Gaining traction on an old interest
I've always had an interest in old computers - especially those systems contemporary to my youth, be it systems that I owned or wished I could have (or even just get access to). Back when I was at university, I amassed quite a collection of various systems, both small and large. Most of this had to be re-homed when I left the UK (Mum and Dad refused to store everything indefinitely), but a few systems I really cared about stayed. These included my ZX Spectrums (two 48k models and a +3), a TRS-80 Model 1, and my three Amigas (an A500 with A570 and A590, an A1200, and an A2000). After holding onto these for approaching 10 years, I finally bit the bullet and found a new home for the A500 (plus bits), the A2000 (along with all *those* bits), and the TRS-80 over at MicroMuseum.co.uk. The A1200 and Spectrums I decided were small enough they could probably find their way home with me at some point.
When technology conspires against you
Usually all my tools and toys behave for me, but every now and again things things don't go so smoothly. Last weekend was the first F1 race of the season and being Australia, was on at a silly time of night. Because the TV networks over here don't consider F1 to be sufficiently important, in order to get the feed I prefer (TSN grab the feed from the beeb, and I do like their commentating team) I'd have to grab it live. For this sort of reason, I have a MythTV box setup, which usually performs so well I tend to just let it got on with recording what I like and don't worry too much about scheduling. I set it the night before to record the race and when I sat down to watch the race the following afternoon (after ignoring the repeat of the race on Speed) was dismayed to discover that at some point in the past few days the box had rebooted and the ivtv drivers hadn't initialized properly so the recording had no sound. Easily fixed, but annoying.
This weekend was the second race, so cue repeat of the above - only this time I thought I'd got it sorted - I set up a rule last week to record the races whenever they're on and checked upcoming recordings to make sure the Malaysian race was in the schedule - so far so good. This afternoon I sit down to watch the race, only to discover it recorded the qualifying, but not the race! Bugger. Luckily, thanks to my fantastic wife, I discovered this only a short while after the Speed coverage started, so I managed to see most of the race after all, the old fashioned way.
Welcome!
If you're reading this, chances are you already know me and I pointed you at the site myself. I don't expect hundreds of new readers because I post masses of witty and exciting posts - I just thought it might be nice for my friends and family I don't get to see very often to have a little window into what's going on in my life. If you don't fall into that category and found this site entirely at random then welcome 🙂 If you like what you read, feel free to stick around and I'll try and keep you interested with more of the same.
You might be asking yourself why I don't just post stuff to facebook and twitter. Well I do, but those who know me know I'm fond of telling long stories which take forever to get to the point, which occasionally doesn't exist and sometimes isn't where I stop. Basically - I like to ramble (case in point). I like to think it's all part of my charm, but you may have a different opinion 🙂