This re-imagined TV show is brilliant.
A friend, Jase, really likes CSI Miami and I have tried to watch it but find it extremely clichéd. CSI Miami is poorly scripted, it is poorly shot and poorly acted (apart from Emily Procter). However, Jase finds something to enjoy and thoroughly raves about it.
I now understand what he means. Hawaii 5-O is poorly scripted, reasonably acted and extremely clichéd. The scenery is brilliant. The technology used is rubbish. The actors are glamorous and the plot appalling. I love it.
I vaguely remember the original series, watching it with my dad when I was younger. I do not remember whether it was any good. I am worried that if I went and watched the original series it would be like seeing 1980s Dr Who or Blakes 7. In my mind these shows are brilliant but if I was to see them I know I would be disappointed. I have recently seen some episodes of Space 1999 and it is amazingly dated!
5-O is shot in Hawaii and makes the islands look fantastic. It is a brilliant advert for a visit. I can’t help feeling that Hawaii is somewhat wasted on the Americans! The actors are very glamorous and include members of the cast of Lost (good early on) and Battlestar Galactica (all good). The premise of immunity of the 5-O crew is somewhat bothersome for a humanist, but a brilliant plot device. The relationship between the main two characters is well scripted with them arguing like a married couple. I love them driving between crime scenes for the discussions they have. The idea that a police group can hack into any bank account, any phone account, utilities, CCTV system or triangulate a mobile signal is rather far fetched but I guess some of the population believe it.
This show is a great find and well worth watching as it is brain dead TV. It takes no brain power to watch but entertains.
Vegetable Plot
This is the vegetable plot. I had thought it looked better in the photo than in real life but I might be wrong. Anyway, I don’t like gardening but have found myself tending to the plants on a regular basis. The plants are: beetroot, carrots, lettuce and pak choi. Hopefully my son will enjoy harvesting our goodies and eating them. He seems to be in an apple mood at the moment!
I also have six tomato plants on the go in pots. There are some toms appearing and so hopefully soon my family can eat those. Lots of, very slow, fun. Not quite PS3 really.
Talk Talk Part 2
So, judgement day has come and not yet fully passed. The phone and broadband were both switched to Talk Talk today. I was expecting trouble and phone calls to their Helpline but in all honesty it went really well.
I turned the router/modem off this morning and by the time I got home after work (I’m a teacher so it was early) the phone and broadband account had changed. The biggest problem was getting the new settings to save in the router. Rather embarrassing really as I couldn’t find the “save and reboot” button in the router web-interface.
Didn’t want to use the Talk Talk router as it looks rubbish and I like the idea of configuring my own router.
Move router to the dining room and now “electronic corner” has a little less heat emitted, might make the lounge a bit more comfortable as there’s no natural fresh air flow.
Well done Talk Talk, hope your up-time proves just as good.
How to eat an apple
Apart from using a knife (or not) and cutting up an apple I can think of predominantly two ways of eating an apple. This does matter because one way is correct and the other is not so correct.
Circumferential or the Segment method?
A circumferential eater will take a bite, rotate the sphere using the core as the axis and take another bite. This will result in a curve of apple exposed around the great circle of the apple. Then another line of bite is taken from each end (assuming that the eater has a big enough mouth to bite to the core)
A segmental eater takes bites out of the apple from stalk to opposite pole. This results in a segment being eaten and then the apple being rotated to start the process again.
The problem is exposure of the flesh of the apple to the air to turn brown and this needs to be minimised. In the segment method the area exposed for significant time is constant. For the circumferential method the area exposed increases with time.
Which leads to:
The analysis shows that if your bite radius is greater than 0.140 of the radius of the apple then you should eat in segments. Apart from small mammals the bite radius is going to be more than 14% of the apple radius, unless there is a huge apple variety waiting to be discovered.
This post was necessary because every time I eat an apple my wife tells me I am eating it the wrong way.
Sky+HD sound
You would think it’s simple.
Sky box has HDMI output. My amplifier has HDMI in with full HD sound and 7.1 decoding. So why does Sky box only output stereo sound through the HDMI cable? I have optical cable connected which does work fine ( DD 5.1 only). The installation tech told me the HDMI does do 5.1, he was wrong although it’s hard to find a definitive answer.
After about an hour of googling I finally found what I hope is the correct answer.
http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky-HD-Picture-Sound/Sky-HD-5-1-via-HDMI/m-p/2183#M300
Why make a piece of kit that doesn’t do what it can? Is it that you can’t send HD sound over satellite signal? Perhaps they only have space for compressed Dolby digital rather than the more pure 48khz CD or better standard.
Sky need a tech page for people who know their stuff to help make decent equipment decisions.
Oh well.
Flowers
See, it’s nice down South! Another dog walk another lovely view. Probably going to rain in a bit.
Talk talk
My change over to Talk Talk for phone and broadband is about to happen on Monday. I’m bothered as I’ve been with Plusnet for years although changing provider has meant I had to go out and got my own web domain and space.
The free wireless router arrived today. It’s very close now but I think I’ll just configure my own router. The only improvement would be wireless range and I get 3G in the garden so what do I care? Also the new box would have to be moved to a different position to fit in “electronic corner”. Don’t like the talk talk colour. So D-Link router it is with no reception in the garden. Could move it and connect PS3 wirelessly, will think about that.
Main concerns at moment. Will they screw up my phone line and will the broadband work properly on Monday. New settings easy so it should be a breeze.
All this to save money! Sky don’t have the package I wanted so they’ll have to wait for more of my money.
Time Consuming
Just managed to upload the parish website version 2. This was started in about 2004 and then I had a re-imaging in about 2010. There’s quite a but there. I was really proud of it and like the colour scheme. Some pictures are missing and I doubt I’ll find them as I changed computers in that time, whoops.
Link here.
It brings back some wonderful memories and what you can do when you have the time and aren’t running around after two kids.
Nearly ready for announcement
I think I am nearly ready to inform friends and family and the world about this website. I wonder what sort of response I’ll get but as this is a vanity / personal project I don’t really care. I think I’d like to improve the look and get away from using the default theme, although I have looked at others and I prefer the default theme, then I will add content! I have started to map out the shape and design of the website.
The picture is just a trial. Think my niece took the photo but it looks cool.
North Downs
Walking the dog and there are marvellous views of the North Downs.