Fear of Fish

So I recently came across a website called Trust Places, it's a central repository for finding and reviewing cafe's and restaurant's (and more) in your local area. The great thing is it uses google maps to help locate where they are. To my surprise (I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, called Skipton) it already had quite a few places near me just waiting for review!

So, seeing as I like to eat out and love to rate and gossip about what places are good or bad, I've found myself adding lots of reviews to all the Skipton cafe/restaurants. What's interesting, is that people are already finding what I've put as useful or interesting! So, go and review the world, my friends!

In case any of you British people are unaware, there was an announcement at a private Apple event in the Regent Street Apple Store today, letting us all know that the iPhone will be available on the O2 network on the 9th November for £269, on varying tariffs, all with unlimited data (YAY!). The disappointing fact is that it's on EDGE, not 3G. Which is a shame because the 3G network throughout Europe is much nippier.

I for one will be getting one pretty much immediately...now how do I get out of my 18 month Orange contract without it costing me a fortune? ...more to come on this

Check out the O2 site: O2 iPhone mini site

A couple of my friends (Ruth and Mal) organised a charity ball at their house to raise moneyz for Diabetes UK over the weekend, and we raised £325 and had a damn good laugh. I've put a selection of the photos on my flickr account and the full list at http://trolleywood.fearoffish.com/, if you have any more let me know and I'll grab them off you and get them added.

There were oscars handed out for different awards (e.g. The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Doug for breaking up with Shauna), then there was an auction, of particular interest was a photo of Derek and Andy kissing...Ouch! Derek bid and won on that one, after a little price hiking by the auctioneer (me!).

Anyway, I'd like to say thanks to all those that came for making the event a success, and also to all those who cheered me up considerably!

Note: Due to unfortunate circumstances I didn't have my full suit on when I bobbed round, so I look out of place. :-( The ladies at the evening did a damn good job of making me feel at home though!

I've had a project sat 'almost done' for so long now, I can't remember what needs doing, and the todo list has gone walkabout, so I think it's time to just deploy it and see what happens.

External link to the site=> Get Me Started

The idea behind the site is that you put your tutorials for learning a language in one place, and that's where everyone goes when they think "Oooh, shall I learn X". The site will have many languages, each will allow the user to add an article on installing that language, making your first program in that language, and where to go next on the net and at the bookstore.

I've added Ruby on Rails to the language list, a few others I enjoy playing with and of course the more popular ones. Let me know what you think...if it is successful at all, then I'll improve it a chunk. So far it's the work of myself, Jeremy McAnally and Cristi Bălan.

There is a lack of content at the moment, but it's a community driven site, so if you want to see something there, please sign up and get your content on.

A side note: I've added a referral id to the books that get added, because the site has to make a revenue and I didn't want ads. If you think that lessens the impact of the reviews for any part of the site, think again. The referral fees on the books pay for the site and further development, but I don't add them so the strength of the review is still there. Also, the ratings on the books are done from Amazon, so I don't change them to sell more.

Have a play, let me know what you think.

I've kept my running to a minimum by running only a mile a day (ish), and I've been trying to even out the run so it's less like a mountain (Thanks Loren!) and more like a straight line...that shows that the leg strength is there, and the cardio-vascular fitness can keep me going. I've only done 4 runs, and the feeling of death has slowly been dwindling away...I'm starting to think I can actually keep this up, and become fit again!

Here's today's progress...bear in mind I forgot to press the "End Workout" button when stopped running (after my mile). You see, the run I do has a tiny path leading from my house to the park (which is conveniently next door), I usually stretch, then walk to the end of the path, press "Begin Workout" and start running...I usually end in the same place...instead today I pressed the button when I got home so it recorded my last walk, disappointing.

Onwards and upwards, my friends!

...and I'm a fat bastard.

In my teenage years I was able to do 100 press ups, 45 sit ups a minute, 40 pull ups in a minute etc. I was fit. What the hell happened...I became a lazy shit bag! What's worse, is being a smoker as well has taken a serious hit on my ability to breathe, and that means that even running up stairs puts me a little out of breath. Let's look at what some machine in Tesco said about me:

Age and Gender: 29, Male My Weight: 15st0.5lb / 95.5kg My Height: 5ft10.9in/180cm Body Fat Estimation: A Normal Fat Index: 14-20% My Fat Index: 25.2% My Fat Mass: 3st10.19lb / 24.0kg A Normal Fat Mass: 11.6-17.9kg/m squared or 1st11.5lb-2st11.41lb My Free F Mass: 11st3.6lb / 71.5kg

The normal Body Mass Index for my age and height is between 20 and 24.9 My Current Body Mass Index is 29.5kg/m2.

Seriously, I know how bad this is...I feel ashamed. Time to change!.

• Step 1 - Give up smoking - Done
• Step 2 - Buy a pair of Nike + iPod running shows with the iPod contraption - Done
• Step 3 - Eat healthier - Done
• Step 4 - Run + Exercise - Done
• Step 5 - Rinse and repeat from step 3

So, the ball's rolling. How did the run go, I hear you ask? Well, I was a steaming pile of horse dung, as expected. Not only did I do terribly in the run, but it took me 45 minutes (I kid you not) for my lungs to breath normally again afterwards, and they still hurt as if they're bleeding heavily. However, I'm not done. I feel like I could die the next time I try, but I'm going to change the plan...tone it down, quick walking to start until my lungs are able to cope better, then I'll up it to a jog, then a run.

Anyone else in my boat? or maybe you just don't care and think that fat is phat?

"A true geeks potential can only be realised through the power of the pretty desktop."

Jamie van Dyke, 16th May, 2007

This is how a typical day starts off before the storm, we have Mail, iTerm, Colloquy, and iTunes windows...however, some of you are probably wondering where the windows are, and if you've seen them, why are they so small!

So here's a listing of the applications which I find most important that I have running now:

• Windowshade

  Responsible for icon-izing the windows at the top left of Desktop 2 (Mail, iTunes, iTerm). Note: these are just miniaturised windows, they still show the correct content, so if you're a mail hog, or waiting for something to happen in a window, it's rude to stare!

• Uno

  This makes all the toolbars and windows throughout Mac OS X have a unified look, and doesn't show up anywhere on my screenshots because it gets run once and then goes away.

• Stattoo

  At the bottom of Desktop 2 I have Stattoo, which very kindly gives me an overview of my mail, todos, etc.

• iPulse

  At the bottom right of Desktop 2 I have iPulse, which is an extremely handy application for monitoring all my system stats. I know when I have a busy or runaway process (and not just from my busy MacBook fan) by the colour of certain sections on iPulse.

• Desktop Pictures

  These desktop images are great. They're surreal, colourful, artistic and most of all peaceful. I highly suggest yo grab a print or two from his works.

• CoverSutra

  If you listen to quite a bit of music like me, then CoverSutra is the candy to top off the tunes. The album (Hard-Fi) showing at the top left of Desktop 1 is placed there by CoverSutra, and my Last.fm scrobblings are handled automatically too.

So, that's the quick run through, there's plenty more productivity tools I have running that you can't see, I'll have to sit down and do a full run through some time.

How do you eat yours?

I'm pleased to announce that I'm now a proud member of the Engine Yard team, servicing the needs of privileged customers ensuring they get the unrivalled quality and commitment that Engine Yard have become well known for.

So it is with a heavy heart that I wave good-bye to the 'Fear of Cheese' hosting business I was about to launch, as it would clearly be a conflict of interests, and so I apologise to the customers who were eagerly awaiting its arrival. The Cheese will continue to be developed (there's lots more on the todo list and it clearly needs a tidy up and some tests), so hopefully it will be of use to you in the future on your own servers.

This will most certainly mean that some interesting side projects may be coming out sooner than I predicted, as working for myself commonly meant firing on all cylinders from 8am to 11pm with client work. Now at least I'll have a few spare hours to work on the books I'm authoring and others I'm contributing to.

The Rails Documentation Project will still receive the same amount of time that I currently put in, but it will be relegated to evening work. I'm also pleased to announce that I shan't be costing the project anymore as I'm volunteering my services for the grand total price of £zero.

So to all those Engine Yard customers and hopefuls, I look forward to sorting out any problems or requests you have.

Thanks very much Ezra, Lance and Tom, and hello to the rest of the team!

Note: This is completely un-computer related and just a documentation of my experiences with a bike I bought lately and a warning to others. Also, it's not specifically on the Huoniao HN125, but more a broader warning against LS Imports Ltd. and the bikes they sell.

On the 8th January, 2007, I decided to purchase a cheap chinese motorbike to gain experience on before I went to take my Direct Access Scheme which would allow me to ride a more powerful bike. The bike I decided on was a bargain £550 exc. delivery, on ebay, and the [seller (LS Imports Ltd.)](http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/cypruspounds/ had a large amount of positive feedback.

Here's an odd story that'll get your theories flowing, I didn't see this but a couple of my friends did and they filled their pants. What I'm about to tell you happened the day of the bomb scares that were all over the news, the ones that prompted airlines to ban carrying anything suspicious onto a flight e.g. Toothbrushes and other dodgy hand luggage. Anyway, it was mid-morning and she was driving home, when a large commercial airliner (she estimated a 737 or similar, and has been to many an airshow to put her knowledge into context) flew over her car roughly 200 feet off the ground with it's undercarriage down. The nearest commercial flight path from us would be 10 miles North for the Leeds/Bradford airport, which is about 30 miles away. The plane continued on towards the moor and fired up it's turbine clearing the hilltop by about 100 feet.

Strange for our area, yes. On the morning of a series of flight bomb scares, even weirder. Now after the plane had cleared the hilltop and began to ascend, 2 jet fighters flew over in pursuit. My friend rang Calendar news (our local tv new station) who said it was the first they'd heard of it and warned that they may be forced to not air the incident if a news blackout was 'requested' by the government.

The producer of Calendar news rang back a couple of times with updates on the situation and it turns out that after more research the airplane was heading in the direction of Menwith Hill and was the topic of a lot of intrigue. On a side note, there's also another airbase in that direction which could have been it's destination.

So, no surprise, the incident didn't appear on the news and we've heard nothing else about it. The question's are...was it hijacked and heading to Menwith Hill? Was it having technical difficulties and needed the nearest airbase to land at (a fighter escort would be a standard procedure in this case, I'd guess)? or maybe something entirely different?

Just to put this in context...I live in a small village, surrounded by country roads, moorland and the Yorkshire Dales National Park, so it's not something we see every day.

We got Lex a baby walker today, and filmed his first moments in it. I thought I'd share this with you all because, damn it, he's so cute! He's mastered the moonwalk at 8 months, the sky is the limit! I'm going to be doing more clips of him as he grows, and some of my Daughter Liesel too. It's just a way of personalising the blog a bit so the company side of the site isn't the most prominent piece on here. Hope you enjoy the movie.

Lex takes his first walker steps