Tony Sutton’s Blog!

The good thing about the Half Term is the lack of traffic. We are able to leave home a bit later and get to work on time, sometimes even earlier!

Has anyone heard the news about the Gov considering paying you money to scrap your old car (9 years and over) and buy new car using the money. Sounds good… We got a car that is 9 years old as of last month.

Will they go ahead with it? No idea… But I think they should as it proves popular in Germany. And at the same time, it helps us with going "green" to help the world & stuff.

Would be nice to get a new car tho

So anyone planning to go on holiday over Easter? We are working this week and I have a week off next week. Woo!

So. G20. One trillion dollars.

That’s a lot of money. But personally i don’t think it’s enough for the whole world.

But at least it’s better than nothing!

Updates on my MCE box…

Got the new Media case a few days ago. Much better and smaller. Just finished putting all of the hardware together and it’s looking good! Need to figure out what the last cables going to whichever pins it needs connecting to as it’s not labeled at all!

But apart from it, I’m pretty excited to have it up and running so we can get rid of the old dvd player and the Humax box!

And for my WHS box - I’ve moved the hardware out of the old, bigass full tower to a smaller and nicer case so it will take up much less space. Currently installing the operating system before setting it up for shared folders and backups.

Overall, been busy with a cut finger with these hardware builds and I can’t wait for both of them to be done!

Only a few more days until April. 4 months gone since the start of 2009. Yikes! Where did the time gone to?? Too fast, I think.

Work for the past few weeks has been progressing okay, keeping myself busy to prepare for the Summer upgrade. New SAN server with zillions of GB, made me drool.

My MCE build is still going on well, and last night, I’ve finally ordered a new MCE case that is smaller in size, which can fit into my TV case while keeping all hardware without spending more money on low profile card so that’s good news. The only biggest issue I can see so far is that the default decoder is not good as it keeps coming up as “blocky” on TV shows. I’m going to give the NVIDIA decoder a go based on good feedback. I am also going to give Cyberlink PowerDVD a go too, assuming I can find one cheap.
Once I have this up & running, I need to make a start with selling other hardware bits to get some of my money back to cover the costs of this. I got far too many piling up! Just need to find/buy some anti-static bags, more likely on the cheap on eBay.

This Sunday, the start of the clock change. We lose 1 hour of sleep. Bah. But we also get more daytime. Yay! And the start of spring (as of last week) is going to make me work more outside. The front garden is seriously in the need of an “upgrade” - rip out the old grass, weed, potatoes, etc, clean it up and smooth out the soil then put some grass seed on to get fresh grass. I need to hire a machine that can turn over the soil, but the cost of hiring one is almost equal to buying a machine for me to keep! But then I’d have nowhere to store it if I were to buy it, so hiring one might be a good idea.

I still need to sort out the fence in the front garden too, but it’s too costly. So I’ll have to make do with nails, some TLC and maybe a lick of paint and I should do fine for another year or so. And the bush need a trim. I might do the bush now as it’s sunny outside.

Is anyone finding the credit crunch affecting you? I am not sure but I think I am a little bit. My savings is not being saved up enough compared with last year. I still have not serviced my car yet (due last Jan) so I need to save up for that. Gas & electricity bill on the rise, so need to switch to someone else. We’re with British Gas for both at the moment. What company do you use for these utility?

Right, it’s closely approaching 9am. I need breakfast and then trim some bushes.

Anyone use MCE (or similar like MythTV) in the living room?

What case do you use that fits normal sized card? Not low profile card.

Currently i have a Velocity Media case and while it’s good, it’s a bit too big to fit in my TV stand. It will need at least 15cm high.

Am interested to know your hardware setup

Yesterday the missus and I met up at a food court at a shopping centre for lunch. We went to one where they had plenty of good sandwiches, drinks, etc and sat down. Then it dawned on me - there was few people sitting around for this area. It was 1pm and it should be busy as it’s during the lunch rush.

I looked around and guess what I found?

McDonald
KFC
Pizza Hut

Packed & busy!

And the people wasn’t your average young people - they were all ages. At first, I thought it was because of the change of the culture of the people. But then it could be because they costs far cheaper than where we were eating. However, who knows? *shrugs*

In other news, I’m off this morning to pick up my friends before heading off to Beccles for Go Karting. With the fab weather with sun, this should be a good day!

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Lincoln Cathedral in night - great sight!

Today, we went for the long drive up north & west and then down to Glasgow. We started with Edinburgh and headed toward Inverness, where we made the turn toward Loch Ness and its area including the castle.

After the tour, we had lunch before heading to Ben Nevis for a drive around. Wow, what an area! Lots of mountains with snow capped on the top. Would love to climb up there someday

Then we went toward Loch Lomond with the amazing sights of the hills and valleys.

Finally, we got to Glasgow and had our well deserved dinner. The drive including stopping took us all day but was worth it!

Obviously plently of photos has been taken so will upload them someday

Tomorrow, our last trip before heading home on Sunday - we are off to Lincoln which is about 5 hours drive, depending on the traffic.

So need sleep as we are going to get up early!

Not much of snow but still… It’s Ben Nevis!!

Finally we are at Loch Ness. :D

Don’t you think is the greatest view ever?

Somewhere on the A82 dual carriageway.

What a great sight

The good thing about staying in this hotel is we are like right next door to two of Scotland’s famous galleries - the Dean Gallery and also the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.

Both of them was great. I’m kind of a fan of Hirst but was disappointed that it doesnt open until 14th March. Ah well! Mayne next time when it’s in London..

After this visit, we walked back to our hotel and collected our car to make our way to the infamous Rosslyn Chapel, just 20 minutes away from Edinburgh.

Some of you may have seen this chapel on one of the biggest film with Tom Hanks in it - The Da Vinci Code - almost at the end of the film where he went into the chapel. That’s the Rosslyn Chapel. I need to watch this film again someday.

What a great building but is in need of a lot of repair work. Currently trying to raise money to do it up and from what i can see, thbey are doing well so far.

In the evening, we had our dinner before heading back to our hotel for the last time of staying in Edinburgh.

Tomorrow, we will wake up early in the morning to drive up further north to visit Loch Ness, along the river to see Ben Nevis before heading down to Glasgow for a night of stay.

Should be a epic trip!

This morning, we went shoping in the city of Edinburgh and it was ok. In the afternoon, we spent most of the afternoon checking out the Edinburgh Castle.

What an amazing building and its history! At the end of the day, we were worn out so went to a local pub for drinks and relaxing before heading back to hotel for dinner and drinks.

Not sure whats our plans for tomorrow. Maybe relaxing before we head out for the long drive this Friday to Loch Ness, Ben Nevis and other area before heading to Glasgow for the night.

Can’t wait!