sk8geek

GParted

2009-10-11T23:19:00.002+01:00

I upgraded Elliot's PC to Windows XP today. The drive was partitioned as a 2Gb C: drive (system) and a 14Gb D: drive (data). The version of XP was old, but there wasn't enough space to install SP2. Time to reach for GParted!

I found that I'd left half the disc empty (don't know why) so I first moved (extended partition) D: up to use all the space. I then resized the partition to leave 6Gb unallocated above primary 1.

Next I tried to resize the primary partition to 8Gb. I got bad sector errors that chkdsk wouldn't fix. Seems that they were phantom errors that are widely noted on the internet.

Finally I used fdisk to delete then recreate primary 1, then ntfsresize on the command line to force the resize.

At reboot XP wanted to run chkdsk but it booted fine and seems good. Happy!

Nokia Music Store #FAIL

2009-07-17T08:27:00.008+01:00

I recently got a Nokia 5800 and, in a moment of boredom, decided to try out the Nokia Music store. The phone, after all, is tagged XpressMusic so I thought the process would be easy.

Creating an account was straight forward, I logged in and selected a track and paid for it. I actually paid £8 for eight tracks. I set it downloading and carried on my journey home.

Now coverage around us is not brilliant and by the time I got home the track still seemed to be downloading. I left it for some time but it seemed to make no progress. Eventually I stopped it and connected via our wireless LAN at home - that would be quicker.

No it wasn't. The phone then complained that it was out of memory and I should close other applications. I didn't have any other applications running. I checked the internal memory and had around 70Mb available. A quick Google revealed this to be a common problem.

No matter I thought, I'll get it on my PC and USB it to the phone.

This wasn't easy either. Nokia Music store front page is all Flash and only displayed a blank page on my old Fedora 6 machine. On my Fedora 10 laptop I got a page telling me that my operating system isn't supported.

Not a terribly streamlined, Xpress experience.

But it gets worse. This morning I wanted to play the start of the track so that my daughter could identify it. It started playing fine but then popped up a modal dialog box saying that it was checking the licence. Because the dialog was modal I then couldn't stop it from playing or quit the music player. In the end I turned the phone off.

I've deleted the track now, I'll get stuff from Amazon in future.
KTHXBAI Nokia Music Store

Wet Dogs

2009-03-17T01:04:00.005Z

Sunday was a lovely day. I woke a little before seven, saw it was fine and went out to take photographs. I ended up going to Hardcastle Crags, near Hebden Bridge. I was very pleased that I did.

As I got to Gibson Mill I found three ladies out with their dogs. The dogs were having a wonderful time playing in the stream. They kindly allowed me to take photos of the dogs, which I did and how. In a little under ten minutes I took 201 shots, JPEGs, equating to approximately 1Gb of data.

This gave me a chance to experiment with the continuous shooting mode and focus tracking features of the D300. It was a sunny morning and I was using my 85mm 1.8, so speed wasn't a problem. Thing is, I had no idea what shutter speed I should use.

Looking back at the photos I see had selected shutter priority and started at 1/40th of a second. This gave a good effect in this photo, but it doesn't freeze the droplets. I tried 1/100 of a second and must have checked the results on the camera as I very quickly changed the ISO rating to 800 and set shutter speed to 1/800th. This forced a wide open aperture and did a pretty good job, as illustrated here.

The main splash isn't frozen but the droplets above the dog contrast nicely with the darkness of the stream. This gives the shot action.

I was also very pleased with speed of my camera. I checked the times of one sequence and found six shots within a second.

One final lesson is to always zip your camera bag shut. I did and was glad that I had. Inquisitive wet dogs really don't mind what gets wet :-)

Red Nose Day 2009

2009-03-14T06:14:00.011Z

Yesterday was Red Nose Day. A few of us at work agreed that we wanted to do something, but what? Cycling home the idea struck me - lets wear wigs!

The following day we announced it and other ideas were added, a Bring & Buy sale and a puzzle, with a bottle of wine as the prize. I managed to borrow six wigs from a friend (thanks Vicky) so I had a good choice, and spares for others. To get people in the spirit, Mo photographed me wearing each one and I made a voting sheet. I put it up in the kitchen at work so that colleagues could choose my look for the day. Ten of the seventeen votes were for the long black wig, with suggestions (and doodles) of Brian May, Charles the First and Amy Winehouse.

When I mentioned it to Mo she said "Ooh!, I'll do your eye make-up!" and that was decided.

Anyway, it was a really great day. I wore a wig, tattoos and eye-liner all day at work and for skating in the evening. Others joined in, wearing wigs, ribbons and red hair spray. There was a Red Nose lunch in the Piece Hall. The Bring & Buy was a success too. We had enough for me to hawk around the building at the end of the day.

Lots of fun and we raised almost £130 for Comic Relief. Thank you to everyone at Westgate House.

Fedora 10 FTW!

2008-11-29T22:05:00.005Z

My first post that isn't skate related!

I upgraded my laptop, an old Asus, from Fedora 9 to 10 just this week. I have to say that it's great. To start I now have the latest OpenOffice.org, version 3, though not had chance to use it. I'm looking forward to the latest GIMP and Inkscape too.

The big difference that I tested was recognising my digital camera, a Nikon S600. This camera doesn't act as a mass storage device, so under F9 I had to drop to a command and connect to it. This is fixed in F10, with the camera running in PTP mode. Plug it in and it automatically appears and is browsable. I'm working through testing other stuff. So far the other big win is that I can now use the SD card slot, not just for SD, I also find that SDHC works.

Gnome is looking good too. I ran with the Echo icon set in F9 and that has carried over. The upgrade was painless and has maintained everything as far as I can tell.

Excellent!!

Lots of skating

2008-09-20T08:43:00.004+01:00

I've managed to get out and skate five days in a row this week (though only for 20 minutes on Tuesday before the ground was too wet). It's sunny today, so this looks like day six. Yesterday evening was wonderfully autumnal.

I'm also there with the paperwork that will let me teach skating. By 27 September it should be sorted. Hope this weather lasts a few more weeks at least. If you've never skated then you should try it - it's fun!

Insurance

2008-08-15T12:36:00.003+01:00

When we did the ICP course (way back in April now) we were given names of a few companies to try for insurance. Well, having spoken to both, one won't provide cover, the other seems very friendly.

So I'm recommending Into Sport, based in Leeds. Phone number for them is 0113 232 0704.

Skate by Night, Berlin

2008-08-03T12:33:00.003+01:00

Fresh pictures on Flickr of the "Skate by Night" event in Berlin on 27 July 2008. 24km through the heart of Berlin. It was brilliant!

Teaching Practice

2008-06-15T21:14:00.003+01:00

I spent some time today practising to start to teach skating. I still need to get insurance sorted out, but I'm hoping to afford that this month. I'm a little nervous about teaching and so I'm looking for some guinea pigs who want to learn to skate. I'm offering four free lessons for up to four people. Are you interested? Do you meet these criteria?

Can't skate (rollerblade) but want to learn
Live in or around Halifax, or can make it to Peoples Park at the weekend
Own a pair of recreational skates (with heel brake), pads and a helmet
Are prepared to commit to four one hour sessions
Might even practice in between sessions

(I may need to add more criteria, depending on what the insurance policy says.)

If you are interested then please send an email to steven@sk8hx.org.uk

ICP Vision

2008-04-12T20:52:00.004+01:00

On Friday evening Mo and I went skating at the YMCA - as usual.

A lady there asked me how to go backwards. Well, what could I say?

When people, usually kids, have asked me that in the past I have recounted to them how I learnt. We have laminate floors at home - good for skating. I learnt "backwards" by pushing myself off the kitchen wall. Then I got so I could push myself back using my left leg as support leg and right foot slightly toe-in. Repeated this with the left foot. Then started to wiggle my bum and eventually got it.

But that was then.

Now I'm ICP qualified I could see so many things that needed to be fixed. I advised her that she practice going forwards before she tried to go backwards. (She kept on trying, as her friends could do it, and she managed a little.)

My perceptions have been changed. I found myself correcting my own mistakes and felt frustrated at being confined to travelling one way round in such a small space. I saw children falling, windmilling their arms as they landed with a bump. I wanted to shout "stop" and show everyone stage 1, just so that they could skate without falling.

I need to get outside more and I need to get some teaching done.

I passed!!

2008-04-06T20:53:00.002+01:00

What a great way to end the weekend...

... I'm now ICP Level 1 certified.

A big thank you to Asha and Mark - they are really excellent instructors.

Learning to skate (again)

2008-03-28T13:04:00.000Z

I'm sort of in the middle of trying to learn how to teach in-line skating to beginners.

I've skated myself now for about five years. I love it and I want others to enjoy it too. So last year I considered getting ICP1 level certified. The Inline Certification Program is an international organisation that is "devoted to the development of professional inline skating instructors". I only considered it last year, but didn't do it. I am now though, and I tell you something - it's tough!

After the two hour evaluation session I found that I had loads of bad habits. Now I'm putting in loads of practice trying to fix them. Next weekend I'm down in London again for the course proper - two days of intensive skating.

I'll post back on how I do...