Ian Dury and the Blockheads, 1978)
• Boogie Wonderland (Earth, Wind and Fire, 1979)
• Livin’ Thing (Electric Light Orchestra, 1976)
• One Nation Under a Groove (Funkadelic, 1978)
• Dare (Gorillaz, 2005)
• WFL (Think About the Future) (Happy Mondays, 1989)
• Back to My Roots (Richie Havens, 1981)
• Over and Over (Hot Chip, 2006)
• Jump Around (House of Pain, 1992)
• Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough (Michael Jackson, 1979)
• I Love Rock’n’Roll (Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, 1982)
• Nightclubbing (Grace Jones, 1981)
• Williams Blood (Aeroplane remix) (Grace Jones, 2008)
• Transmission (Joy Division, 1979)
• Numbers/Computer World 2 (Kraftwerk, 1981)
• LFO (LFO, 1990)
• Can’t Stand Me Now (The Libertines, 2004)
• Move On Up (Curtis Mayfield, 1970)
• White Lines (Don’t Do It) (Grandmaster Melle Mel, 1983)
• Kids (MGMT, 2008)
• Cigarettes and Alcohol (Oasis, 1994)
• Hey Ya! (OutKast, 2003)
• Jump (For My Love) (The Pointer Sisters, 1984)
• Brass in Pocket (The Pretenders, 1979)
• Loaded (Primal Scream, 1991)
• Sorted for Es and Wizz (Pulp, 1995)
• All Night Long (All Night) (Lionel Richie, 1983)
• Car Wash (Rose Royce, 1976)
• Let the Music Play (Shannon, 1983)
• Lost in Music (Sister Sledge, 1979)
• He’s the Greatest Dancer (Sister Sledge, 1979)
• Dance to the Music (Sly and the Family Stone, 1968)
• Shout (Tears for Fears, 1984)
• Last Night Changed It All (Esther Williams, 1976)

1000 songs everyone must hear

Party songs: part seven of 1000 songs everyone must hear

Chip off the old block

Enzo ZIDANE, son of France's footballing hero showing some nice moves for Real Madrid juniors...




Daniel MALDINI, son of Paolo the legend of AC Milan, shows here he can certainly tackle and thats Clarence Seedorf he robs...

Arthur and Dave in The Winchester

Mixmaster

Mixtape.me is the easiest way to share and swap playlists. It can also be hooked up to YouTube and Last FM so you can add video to your playlists aswell, though this might difficult since YouTube play "This video is not available in your country" instead of music videos. But it still quite easy to find a good mix/playlist.

Stupid Hacker

Romanian police have arrested a hacker suspected of breaking into Pentagon systems and planting malware.

A business studies student from Iasi, Romania, is suspected of breaking into US Department of Defense systems in 2006. A criminal hacker nicknamed "Wolfenstein" accessed sensitive systems at that time, using compromised servers located in Japan in a bid to cover his tracks.

One of the few leads investigators had to go on was a Yahoo email address - wolfenstein_ingrid@yahoo.com - linked to the attack. Mandru recently posted his CV on job-seeking websites giving this Yahoo address as his email contact, a blunder that reportedly put investigators on his trail. Police raided Mandru's home, seized computer equipment and took him into custody on Wednesday.

LED Welsh Sheep- Aaah

Featuring the Welsh national sheep herding champion Gerry Lewis, and a team of Welsh sheep herders to guide the flocks into position.

YouTube redundant

First Youtube go and block all the Premier League football highlights over viewing rights. Now as from last week YouTube are blocking UK users from watching music videos on the website becuase of a row between the Performing Rights Society (PRS) over the amount it pays musicians to show their videos. This has so far only affected one music video on my blog - The Killers. I think this is a real shame as its one of the best features of YouTube.

I gots to know

With YouTube Video emeding becoming more popular in the online media, i thought i would demonstrate this website I found at Toby's blog.

Embedr allows you to create custom video playlists, here is one i made earlier with some video all under 2 minutes each, enjoy punk...

Build your own custom video playlist at embedr.com

SSD Supercomputer

This uber geek with red hair has plugged 24 Solid State Drives (SSD) into his customised machine. 256GB SSD's currently cost about about $500 each so not cheap! Its proves its speed he when loads every single app on the 'puter. I remember the database on Championship Manager used to take so long to load I think running it on this system you could a finish season in no time!!

Perry Definition

For an alcoholic beverage to classsed as a Perry it has to be made from fermented pear juice only. Whereas Pear Cider is not to be confused with Perry as this is produced from a mixture of pear and apple juices.

Have tried both Perry and Pear Cider while both are nice, their tastes are very different and names and descriptions should not confused.

Some fine ales were..

01/03/2009, originally uploaded by davstar8.

...sampled this weekend.

Summer Festival - Lowlander

If I was going to go to one festival this summer I would quite like to go to this one. After a short flight to Holland its a quick train ride from Amsterdam Schipol airport to the event. Add to this a friendly welcome and Dutch beer and it all sounds really good.

A good excuse to show this, I saw this live from the comfort of home in 2004

Groovy

Nokia 5800

Now I loves me mobile phones, I don't like to think about how many I've had. The old ones have always always ended up in the grateful hands of someone in my family.

I've had the Nokia 5800 about 4 days now, this is the new 'touch screen' phone from Nokia and their first 'proper' phone using this technology. Anyway I'm just starting to get on with it after the first couple of days where i was seriously regretting getting it all.

The main problem is the touch screen, whereas using an iPhone you can really just gently tap the screen with a finger with the 5800 you really need push the button on the screen.

There are two keyboard choices for text input on the screen, a very small one in portrait mode or large qwerty keyboard in landscape. The small one is too small for use with a just finger tapping and its bit fiddly to be useful.

In addition to the keyboards there is also a stylus that tucks into the battery cover. This can be used in the traditional stylus keyboard on screen method. Also there is as a bizarre plectrum which can be attached to the phone with a hooped strap, I think the plectrum is quite a good novelty idea but i took it offer after a day. Maybe this is in anticipation of guitar hero phone version. Lastly there is also handwriting recognition on the screen by use of the stylus, I found this a bit slow and fiddly.

Overall where the iPhone succeeds with their touchscreen and one excellent method of text entry, the 5800 has 5 average methods for text entry. So there is plenty of choice but 2/3 are pretty useless. I am favouring the large qwerty keyboard and the stylus - and i didn't want to use a stylus with a phone!! I think these bad points are also testament to how good and easy to use the iPhone touch screen is.

Its not all bad there are good points to be found such as the new Symbian OS isn't too bad, messaging and email feature (POP3/IMAP), WI-FI, bluetooth, 3.2MP Camera, Web with integrated Flickr upload, 8GB Storage, 3mm headphone jack and a nice bright colourful screen. So for now until Apple start releasing the iPhone un-locked, I will give 5800 a chance and just see how it goes...

Gallery

To the centre of the city....

I love this song! The Killers have recently covered it, i think both versions are good but The Killers cant really do dark...here are both for you to decide...

Shadowplay - Joy Division (1979)


Shadowplay - The Killers (2007)

Falling Down

This is a really good song thats great turned up loud. Though not really sure about the video..

Guardian Chalkboards

Over at the Guardian Sport website, they have a new feature called Chalkboards. Here you can create your own football manager chalkboard that lets you analyse football player performances and track all thier contributions like shots and tackles.

In the chalkboard below I have compared Paul Scholes and Ji Sung Park (3 Lung Park) in two different games with the amount of passes they make. I think this highlights their positional play, with Park playing slightly more up front, and how involved they and accurate they are with their passes.

Now if you'll excuse me I have some important calls to make regards a few deals i'm closing in on.

More chalkboards to come
by Guardian Chalkboards

Snow this morning

Those pavements and roads look very slippy, should i really go to work hmmm...



...the walk to work

Australia 01/2009

Stinking Goat Corner, near Yarrawonga


Hot day that became hotter

Redback spider in Sharn's Mums back yard

Crossing the tracks in NE Victoria

Roof top bar in Melbourne

View from top

Swanston Street

The new bumble bee tram, air con with more room
only serving St Kilda on the 96 Route so far.

Yarra river with a beautiful native Australian bird taking a rest in the shade

Aussie tree

Unboxing Gadgets

We all know how brilliant it is to get something new and unbox it, its a bit like Xmas time and unwrapping presents. I'll admit I can get excited about new mobile phone releases and also about trying out the new versions of operating systems. This does place me along side millions of other geeks out there. However I have never felt the need to record myself opening a newly purchased piece of technology that has arrived at my door.

Maybe I should be sharing the experience with my fellow geeks out there and be photographically or video recording my Xmas day like experience of opening the new laptop and taking the cables out and showing the world whats inside the box. I can sniff the new manuals and tell the viewers how it smells so new and nice. That last bit is probably going a bit to far OK.

It can seem a slightly odd craze but I think the demand for unboxing pics/footage is because people cannot wait to get their hands on the the item they have ordered or are simply thinking about purchasing the item so they want to see what it all looks like and what comes with it. I also think its a nice way to check if your order is the same as another persons just in case you think there could be something missing from your delivery...

Leeds City Markets

Leeds City Markets, originally uploaded by Roger.The.Dodger.

I used to shop here in Leeds, you could buy nearly everything at the markets you could get at a supermarket. Its just accross the road from the upmarket Victoria Quarter. I hope they continue to be markets and this great building doesn't become apartments

Winter Cycle

A cold cycle ride around the Cleeve Hill circuit today.

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35KM

Cruyff: A Legend

I love the Thunderbird music in this video showing Cruyff scoring a flying volley of a goal. I think thats a young Jordi Cruyff in the Ajax kit at the start.

Sport Nutrition

I got this book at Xmas and I can recommend it from what I have read so far. There are 15 chapters covering things like day to day eating, training and improving all round athletic performance. I've found it good as it is very accessible to read and not strictly intended for highly tuned athletes.

Top Deck A380

Have booked a flight to Melbourne flying out on Singapore Airlines on one of the new double decker A380 Super Jumbo bad boys. Managed to acquire a good seat on the top deck at the back for the way out. The flight experience is supposed to be very quiet with very little engine noise. From the look of the size of it i just hope it can take off!