Big cat MEEEOOWW

Oooh, It's a jungle, and it's got a TIGER! Well Apple launched their latest version of OS X, called Tiger, and my jungle of computers have been clawed.

Does it roar or does it byte (oooh, aren't I just sooo clever ;-) well it's got a lot a great features and enhancements and like that new pair of trainers (sneakers to our American cousins) it feels faster... I don't really know that it is or isn't but it feels it.

But I do have to say that I wasn't as geeky as when Apple did this last time... Nope, I did not queue up with he other geeks (they freaked out Karen and I last time ) ... I pre ordered it this time from the internet and was geeky in the safety of my own four walls.

Anyway, two of the three machines are now completed and ready for work again, just the server left to go... so, if you'll forgive me I'm off to dive back in to geeky heaven. Hmmm, maybe there are just some things I should keep to myself.

Silk / Spence

vewy, vewy, qwiet...

... i'm hunting wabbits...

Well no, not really. I'm hunting bugs, a new site for one of my clients has a particularly tricky script generated navigation system and the whole site fits together like a jigsaw puzzle with many different ways to solve it... I don't like it too easy! So, I've been upto my neck in HTML, ASP and Server issues!

What else... hmmm, not a great deal... still practising guitar chords and scales, I can change from chord to another as long as you give me written notice, about a week should do it ;o) ... It's coming along S l o w l y.

It's also my birthday today.... Karen got me an absolutely stunning watch (as I collect them). It's a Corum 'bubble watch' called 'Dive Bomber', it has the shark teeth face that was painted on the pacific fighters of world war II. It is very very cool. She also got me the new Chem Bros album and a book of 'Rock' guitar chords! :o)

There has been a lot of back work done on Cuadrado Azul over the last week or two, which will (I hope) make things better and easier to maintain.... we'll see... and you'll see...

Cheers....

Silk/Spence

Concert joy ...

Last night we went to see Tori Amos here in Boston, and it great. It was just Tori and her pianos and she did some very beautiful arrangements of her new and old songs as well as a couple of cover versions (including 'Sweet dreams are made of these' by the Eurythmics).

This marks the start of the summer concerts for Karen and I ... on sunday we are seeing Muse with Razorlight, then in May I have Snow Patrol with Athlete (I know these are all British bands :oP ).

Concerts are one of things I look forward to in the summer, the people you meet all linked by a love of this particular bands music. Looking at the T-Shirts and other merchandise and wondering why you used to feel that you HAD to get something (I still do in someways, but the prices these days put me off ;o) ... on a sidenote, the merchandise is getting more varied. It used to be that you could get the tour shirt, maybe picking from a couple of designs if ou were lucky, a program or badges of the band ... but now ... well, it's getting silly! Tori merchandise last night took up about a quarter of the foyer of the venue, there were girls shirts (3 designs), boys shirts (5 designs), posters, badges and programs ... oh, and Orange Knickers (Womens ONLY) with Tori's face on the crotch ... now, I know that there is song called 'The Power of Orange Knickers' on the new album ... but I saw guys buying these ... which makes me cringe in all sorts of ways! AND before anyone asks I didn't buy any merchandise, especially any related to underwear.

So when I'm strumming my guitar all over the world (yeah, right!) I'll have a song called 'A sock full of holes' and I've got my merchandising built in ;o)

Silk/Spence

More Screen space...

For those who don't know, my Apple G5 computer (bless it's little aluminium chassis) has three screens attached; 23" and 20" widescreen displays and a 15" tablet screen (this means I can draw right on the screen). Totalling 58" of screen space!

Well I wanted MORE (when do I not ;o) ... and after the tax man decided to not take as much oney from, well he wouldn't as long as I spent some of the money on the company (either way I lose the money but at least one way I have something to show for it - Bruce: it's not that I don't like the tax man honest). I decided to increase the screen space by 30" with Apple's 30" HD Cinema Display.

AND WOW - What an incredible thing of beauty! It's SOOO big (squizz: keep the comments clean!) BUT then sadness struck. Houston we have a problem ... :o(

Flickering blue and green pixels everywhere on certain shades of gray/grey* (delete as nationally appropriate) I won't bore you with the whole saga, you can read and see the issues HERE

So, I didn't get to keep the screen and the world seems so much smaller for it. Here's waiting for revisions to be made to the screen.

Silk/Spencer

I've come over all musical...

Those who know me well will know that music is involved in pretty much everything I do. I listen to music while I work, read and do just about anything.

However, for years it has bothered me that the only instrument I ever learned to play was the drums. Which while I enjoy them, they're not what you would call a solo instrument... it's also difficult to play them quietly.

When I was eight or nine years old, my school music teacher said to me: "You can't play guitar left-handed, nobody does. You'll have to play something else."

So I learned drums and guitars were an arcane instrument to me and anyone that could play them ranked as gods.

Last week, getting to the point of this post, I bought an Ibanez left handed guitar, a Crate amplifier (and accessories) and tomorrow I take my first guitar lesson. I don't know if I'll ever be any good, but it's a hobby that I can do at home and not be staring at a screen.

That's it really, I've been making noises with it since Friday, some of them I'm sure were even musical notes, not many but some. I'm not sure my fingers agree with what I'm trying to make them do.

Silk/Spence