Ever had an update of the firmware to your car?
No nether have I yet My car was supposed to have its software updated today while it was being serviced, it did not happen as and get this the internet was down!
So due to this I will now have to loose my car yet again for a day.
I am not happy
30 March, 2010
26 March, 2010
Wine
Just how is it that grapes from different parts of the world can taste so different when they are made into wine.
23 March, 2010
Read
I have finally finished the book that I spoke about the other day, it really is an easy read. But and there is a but, the book feels like its a draft for a longer book, it felt to me as if the author had run out of time and the manuscript was just handed in as it was. The because of who the author is the editor did not do a full edit on the book and demand changes.
Which I think is a real pity as I am sure the book could have been much better.
Before I forget the book that I have just read is called The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson and Martin Dugard.
I think that the book needed more time and also to be longer, that way part 2 of the book could have been better presented and done in such a way that this reader did not get the impression that this was a peace that had already been written and just the names changed, why I get that impression I just don't know but that's what I got. The parts that are set in the present might have been better presented as author notes or something like that, but the way that they have been present really jar's with the rest of the book.
As for how James and martin have decided there was a crime just does not ring true, when James describes a murder in his other books you get told far more about how and why, but in this book he does not do that, I found it was something that I missed.
Was I entertained?
The answer is yes, but I also came away feeling a bit cheated, like I had not been served the best meal or story that I think and know that James can deliver.
Anyway that what I thought your ideas and that may be different.
Which I think is a real pity as I am sure the book could have been much better.
Before I forget the book that I have just read is called The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson and Martin Dugard.
I think that the book needed more time and also to be longer, that way part 2 of the book could have been better presented and done in such a way that this reader did not get the impression that this was a peace that had already been written and just the names changed, why I get that impression I just don't know but that's what I got. The parts that are set in the present might have been better presented as author notes or something like that, but the way that they have been present really jar's with the rest of the book.
As for how James and martin have decided there was a crime just does not ring true, when James describes a murder in his other books you get told far more about how and why, but in this book he does not do that, I found it was something that I missed.
Was I entertained?
The answer is yes, but I also came away feeling a bit cheated, like I had not been served the best meal or story that I think and know that James can deliver.
Anyway that what I thought your ideas and that may be different.
21 March, 2010
Books
I have just picked up a book by James Patterson that I thought he would never write, and I must admit that so far its been a good read, its a while since I have read one of his books and the thing that for me always takes a while to get used to is just how short the chapters are in his books. I must admit that the short chapters do not get in the way of the story it's just something that he appears to do. It certainly has not hurt his book sales from what I can make out.
Any way the name of the book that I never expected him to right is The murder of King Tut, I know it threw me as-well.
but the story is good the way that he is telling it is very different to what i expected but so far it appears to work for me, your mileage may be different.
So I shall carry on reading it just to see how he is going to pull off this subject in his style.
Am I being entertained? you bet ye.
Any way the name of the book that I never expected him to right is The murder of King Tut, I know it threw me as-well.
but the story is good the way that he is telling it is very different to what i expected but so far it appears to work for me, your mileage may be different.
So I shall carry on reading it just to see how he is going to pull off this subject in his style.
Am I being entertained? you bet ye.
20 March, 2010
Rain
Why does it always appear to rain on Saturday, especially when there was stuff you want to do, but only if the weather is dry.
Problem
I find myself if an interesting problem, and its something that has happened many times before, but the last time this particular problem occurred is so long ago that I don't remember what I did.
The problem is this I have two new books that I want to read and I just don't know which one to start first as both books are about 500 pages long. One book is a biography the other is a SF book.
The SF book is one that I even pre-ordered, the biography is a book about a very famous male film star that I have been looking for, for some time, say years.
So which one do I read both are I am sure god books.
As a principle I don't read reviews of books that I am going to read as I don't want to be influenced by what others have said.
So it's a good problem, perhaps I shall use that most complicated of choice deciders and flip a coin!
The problem is this I have two new books that I want to read and I just don't know which one to start first as both books are about 500 pages long. One book is a biography the other is a SF book.
The SF book is one that I even pre-ordered, the biography is a book about a very famous male film star that I have been looking for, for some time, say years.
So which one do I read both are I am sure god books.
As a principle I don't read reviews of books that I am going to read as I don't want to be influenced by what others have said.
So it's a good problem, perhaps I shall use that most complicated of choice deciders and flip a coin!
reading
Well I have just finished another book, I know its scary this could be my second or third book that I have read this year, I wonder if I can keep up the pace.
The book is called Corsair and its by Clive Cussler with Jack Du Brul. I think that means that Jack wrote most of it and Clive had the chance to change things that he did not like, or something like that.
Anyway to me it does not matter as for this kind of book all I want is to be entertained, which I was and that's all that I wanted and that's what I got.
I suppose it would be interesting to find out just what the real work split is, but in the end its a good story with characters that after several other books in the series you know to a large extent just how they are going to react and they do react as you expect, which is nice.
I suppose as a reader its one of the reasons why series of books always do well in that you are on familiar ground with the hardware and the main reoccurring characters its how the characters react in the different situations is the play off for the reader and I suppose for the author.
So all in all yes if you want a pager turner of a book with lots of action then this is a book that will deliver.
The book is called Corsair and its by Clive Cussler with Jack Du Brul. I think that means that Jack wrote most of it and Clive had the chance to change things that he did not like, or something like that.
Anyway to me it does not matter as for this kind of book all I want is to be entertained, which I was and that's all that I wanted and that's what I got.
I suppose it would be interesting to find out just what the real work split is, but in the end its a good story with characters that after several other books in the series you know to a large extent just how they are going to react and they do react as you expect, which is nice.
I suppose as a reader its one of the reasons why series of books always do well in that you are on familiar ground with the hardware and the main reoccurring characters its how the characters react in the different situations is the play off for the reader and I suppose for the author.
So all in all yes if you want a pager turner of a book with lots of action then this is a book that will deliver.
16 March, 2010
Updates
Work on the websites has stopped for 2 reasons.
1 I had a weeks holiday, which I needed.
2 Work and getting other stuff done has a higher priority, and as doing the websites cost me money life gets in the way.
1 I had a weeks holiday, which I needed.
2 Work and getting other stuff done has a higher priority, and as doing the websites cost me money life gets in the way.
15 March, 2010
Reading
I have just finished a book that I pre-ordered on Amazon, so I got it as a hardback book, which is some thing I don't normally do but for this author I thought I would take a chance.
I think that this may be one of those occasions were I may have had just a bit of a bad result.
On the book buying side I have no problems, the book was sent to me on time and I must admit that all the price promises that Amazon made where kept, in that there was a price change and I got to have the benefit of it. So thank you Amazon.
Now the book contents part.
I am not too sure on this one, even though I have had some time to think all about it, I still feel as if I have been let down in some way by the author.
The book is by Iain Banks and is call Transition, I will not try to explain the story as I think that, that is one of the problems, Iain has I think tried to do what a lot of other authors have done and that is to write a story from many view points and times.
I don't think to me that he gets it quite right, in that this poor reader was at times feeling left behind, even when I went back to reread the parts that did not make sense.
I don't know if its his use of language or prose, but sometimes it just did not work for me.
I was entertained that I am sure of, its just that I was expecting to have an easier time of getting entertained.
I shall now that I have read the book go and have a look at what others have said about this book, to see if it just me or if there is a perceived problem with it.
I think that this may be one of those occasions were I may have had just a bit of a bad result.
On the book buying side I have no problems, the book was sent to me on time and I must admit that all the price promises that Amazon made where kept, in that there was a price change and I got to have the benefit of it. So thank you Amazon.
Now the book contents part.
I am not too sure on this one, even though I have had some time to think all about it, I still feel as if I have been let down in some way by the author.
The book is by Iain Banks and is call Transition, I will not try to explain the story as I think that, that is one of the problems, Iain has I think tried to do what a lot of other authors have done and that is to write a story from many view points and times.
I don't think to me that he gets it quite right, in that this poor reader was at times feeling left behind, even when I went back to reread the parts that did not make sense.
I don't know if its his use of language or prose, but sometimes it just did not work for me.
I was entertained that I am sure of, its just that I was expecting to have an easier time of getting entertained.
I shall now that I have read the book go and have a look at what others have said about this book, to see if it just me or if there is a perceived problem with it.
Nothing to say
Its funny how at one stage I had lots that I wanted to say then all of a sudden nothing zip, why?
I don't know why it happens like that but it does and from some reading that I have done I am not the only one that it happens to.
I was given a bit of advice a while a go about writing blogs, and the advice was that if you have nothing to say then don't try and force it as what you will write will come out as something that will not read well and it will probably not really be the real you speaking.
So I have followed my own advice over the last few weeks.
Which is good.
I don't know why it happens like that but it does and from some reading that I have done I am not the only one that it happens to.
I was given a bit of advice a while a go about writing blogs, and the advice was that if you have nothing to say then don't try and force it as what you will write will come out as something that will not read well and it will probably not really be the real you speaking.
So I have followed my own advice over the last few weeks.
Which is good.
02 March, 2010
ipad
i have been looking at what apple have done in the past with the release of new products and it dos not look good.
What I mean is that when the ipod came out e.g gen 1 it had some shortcomings and the software had stuff missing, which in hindsight should have been there from the very start, even the Gen 2 and 3 devices had stuff missing, but by gen 4 its good.
Now I own and ipod touch, and I use it very heavily every day, I keep running out of storage on it, is a 32GB device, I keep finding that I run out of app space even when I have lots of storage space for the programmes, I have seen and used a gen 1 touch and its not very good and is underpowered and stuff that would drive me nuts.
So with all that it stands to reason that Apple will do it again with the ipad, so I am going to wait for the gen 2 ipad which I am told will be out at Xmas 2010, so not long to wait.
What I mean is that when the ipod came out e.g gen 1 it had some shortcomings and the software had stuff missing, which in hindsight should have been there from the very start, even the Gen 2 and 3 devices had stuff missing, but by gen 4 its good.
Now I own and ipod touch, and I use it very heavily every day, I keep running out of storage on it, is a 32GB device, I keep finding that I run out of app space even when I have lots of storage space for the programmes, I have seen and used a gen 1 touch and its not very good and is underpowered and stuff that would drive me nuts.
So with all that it stands to reason that Apple will do it again with the ipad, so I am going to wait for the gen 2 ipad which I am told will be out at Xmas 2010, so not long to wait.
Updates
As I think I sad in an earlier blog, I have just started to do some work on the new James Follett website, pretty much in the same lines as the Dirk Maggs one, well why not it all seems to work okay and once everything is in the updating of the website is to tell the truth really really very easy and that's one of the main things that I want to gain from all of this updating stuff.
I must admit that the James Follett site is smaller I think, in fact I'm not to sure how they compare size wise. I suspect that over the next few weeks it's something that I will find out from first hand experience.
So then, on the James Follett side of things the database is set up and the core elements that go to make up the website are now all in place, all and I say this lightly all I now have to do is get the content transferred into the new website. This is a task that has to be done manually which is a pain but there dose not seem to be any other way of getting the job done, so manual it is.
I have so far only put the very first page up, mainly to see if it all works and all that sort of stuff that you do when trying out new stuff, it all appears to be working how I would expect it to which is good.
So I now have the long task of converting it to the new format. I don't know if I should tell James or not, as I am not sure if he is that interested in his unofficial website these days.
I will set up the domain so that when complete it points at the new website, and when I have checked that it all works I will delete the old website.
If by any chance James does realise any new material it will be very easy to update and also as an added benefit he could also with the right permissions edit the site, or at least correct it or even add missing information to it.
So lots to do.
I must admit that the James Follett site is smaller I think, in fact I'm not to sure how they compare size wise. I suspect that over the next few weeks it's something that I will find out from first hand experience.
So then, on the James Follett side of things the database is set up and the core elements that go to make up the website are now all in place, all and I say this lightly all I now have to do is get the content transferred into the new website. This is a task that has to be done manually which is a pain but there dose not seem to be any other way of getting the job done, so manual it is.
I have so far only put the very first page up, mainly to see if it all works and all that sort of stuff that you do when trying out new stuff, it all appears to be working how I would expect it to which is good.
So I now have the long task of converting it to the new format. I don't know if I should tell James or not, as I am not sure if he is that interested in his unofficial website these days.
I will set up the domain so that when complete it points at the new website, and when I have checked that it all works I will delete the old website.
If by any chance James does realise any new material it will be very easy to update and also as an added benefit he could also with the right permissions edit the site, or at least correct it or even add missing information to it.
So lots to do.
Sky
Looks today as if we are going to have a cold but bright blue sky day, which is nice, as its been just a while since we had that sort of things.
01 March, 2010
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