More wheels within wheels, PS3/PSP connectivity over the web

02062007184, originally uploaded by epredator.

Today, mainly because the Xbox360 is being repaired, I sparked up the PS3 and the PSP. The most recent updates on both these devices launched us into a world of interconnectedness.
Previously the remote play function allowed the humble PSP to act as the wireless user interface for the might of the PS3.
So, the PS3 did the rendering of things and sent screen updates over the local network to the PSP.
Now however, if both machines are signed onto the wide world interweb, anywhere, the PS3 will act as a server in remote play to the PSP. So you can 'securely' get at your content like photos and videos on the PS3 in your home with your remote PSP device.
Just to add to it, I took this picture using the N95, wirelessly pumped it to flickr. It is the PSP talking via the web to my PS3 rendering the excellent photo slideshow.
I then used the PSP to talk to the PS3 web browser and twittered the fact I was doing.
this.
So to be clear, or try to. My hand held PSP was on the external internet, talking into my house to my PS3 which was talking back out to the web and doing some interaction with the world.
The more connections and services that things can swap around responsibility with the easier it is to just do what you need to do when you need to do it.

Very clever face recognition? Its fun either way

As per usual we end up following one another around the wide world interweb.
I popped onto facebook to add some friend requests and saw that roo had posted a celebrity look alike photo face doodah from myheritage.com
I had to have a go. The results are a little surpring depending on the photo




I did try my AV in SL, but it was having trouble finding a face, and then when I manually set it it forgets to make a collage

More Perplexcity addicts

31052007175, originally uploaded by epredator.

Jan's cousin Colin came to visit the last few days. Last year we had all spent an evening without the games consoles on whilst we showed him the season 1 perplexcity cards.
So now season 2 is here, and so we got him going on a new set of cards from Mindcandy.
He got quite a few silvers in his set of cards.
we also got talking about what he had heard happened at the Radio 1 big weekend, which is all part of some things talked about in the ARG part of perplexcity.
The big weekend last year was a watershed when Rivers Run Red ran the woodstock of the virtual world with the live event in Second Life.
Also perplexcity is using twitter now aswell :-)
Mark Wallace over at 3pointd has also made some references to perplexcity and ARG's
Now I really must get on and solve some cards, I just need this crazy personal appearance roller coaster to stop

Dear Alan Day Honda portsmouth you are completely useless

Dear all, I know its a bit of a niche but Alan Day Honda in porstmouth should be avoided at all cost.
Why? Well the work customer and service really does not seem to be part of their make up.
We have bought an FRV from them. A nice car. BUT..... Aside for the incompetent sales approach and the weeks of unreturned calls once the car was ordered, that required me to go the garage and get in their face, they then found the car and handed it over.
Well, hand over, yes right. The car did not start, so they had to hit the battery with a booster. Great.... Understandable. Then when Jan drove off the entire car has no power, engine and warning lights on. It takes us 20 mintues to negotiate back to the garage.
Sudddenly many Honda people turn up "oh this never happens" like I give a toss! it is happening and it is happening to us. The car is borked.
So they whisk it of, the less than competent salesman who we had dealt with just cant seem to cope. The bosses whisk the car out back. Then return to say, well it needs an ECu reset, you know cars and computers and modern stuff.
Anyway, they give us the demo car, we drive home. They say "we will call you in the morning". This was a good test as they seldom call back. Why? becuase they really do not give a stuff about customers and service. Anyway, no big surprise NO CALL.
So they have the money, we have the demo car, they have the new one.
At 5pm we phone to say, "hey". They make some crap excuse "oh we cant mess with it its a new car we cant mess with it without approval and ...THEY HAVE NOT CALLED US BACK" no sh1t! Their track record of never calling us back must pervade the company.
Anyway. we have no new car, they are the worst firm I have EVER come across. No excuses, this is not isloted, this is not one or two forgivable cockups.
This is Alan Day honda porstmouth being the most useless set of people for talking to customers. So the car is broken, TALK TO US !
I cannot imagine ignoring a customer, or someone that I say "I will call you" However its not just the main salesman we talked to, its the sales manager too.
I am at a loss as to what to do.
Oh and when picking up the car I ask "So the mp3 connector then?" reply "Oh I am not the expert on that you need to talk to parts". I go and see parts "No mate no idea".
Ok so its only a 3.5mm jack but for gods sake its a 18K car. You must know about the damn wire.
Incompetent Alan Day honda. I dont care what they do now, they need to not have any customers any more they dont deserve them.
We are of course going to complain on the more official channels, we have a complete record of how completely rubbish they are, but ..... Damn this is the worst customer service I have ever received and I am a brit !

*****Update
We seem to be getting some movement now on getting the thing fixed, and also in getting told what is going on. After a call just now I am reassured that this will be rectified, of course there is a long way to go to build our customer satisfaction back up, and its not fixed until we have the car and it all working.
Apparenly part of the standard engine management system is not behaving and the part needs to be swapped out, which means it has to be delivered first. Also a slight delay because "Honda Technical" were out on training all day yesterday and ignoring dealers. So lets see. where this goes and if I morph this post title over time.

******* yet more updates
So they ordered the ECU "it will be here tuesday". Tuesday comes and its "Oh, Honda did not send it it was out of stock". So today (wednesday) the demo car was taken back, the ECU was ripped from it and popped into the "new" car. Jan came home somewhat deflated. Its a new car, but still the experience is not yet done.
For a start they need to put the new new part in if it ever turns up, they also did not do the simple thing of putting any mats in the car, and finally sticking the ipod lead in (which they will do later) is not a big deal its just a start. But then given the salesman pretended he was throwing in the scotchguarded seats when we bought the car only to find its standard, I am not surprised.
So The complete log has not been sent to Alan Day, we have a car. The matter is not closed. If they work VERY VERY hard, and I am not talking a £10 cable or £20 set of mats then I may archive this post. However, for now, this post still stands and service like this, when spending this amount of money is not acceptable.

Carphone warehouse customer service?

29052007161, originally uploaded by epredator.

I bought my n95 from the carphone warehouse sveral weeks ago. As part of the deal I was to get 3 years of the navigation service. I did not have anything through after a few weeks so went to ask. I got told that everyone was waiting and I shoudl just sit tight. Whilst waiting i did get a call from "customer service" threatening to mug me in order to prove I needed the insurance, but they were not about to explain about my sat nav voucher.
Today though this arrived. A personalized brochure with all sorts of things printed on it. Its all very good and very nice, even moderately well done. I am not sure though that that makes up for the months delay? If they had just mailed me a licenced number first and then sent the pretty leaflet that would have been better?
Also I must remember to rotate the clip from teh case out of the way of the lens doh!

Facebook, it seems to be doing some neat things

Being a digital native, or whatever we call ourselves, I had finally got around to signing up to facebook. For some reason this is going to break my 'i am epredator online' handle, to the point that even on onxiam it decided not to show up when I added facebook.
I had just sort of added myself to facebook, and thought I would go back to it later, but now people are finding me and some really old friends who had lost touch are turning up. This is really encouraging.
So apologies to people who found me and were waiting on freind responses. I had not got into the whole facebook mode. What I need is a social network aggregator that acts as a single point of contact, like onxiam but for stuff.
Networkr or some such web2.0 name :-) Of course that is unlikely to happen, but for now it looks like I am sucked into facebook as it has provided me with something that some of the other sites have not.

Zurich Tweakfest

24052007140, originally uploaded by epredator.

As I wrote on eightbar I was doing a keynote on the metaverse at teh zurich tweakfest.
This was my view of switzerland :-)
I will write a better trip report but I am making up for mussing my 4 year olds birthday by doing this gig.
I had an awesome time touring the zurich lab, home of many great projects, ideas and most importantly people.
I was also suprosed to find out just how much speakers get paid to do these things. I was under the impression I was not able to accept payment as I was 'working' but I need to investigate what the rules actually are.

Dont you know how I am

The sketch is very funny, but this mashup visual makes it even better.
Roo and I often jokingly use "Dont you know who I am" in all things metaversal.

More Linkin Park, I am a youth

I got an email tonight from a marketing group, the account exec for youth marketing. It was to this blog, and presumably because I had written the post about how awesome the minutes to midnight Linkin Park album was.
The note was saying "always wanted to live like a rock star?" to which I had to reply I already am :-)
Anyway the point is that this is a much more forward thinking way to market and engage with people. In the note I was sent some promo pictures and given the rights to use them on the blog. Now that is how it should be really. Rather than the sometimes overly copyrighted imagery.
For me, well it was another reader to my non eightbar.com ramblings, but equally it ties in with the whole declrative living elements. If I tell people what I like, then they will work out it worth to talking to me.
This is much better than pure spam, for all concerned.
So here are my fellow rock stars and here is the promotional website (ironic that I used to work in a group called blueroom in IBM, the spirit of which lives on to this day.)

Xbox 360 gone pop

My poor 360 has just gone pop. I now have the dreaded ring of lights, in bright red. It looks like a major hardware failure, with all the hassle of sending the box back :-(

Of course it could be it got fed of bejeweled and zuma and just toasted its own insides.

These things come in threes, we lost our phone line last night.

Oh well, my guitar hero antics needed to wait until my Second Life backlog had been dealt with. Some major instabilities and crashes meant I could not do some of the things stacking up.

Fingers crossed on 1.15.1 (I hate version numbers!)

Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight

The new Linkin Park album is out and about, Minutes to Midnight. It is very very good. I am a big fan of Linkin Park, that seminal track One Step Closer to the Edge back a few years ago got my attention, and I have been hooked on everythign they have done since. Whilst I may not be the demographic the inner angst riddled teenager never erally left me so many of the lyrics resonate in so many ways.
This album has such a divers set of songs, each is distinctivly Linkin Park, but also clearly each memebr of the ensemble is having their say.

Wake is a little instrumental start, and feels like its leading into something

Hands Held high is a distintive rap style track, with a military march style beat.

Bleed it out is a persitent repition of a hook line, with singing passionate power scream that makes Linkin Park so powerful. The rap with blasting vocals mix is classic.

The Little things you give away is quite blur like, acoustic guitar, slow pace, electonica beat. A much more melodic lilting song with an awesome hook. Lyrically intriguing. "there be no mistaking the levvy's are breaking"
"All you ever wanted was some to truly look up to you, and six feet under water I do"
The whole song is 6:23 long song then brings in more haunting electric guitar. Nearest analogy woudl be november rain, but in a very different style, that comaprison is not that this is derivative in anyway.

Leave Out all the Rest is again a calm start, that works into a much more powerful blast. Still very melodic, no shouting. It sounds like a melancholy epitaph song.

Valentine's day does the classic Park, slow melodic twinkly start, but with a more 80's drum into a very powerful screaming power vocal. If I am making analogies it has a Pearl Jam feel to it.

What I've Done is the current Uk single. Superb feel and drive to his song. A mix of pace, again very clever lyrics, a much more pop based song, but with the chopping electric guitars in as it powers up. "Let go of what I done"

In Pieces, very quiet start, then and much more rolling melody then starts to move to the passion we get used to. The guitar has a reggae feel to it, or something like another 80's sound of latin quarter. This one is more of a grower than instant impact.

No More Sorrow is the most awesome track on the album. It is pure metal. Driving military power chords. Anger, power and fantastic passion. So unlike the other tracks in many respects.
"I see pain, I see need.
I see liars and thieves,
Abuse power with greed.
I had hope, I believed.
But I'm beginning to think that I've been deceived.
You will pay for what you've done"

All rapped up in guitar and rock

Given Up then has some hand claps and jingle bells beat mixed with driving Static X style guitar. The register is much lower, and has some of that extra metal low screech that might be called death metal.With a very long, A VERY LONG aaaggghhhhhh that if he held that for real he deserves a medal.

In between then messes with the hears again. A much more male singer and guitar semi hippy style. Like Jack Johnson or any of teh glut of male singers. It has a haunting cello. "The things I want to say to you get lost before they come
The only thing that's worse than one is none". It sounds californian. I do actually like it, the contrast to the previous songs is incredible and shows the diverse talents of this crew.

Shadow of the Day is a regular song in many ways, it makes you feel good. It reminds me a lot of U2. It makes to a nice subtle end to the album.

All in all this rocks. get it
The also have a good youtube channel

My first patent issue

15052007104, originally uploaded by epredator.

I got back to the office today after talk to some guys in bedfont to find a parcel there.
It is my framed first page of my first patent issue. We do a lot of patents at work. Usually its the filing of the patent that is the important (getting paid, getting points) part. Once in the system the company may well use it, or abandon in in all sorts of ways.
This one however managed to get through and is a real genuine patent.
W00t!
It was a great idea around representing what people are doing in a real space or community. It was very web2.0 but the original file was back in 2002. Though the idea started in 2000.
It was also a joint one with Rob Lawrence, who used to be our creative director which makes it extra cool.

12th Wedding anniversary

13052007102, originally uploaded by epredator.

So mrs epredator and I had a night out at Kutis in Wickham. A new branch of a posh indian restaurant.
Greeted at the door by a gentleman in full ceremonial dress and whisked into a very purple environment.
The food was awesome, and some very different recipes aswell as the standard fayre.
Anyway, we were only out for a couple of hours but it was a great celebration of 12 years married.
It was a good time to take stock and consider the future. I still have no idea what that is, but I am sure some doors are now open that we did not consiuder before.
Of course I could just stil lbe believing my own hype, but what the heck :-)

Mixed mode living - Augmented reality

Mixed mode living, originally uploaded by epredator.

It is great to be able get an extra, dare I say augmented reality, set of feeds and ways to consume things that interest you. Of course we could ask why we have to use so many devices to mash these things together?

Perplexcity, they start young

13052007098, originally uploaded by epredator.

The cards for perplexcity have an intrigue even for the youngest player. Of course I dont think she will be solving any silvers in the near future, but the future looks promising :-)

Getting priorities straight

10052007094, originally uploaded by epredator.

I tried to blog this from the phone via shozu but it did not work, so doing this via flickr instead :-)
Double dragon on xbox live ! Awesome and had to take priority over the forza demo.
Kicking it old skool :-)

So what do I have to do then?

I am stressed!
Much of my current stressed state of mine will have been caused in my head by the bizzare way work has turned out.
The whole metaverse thing is really taking off and the more people that see me do my thing and see me enthuse, the more people who want my time, success is a great thing :-)
As I am ranting.....

We have ordered a car from Honda, from Alan Day in Portsmouth. They have been completely ignoring calls and not returning them for weeks. I had to go down than with baby in tow today just to be face to face with them. The salesman even tried lying to me there and then. Appaling customer service. "Oh we didnt want to call back as the news was not good as the date had slipped" WHAT !!!! Selling cars and dealing with car customers IS their business.
Secondly wandering around trying to get hold of a Nokia USB charger for the n95. It does not charge from teh USB data cable, that is ratehr silly. Equally 10 mobile phone shops full of accessories and "experts" had no idea why I would want to charge my phone from my computer. Still Amazon have one so there is a bright point to finish on.

Perplexity is back and better than ever

Way back in January 2006 I blogged on eightbar about perplexcity, then here.
Recently we have bumped into the mindcandy guys at various events and it is great that season two is on its way, or even started depending on where the rabbit hole is.
So now its off to do some cards and get the brain cells going.
I seem to have got some competition from fellow eightbars too.

Getting a signal

This evening we walked down a road for 15 minutes to one of the predlets pre-school, for a parents evening.
Just out of interest I sparked up the n95 to hunt for wireless networks whilst walking. I was expecting 1 or two but there were about 20. They were (apart from 1 secure) a mixture of netgear, belkin, sky and bt hubs.
Firstly, this was surprising that ther were this many, secondly we were walking a fair way from the front of the houses all set back in their gardens.
It is a pity that we can all use the networks in a open way, but still it seems that wireless is really catching on even in a sleepy coastal village.

Winchester tower of light still works

The Winchester tower of light near the cathedral still worked. Its a light sculpture that you are able to SMS a message to and things happen. A night out with Babbage Linden led to this structure. So here you see, albeit in the dark the SMS to sculpture, which was live web cast just for a laugh.
Babbage got a response SMS from the system about the sculpture 2002/2003

More Comvu

My fascinating video, as streamed to the world on comvu gets posted to youtube too!

Streaming life from a mobile

It would appear that streaming live video is the weapon of choice for all us web 2.0+ crew.
Having recently got a Nokia 95, as I had the urge to move from a drab work account to a shiny new all singing all dancing t-mobile one, I have been playing with all the bits and pieces.
So, I now have sat nav in the car as the n95 is gps and map enabled. I have hooked up to Flickr to post images, and this blog to post comments.
I have posted to youtube a video that the phone mixed itself (is low quality as its an MMS message "muvee". This was through ShoZu thanks to peder for twittering that to me :-)
Tonight I signed up to Comvu and now have the ability to stream video from the phone to a streaming server for the viewing publics pleasure. There has been a lot of this going on on ustream.tv but this allows me to hit the streaming servers in a way suited to mobiles. Of course the neat thing is the n95 will use a WiFi network, such as one at home to do the streaming and not bust the fair use policy.
The video and photos can also be geotagged using the GPS device builtin. Its all easily available commercial stuff. Not overly robust, things do crash sometimes but its way easier than is used to be!
Its all very cool and interesting and just a little bit mad :-)

Green cheese

Green cheese, originally uploaded by epredator.

The organic cheese from Tesco makes it look like it is mouldy. Its horrible packaging

Knight rider prizes

Knight rider prizes, originally uploaded by epredator.

My millions of us prizes arrived to day from teh hammer and coop mini photo comps

Are you sheep electric?

Are you sheep electric?, originally uploaded by epredator.

Epredator bumps into some sheep? But are they electric?
More real life/virtual life crossover

moblogging

it is amazing what you can do with a decent mobile i am just doing this from my n95 on my home wireless loads more to do with video and flickr

Hursley Island is born

Hursley Island is born, originally uploaded by epredator.

Hursley island in SL is just over a year old. W00t

Epredator on imvu

epredimvu, originally uploaded by epredator.

I finally got around to signing up on IMVU.
Its chat with avatars, it looks really nice.
I have not experimented with the whole room ownership/design thing yet

epredator in habbo hotel

epredahabbo, originally uploaded by epredator.

Well my green spikey hair little self has joined habbo hotel. The room for eightbar is a little sparse :-)

Activeworlds - its still around

I got prompted (thanks Sandy) into looking at Activeworlds again. A good few years ago when I was trying to some investment in a company called SmartVR activeworlds was out there. A few of us dabbled but at the time, the infrastructure and machines to access it just were not up to it.
Activeworlds are still there and looking pretty good.
epredator is already in there and wandering about, and soon eightbar will have some sort of presence.
It was broadway that caught my eyes and ears. A few more people in there with me and, well its a metaverse so we can do metaversal things

Rockabilly history part ii - Guitar hero its all linked!

guitar hero II, originally uploaded by epredator.

I have been really enjoying blasting through guitar hero ii. As a not very good but enthusiastic guitar player this gave me quite a buzz. Its not the same, but it is.
However the really trange part was that admist all the ozzy, pearl jam, stone temple pilots (and the excellant swwet child of mine by G'n'R) this awesom game served up "Rock this Town" but the stray cats.
So... the serendipity and connections continue extending this post rockabilly history
So my favourite group of my formative years, rediscovered because of a memory sparked by the movements of babbage to Brighton and now blasting out of my Xbox360 in a game not unlike my favourite of all time "Quest for fame" - WOW.
I have twittered and flickred and now blogged. If you have a 360, and like music. BUY THIS!
My fingers now hurt pressing the button, I have that guitar RSI going too.

What a week/month stop I want to get off

There seems to be so much going on, much of it metaversal.
Several trips to London both presenting at unusual venues such as under the influence and going to the Open Rights Group meeting.
More than ever though, and as an opposite to the view that online virtual worlds make you introverted this has been about meeting people.
Hanging with Ren Reynolds, Eric Rice, Roo, Kosso of podcast and bloghud and meeting new people like Justin from the music group Redzone.
Having been doing lots of SL I was convinced (by ren) to go back to There.com and give it a longer go. Not least because There were opposite the IBM stand I spent a few days on at Virtual Worlds 2007

I ended up buying a very cool buggy and razzed around, after a very odd conversation about metrosexuality with a There resident concerned about how his trousers looked.



Twitter has taken up a fair amount of time and SMS usage too. Its facsinting the way that is binding people across many platforms and giving a feeling of connectedness.

I am also trying to document the history of IBM and eightbar in Second life and virtual worlds. Partly for fun and partly for when people ask, "so what did you do then? and why? and when?" before it all fades into metaverse rock and roll obscurity.

Still did the whole ego trip thing on jyte (blame roo for getting me on that)

tiger pee

tiger pee, originally uploaded by epredator.

Is this as obvious as "Your coffee may be hot"?
Marwell zoo's famous stay away from the wet end of a tiger aswell as the sharp end.

wannabe aimee weber

wannabe aimee weber, originally uploaded by epredator.

After VW2007 sophie saw stuff about aimee on the web, and decided to join in in RL (as she is too young to go near SL)

I won a photo comp with millionsofus:-)

Millionsofus have a photo competition for hammer and coop powered by mini.
This morning I noticed a 'photograph a villain' competition and happened to have this costume from haloween. I decided to stand in my timeless prototype camp fire and let the flames zoom up over me on my land I rent from Jessica Qin on Austin. So my extra land has been very useful. I also love snapzilla


Well they seem to have picked me as a winner :-)

Tonight I'm a rock 'n' roll star

My recent trip to New York for Virtual Worlds 2007 was very much a work trip. However it was also social. I got to meet some really famous (in my metaversal circles) people. Many of whom I have already met in blogs and in Second Life and alike.
However it was a great ego boost, albeit a tongue in cheek one, to be treated and respected as one of this group that I aspire to.
Several people actually told me I was a rock and roll star. Well I will take that one and feel good about it :-)
I just twittered "Starting to believe own hype :-) just need the metaverse equivalent of a multi mill$ recording contract any offers ? :-)"
Anyway, it was my SL rez day the last day of the conference and it was a great meet up all day and then later in the pub. My bag got a little guiness on it, via another famous avatar.
I am also convinced that Frodo Baggins wandered past in the bar we were in, of course it may have been the fumes from Ren Reynolds White Russian (the drink of a philosopher)

PS3 looks good to me

Okay so the delivery of my Game 3.0 machine having been ordered in a Web 2.0 way was not delivered very smoothly. Parcel Force Worldwide seemed to have hired some new drivers who were unable to find our house.
So I ended up with a mad dash to the depot (down the road) and caught them despite being out of hours.
Anyway, that done, and having no games (as they were coming by snail mail ) I nipped to Argos and got a couple more.
So what is it like?
Well it does look like a george foreman lean min fat grilling machine. It also DOES NOT COME WITH ANY HD CABLES AT ALL. How mad is that, I had my HD cable on the way for HDMI but figured I would have atleast had a component cable for the massive amount of money I was spending.
So I plugged it all on on old fashioned scart and sparked it up. Machines being connected now means that developers can get lazy and it spent a little while (once my wireless WEP key was entered using the on screen keyboard) updating itself.
I also tried to associate my playstation europe login that has my PSP registered as an existing login for the ps3 online network, but it turns out thats a 'different' system so I ended up re-registering to get online as epredator.
So I was at this point mildy annoyed, but still looking forward to some actual games.

Virtua Tennis 3 was first, and off to 'wimbledon' even though the name is not use. This has always been a fantastic game and the PS3 new version made for some great entertainment and I am very pleased with it. It may not be much better than the 360 version in reality but what the heck.

Virtua Fighter 5. This is awesome, I have always lover VF. It was the first proper 3d fighting game in the arcades and I still remember the moment I saw it running as a blocky low polygon game. despite loving it my wife elemming still manages to beat the c*ap out of me on it as I think too much and she button mashes. Eventually I will win over as I get the buttons and timing in my fingers but for now she is house champ.

I then downloaded some demos/freebies.

Formula 1 - Erm.... Wow. It looks awesome, TV like. I still had a quick go with automatic braking on so that messed it up a bit experience wise. But loved the look, I love F1. Just a pity as per usual it last years season.

Gran Turismo HD - One track, free game. Bloody awesome. It is pure GT. The replays nearly made me wet myself. Online ranking for timed laps is the basic structure. Blows all the other real car racing games away even as a mini HD demo.

The next day my HDMI cable and my two launch games arrived.

HDMI cable, HD (only 1080i on our TV but you cant have everything

Resistance Fall of Man. 3d shooter, not as good as I had expected a bit linear. The physics and AI might be great, and the depth of the graphics etc. May take a bit to get into. Its not call of duty or Halo.

Then....... Motorstorm. Blooming heck this is AWESOME. The HD intro, I was not sure which bits were real or rendered. The game, off road racing, dirt, deforming sand particles on the track. Tilting controller as you restle with the ruts and bumps in bikes, lorries, rally cars with a stonking soundtrack. The star of the show for me. Pure run, awesome Audio and Visuals.

Of course this was a quick set of dips into PS3, life intervenes and I am off to NY this week.

Other things that surprised and delighted me.

1. Sticking photos on the hardrive with an SD card and then using the 'photo album' slide show. This is a 3d animation of your photos as if they were paper and thrown onto a desk as the days scroll by. It is beautiful and engaging.

2. PSP remote. You pair your PSP with the PS3 and the PS3 is then put in remote mode. The PSP (where ever you are in range) will get a rendering of the PS3 screen. Some games will also work apparently. However, it means you can browse the photos as in 1 above, but on your PSP, with the ps3 doing all the rendering. Not sure I explained that but its very good.

There are some youtubes people have done. Does not do teh HD justice :-) but imagine this whilst tilting your PS3 controller.



Some footage of the photo album browser too



PSP remote play video too



Finally I woudl really have liked to have had Home ( the virtual world doodah) there for launch. Its one of teh reasons I felt I should get a PS3 both as a gamer and metaverse evangelist. Just gogin to have to wait until Autumn, I should have realized! Damn release dates and schedules.
Also really looking forward to Little Big Planet, but I am happy to let them get that right!

continuous partial attention, erm I think

I recently twittered that I found 1,650 references in a goolge seacrh to continuous partial attention. So I thought I would do something to save having read all of those entries in a CPA/Web2.0 type way as a joke.
I created a yahoo pipe which takes a search of yahoo for CPA and then pumps that into content analysis which then pumps that into Flickr to find photos that represent the content analysis of the CPA entries.
What does it mean? I have no idea!

Red nose day, is this wrong to be able to see it on youtube?

I managed to miss a lot of comic relief this year, though I did record it on sky+.
Giving money to red nose day is essential as a n organization is does fantastic work AND provides great entertainment.
So seeing this fantastic sketch up on youtube, does that mean that people are going to watch and not donate? Does it mean that DVD fund raising sales will lower later?
I dont think so, I think that it is great that many more people will get to see these fantastic bits of comedy and get made aware or comic relief.

Kaneva and Second Life

Kaneva and Second Life, originally uploaded by epredator.

I have had a quick go with my apartment in Kaneva. First things first a picture form Second Life of epredator to stick on the wall.
Blending?

Kaneva apartment

kvpred, originally uploaded by epredator.

After a faltering start on vista using xp has let me get to my kaneva apartment. It just needs some furniture.

rockabilly history

Youtube does it again. My favourite song of all time Stray Cat Strut



I ended up looking for this due to a chain of events again.

I was helping find some music to calm baby Sam. So my itunes was being shuffled through. I then realized when I read a twitter about Jim Purbrick being in Brighton that I did not have Rumble in brighton on itunes. All my stray cats is on vinyl. I was a rockabilly when everyone was doing punk. So I hit the shop to find Rumble on Brighton and bumped into a superb Brian Setzer Orchestra best of live album. Including a cool version of the strut. So I downloaded it.

Meanwhile I had thrown together a video of Sophie's favourite game grape escape


Was uploading to youtube and thought, oooh stray cats I wonder, surely they wont be on there. Sure enough they were.

So now I am thinking I need a new avatar to sport the massive hair setzer style that I used to have when I was a kid growing up as a rockabilly rebel.

Its all too superb to take in.

Some more cool stuff

I managed to get all fired up by the PS3 keynote and in the midst of all that my new work laptop arrived.
So I now have to do all teh installs and moves of data etc, play with Second Life on it generally give it a work out.
However, GRAW2 for teh 360 has just come through the door and that needs a good session on it.
All that I am supposed to be helping build the mega power that is eightbar in Eve online.
Starting to look like there is too much to do :-)

Anyone ever seen one of these before?

IMGP0729, originally uploaded by epredator.

I have been looking at some of my old gadgets, getting a bit retro to help Sophie learn some stuff. The PC is an obvious vehicle, but this little gizmo I used to find fascinating and I have never seen one anywhere else.
Of course now I just googled it and it still exists.
Now I neeed to see if we can get some more cards for it.

Blending Mickey? as Spin says?

IMGP0690, originally uploaded by epredator.

Here we have teh updated Mickey Mouse all CGI paused on a Sky + PVR whilst at the same time enjoying the original B&W mickey on Youtube on a wireless laptop.
All to show my dad what this mad world is now all about.

Stuck on the A34

IMGP0709, originally uploaded by epredator.

I tried to drive to Warwick on Wednesday. Got 50 of teh 120 miles and the a34 got shut. We did not move much for 3 hours.
This amusingly dirty lorry was near me. It made me laugh.
The other picture on Flickr after it is so I have the timestamp for the fact we had not moved very much at all.

So Twitter/Tumblr/Blogs too many?

I have been sucked into twitter and now tumblr. It is hard to know where to post what. Its very exciting to have to find some sort of filter or meta voice to go across all these.
With all teh other things, and places to be. The world certainly is not shrinking !

Two of everything but still get a bluescreen of death

My new machine, the dual core, dual SLI gfx cards and 2 Gb is actually very good. I am pleased with it. Though I cant say I have gone WOW at Vista. Yes its nice, but the first time I put my machine into sleep mode I got a Blue Screen of Death. Maybe it knows who I work for.
So I am busy gettgin all the bits I need where I need them, recovering my itunes, setting up the media centre to talk to the 360 etc. It all takes too much time.
I got lots looking for outlook express, but it is now Windows Mail. Seemed to work teh same though not very good at getting my imported stuff from my old machine. Its great when a windows product does not recognize a windows file extension.
Still, it seems to work, its very fast and most of all both the first look and old school versions of Second Life seem to be working. VERY FAST !
I can now run FRAPS and go all machinima rather than my previous youtube movie which was a video camera pointed at the screen.

Crackdown rocks

As the title Crackdown on 360 is very good, must play, but working call first its 10pm :-)

How hard can it be to deliver a computer?

Given my 3 year old desktop at home melted I bought a new Mesh computer.
Firstly I had the very helpful barclaycard fraud detection squad stop the transaction phone my work voicemail (despite the message saying I am not here) which then took 1 hour to sort out with them and with Mesh.
I had planned to work at home tommorrow, specifically to be in for the delivery of the new machine (more critical now as my work machine is on the way out). They phoned me at 6 pm today to say "sorry there has been a slight delay". The slight delay is actually 7 days! Apparently the defualt excuse is that "we are waiting on the hard drive from the supplier". A bit odd that, not an uncommon part.
So having rearranged meetinegs etc I am now left with having to move stuff next week. I have no machine, and they already have the money. I picked Mesh because I bough my in-laws a machine a while back and I was impressed, but thinking back that was a week over too. Could it be part of the business? Take the money, delay a week must be some profit in that?
Anyway, noit sure if that will inform anyones buying decision. I am sure the machine will be lovely next week, I get less of a clash playing crackdown as that's on its way too now.
Anyway up to you, customer service atleast they told me. hmmmm not great.
Mesh
*UPDATE This I actually good, but could have been tricky. My machine has now been delivered only one day late. i.e. It came on friday (today). This is fantastic news, and I am lucky Jan was in.
So Mesh are back in my good books, but they did set my expectations in a strange way :-)

Roo Reynolds aka Algernon Spackler

Roo Reynolds aka Algernon Spackler, originally uploaded by rooreynolds.

I have to work and share an office with this.
Roo blended his RL with his SL
I have blended my avatars instead :-)

vanity pipe

Well I had to have a go with yahoo pipes and made a vanity pipe for second life references and me :-)

Much rejoicing as the gamerpoints mount up

I finally overtook aidy in gamerpoints on Xbox Live yesterday. Whilst playing, of all things in this HD interconnected hi tech gaming world paperboy.
I am not sure Aidy realized that we were in competition, and its not that hard to rack up some achievments. However, as gamers we just play. We seem to have a similar set of games and turnover in getting new games too. He also seems to be slightly better than this aging gamer so I love a challenge.
I also rebranded my blades and gamer pic with battlestar graphics. Why, well I can and I like battlestar.

The first two cards are an image of the state of play. 5364 plays 5359



The second are the 'live' cards that will change over time so you will be able to see how much I have been beaten up for this post :-)

I love music but sometimes forget - Still the brits is great

We have got the Brits on TV tonight, live awards show. Firstly its great as it finally has come of age, gone live and suitably edgy. Russell Brand is a hoot and insane.
They just had Brand introduce Steven Tyler and Sophie Ellis Bextor (never would have thought I would ever see that) to introduce an award that the Killers got.
What was great was to see the Red Hot Chilli Peppers perform. I have been a fan since the first time I saw and heard give it away on MTV. I am so glad they have become such a mega band as people used to say 'who?', the same used to happen with Green Day.
The other weirdness is that I have to admit I really like the Take That song that the reformed boy band did. Patience as a song is crafted and performed so well that it is impossible to ignore. It seems like it could have been pushed out in any genre and work.

Now I have to say that I never thought with my rock, blues and rap portfolio that I would ever post a youtube link of take that!
I alway sused to make a rule I woudl not buy a CD (yes old skool) if it did not have a parental advisory sticker on it. But music is music.
And what do you know they just one the first live brit vote for the best single.

Guiness Hands, Genius!

I was getting a little creeped out by the new guinness TV adverts. However, whilst watching the one in the middle of electra glide in blue on Film4 I bothered to follow the URL.
This website and the advert are as per usuall with guiness pure genius.
It reminds me of the I like monday video (must be a b3ta.com (viewer discretion a must))
Also there was a dnacing cow/cheesse online video maker back in the 99/2k era which I seem to have lost.
Still whilst looking for the odd cow rock video I found let them sing it for you again

Back to work - paternity leave is over

My paternity leave finished and I was back in the swing of things today. Thats not to say I have not been stil lin touch, both read and writing blogs, popping into Second Life and keeping tabs on all things metaversal of course.
For me everything it a continuum, a set of threads interwoven through many parts of life. Stopping cuts these threads.
Twenty, or even ten years ago these threads would not have really existed in most people lifes. For me though they do now, they are enabled and enhanced by much of the technology and by a willingness to use it.
Now its not to everyones taste, but for me it works. Seeing these patterns, keeping them going is a skill and not everyone can do it, measure it or even accept it, but the world takes all sorts :-)

I just realized no trackbacks on blogger.com

I was scanning my blog feeds and ended up on wonderland about a battlestar game I then realized, after some hunting down that this blogger.com - its google its easy place doesnt do trackbacks!
What a pain!
So I am guessing I will have to look at moving. Trackbacks, both serious and comedy, are far too important to miss out.
Anyway the post was about battlestar and games and here is the game I have from back in the day

Will everything stop breaking?

Just before christmas my work laptop decided it had looked at the mean time to failure and it needed to blow up. It got fixed of course but it was a bit of a pain. Now my home desktop has joined it. It is a bit old, but I usually get a decent one to last for a good few years.
The laptop failure was fairly consistent, the desktop though.... Sometimes it powers up, sometimes it does not. Sometimes it packs in half way through doing stuff.
None of the diagnostics or apps I have seem to think its a disk problem. The fact even the bios startup does not always happen makes it look like something nasty and hardware related.
So it looks like I now have a new one on the way, assuming the credit card fraud detection has not annoyed the supplier. This also means I enter the world of Vista, so I guess it had to happen at some time.
That reminds me, I am veyr annoyed at msoft using "WoW" for vista as thats nicking Wow from world of warcraft. Deliberate?
I also had the pleasure of taking my car in for some new tyres. One on each corner was needed, oh and the brakes on the front were toasted too, so an expensive day.
Still, its all my own fault, using these things so much.

Radiophonics workshop - counterpoint

As a delightful counterpoint to Benidorm there is a superb programme on " the alchemists of sound" devoted to the bbc radionphonics workshop on right now. I have a special affinity to this group of explorative sound engineers and composers. When I was a kid I was brought up on Dr Who and lots of mad science programmes. When I got to filling in a career/personality survey when I was 8 yeard old it suggested I join the radiophonics workshop. Now I have messed with editing tapes, and cine film so appreciate the benfits of digital composition and the art of the analogue.
Roo has made some tunes but I wont expose the world to my my stop start and splice tape remixes though vince clarke got one of my c=64 creations in a competition
I even wrote an academic piece on music concrete(say in a french accent) back in the day.
I also spent a good few years with a reel to reel as a kid. Which is why I love computers so much.
There is art in the digitial and in the them of Dr Who! Who is not moved by that !

Brits abroad - Benidorm on the TV

I have just watched the second episode of the cringe worthy Bendidorm. Anyone who has been to any of the places we have caused to be ruined will cringe and laugh at brits abroad.
It is a genius bit of writing, but hits the cringe nerve just like "the office" does.
The set of characters, an aging set of swingers with no moral compass, the posh couple who have booked by mistake, the gay couple disgusted by the manners and style, the family with a brat boy, pregant 16 year old and annoying mother in-law and Johnnyt Vegas with his mum as a pub quiz champion. Genius.

epredator in there.com

epredator in there.com, originally uploaded by epredator.

I had to give it a go again. This time the real epredator. Not as instantly interesting as Second Life. However the more fixed nature of it may be a good model for more baked environments.

Eightbar diversifies

For a while now a few of us have been, and still are writing on eightbar. Many of the emerging tech founders of eightbar have now either started, or restarted blogs of their own. It is not a rock and roll split. but merely our needs to express some of our own interests and ideas. A communal blog you have to consider your fellow contributors.
Eightbar has also been a victim of its own success in all things metaverse and Second Life. So we have to consider what impact any article may have on a wider audience.
Daz had his blog for ages, Roo has become more prolific recently and the latest to join the fray is Rob. This is worrying competition as Rob often excels in everything he tries. Daz used to try and compile a list of things that Rob can't do and that was very short.
So far from a beatles/the who/guns and roses/take that/busted (delete for applicable era) band split we are in fact spreading our experiences and giving ourselves a bit of breathing space.
Well I think so anyway.

16-14 to the colts?

I am not sure how the Colts have managed to come back from the the first seconds kick return in the superbowl, but repsect to them.
Prince did a very good set at half time. Purple rain was very good as it is chucking it down with driving rain.
They have 47 HD cameras, so we are getting to see all the rain drops close up and personal.
***Update I managed to miss the last few minutes of the superbowl, due to an overwhelming desire to sleep. However, good on the Colts for their 29-17 victory. I am sure my congrats will mean a lot to them :-) I am still not sure how they managed to get back from the crushing first few seconds.

1 of 176 for the Superbowl

The coverage is off an running to 176 countries for the Superbowl (for me on Sky HD.) I am always struck by some cultural differences and some TV madness.
We have Cirque de Soleil doing the pre game show. Probably a little bit too soft I would have thought, more like an Olympics. Still Janet Jackson, mind you that was mid game ?
Billy Joel sand away at the national anthem. It was good as he seemed to just sing it. Very often there seems to be lots of over interpretation and changes put into the song. Some thing that tends not to happen with other national anthems.
There was an amazingly well times fly over of jets just as the song finished, very impressive.
Then there is the coin toss. It is a massive ritual with lots of statistical analysis afterwards. A quote from Kevin on Sky "At the end of the toss one team has the ball one team does not"!
In this case Chicago won the toss, made my ex Dolphins star player Dan Marino.
So I am sitting here and now am eating my own words. Chicago (Hester) just recieved the kick, and most amazingly the ball was run the entire length of the field to score ! The 8th kick return for score a touchdown in Superbowl history and the first ever on a starting kickoff!
I need to stop typing and start watching. Go Bears :-)

A room with a Roo

IMGP0645, originally uploaded by epredator.

Roo and Rachel came around today to meet Sam.
Roo had been off on a work trip to NY and was no doubt jet lagged.
It was good to see them both. Sophie really enjoyed her present a "make a phot album" kit that she got straight into. Sam has a really cure cuddly lamb and I have my techno pack from the work trip, including a very cool Samsung yp-t9 MP3/Video player for some work testing in the near future.
We both noted the irony of some recent converstations

Superbowl in HD

I am looking forward to watching the NFL superbowl tonight. I finally get to watch it in HD, thanks to sky sports and my christmas present of an HD box:-)
I have always had an interest in American Football since way before it got coverage on Channel 4.
It used to have highlights of the superbowl on World of Sport with Dickie Davies, usually with the Steelers or the Cowboys back in those days.
I got to play it at an american school in Norfolk one afternoon when I was about 12. I did not think I was overly aggressive but someone managed to break their fingers on me.
The only pro game I have seen was the New England Patriots a few years ago in an opener against Arizona Cardinals. It was a superb sporting experience even if they stopped you buying too much beer.
I was not too sure who to support in this case but I am swung by people I know and where they live

Xbox 360 demos - Crackdown

I left the 360 downloading a few game demos and got a just to play them just now.
I have to say that Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 looks and plays very well. The first GRAW (a.k.a. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 3: Advanced Warfighter) was very good apart from the very annoying "loose your squad have to do it on your own -- in the dark" mission which annoyed me.
However the best demo from today, and the one that is a definite purchase is Crackdown.



Images from the fansite kit very Web2.0 to release the artwork for people to explore themselves.

This feels like a real step forward for the free roaming GTA-alike. GTA is about vehicles and has added being on foot. It has been a very good franchise and will remain a top favourite as I even enjoyed the original 2d top down old school versions. It does however, currently atleast, stick with being 'real'. It does have a great spirit and feel.
Feel, spirit and attitude in a game is a hard one to quantify. Any experience has to make it into your fingers, your brain and your heart to be effective. All types of games and simulators have a formula but formulas can still have spirit. Rocky is just a boxing film, Star Wars just a space battling good versus evil yarn etc.
Your character in Crackdown not only drives and shoots but gradually gains strength and the ability to leap and climb some very tall buildings. It gives it a flavour of parkour. The free roaming with guns and cars, the semi super hero feel to it all make it compelling. Very Spider man or predator flavour in that respect.
It has much from an RPG with a huge area to explore and the more you play the better you get. The online experience looks like it has a more MMO element to it with Co-op. For a demo to be able to stand up to this free roaming nature and to not get lost of wonder what to do next is an achievement.
Sometimes I would rather just get the full game rather than get dissapointed by a bad demo of a really great game. In this case though its going to be a must purchase. Off to order it now.

Star wars shortened

Several times at home I have now seen the very funny star wars shortened, usually the reduced shakespeare company perfom the bard, but here they do Lucas.
Its on youtube in 2 parts and very funny!
Part 1 and Part 2
The screaming video response by ajaxsempahor is also worth watching as its one of the very talented crew who do the reduced series.

Cool predator video on youtube

The previous post led me to have a quick look around youtube. This one surprised me a bit. 1 its very well done, 2) No way would batman be that good :-)

Cool predator video on myspace

Whilst updating my myspace profile because Colin had decided that was where he wanted to hang out I found this awesome predator video
I have not really been 'doing' myspace or bebo for that matter. Preferring instead the direct interactions of Second Life and the professional links of linkedin
Also at work we have our bluepages+1 which acts as a page with all the blog and social bookmarks plus tags and ratings. Its a bit of a lepa for many people to use these, but clearly they have a place in a non centralized self organizing web 2.0+1 type of way.

A worldwide launch

map2, originally uploaded by epredator.

When Sam was born I had restarted this blog. I blog regulalry internally at work and get to see some indication of the readership. Numbers are not everything, but I do like this world map of all the people who came to see Sam's first news.
Its from google analytics, which I must say is very impressive.

Metaverse Evangelist on official public record

We just got back from registering Sam's birth. The registrar asked my occupation so I said Metaverse Evangelist. Jan's was Finance and Planning manaager, though we nearly had a mistype on the record as Fnance and Plumbing manager.
So its now on the birth certificate and official. For the stats people a short description came out as Online Virtual Worlds. It felt like a start to the Jedi religion swamping census forms and becoming official.
The registrar made a comment "that will give them something to think about!"

Had a bit of time last night world domination continues

Everyone went to bed very well last night. So I did a quick Second Life update, read and listened to the Reuters article with Mitch Kapor and then dived into Eve-online for a relaxing hour or so. It was that or viva pinata on the xbox 360, but I wanted to save that as Sophie is enjoying it.


Anway the eightbar corporation has now been created in Eve. I may have been a little bit premature as I ended up renting a very cheap office for us and the corp has 1 member so far!


Its based over at the Unel IX Chemal Tech Factory in the Sing Laison region (apparently).



I had a conversation recently about pinky and the brain with a fellow eightbar in Second Life activist sparked by the a common appreciation of Black Adder and Monty Python


The cartoon's famous tagline is: "Come Pinky, we must prepare for tomorrow night" "Gee, Brain, what are we doing tomorrow night?" "The same thing we do every night Pinky — Try to take over the world!" which is something I used to play on my desktop theme back when I started on web project in 1997.

So look out world :-)

Kid blogs

I managed to get around to setting up & domain for sam and a blog. I also pointed sophies url to a new blog. See right hand panel.
Http://sophieellenhughes.com and http://samueltobyhughes.com
A bit light on content but it does mean that this blog will get back to normal. I am still amazed that we can register a domain and set up stuff in an instant but have to go to all sorts of lengths to register sam to the state. Including writing a cheque for three pounds, driving to a tiny office where only the mother need be present and then wait for the certificate of birth in the post. Still I guess that is what happens when you are a techie sitting blogging from a phone whilst your daughter runs around the playshack adventure playground, you sort of expect it all to be this easy.

First pictures of Sam

I will be giving him his own blog very soon but for now here is Sophie, Mum and baby Sam.
Thankyou everyone for the kind comments and support, we are all very grateful and happy.
Time to go off the grid for a few days :-)

A baby boy

Samuel toby hughes 8lb 4. Born 11.10 pm 24th january.
Everyone is very well and very happy

At the hospital

Mad dash now here

Soothing I think not

We just got back from the mid-wife and she has initiated the paperwork/carrier pidgeon/smoke message to the various arms of the NHS to get ready for a potential induction. We are not likely to need that (he writes in a weird reverse psychology mind magic type way).
It is set for Monday at 6pm. Its supposed to be Sunday but they are fully booked. I guess lots of people are clenching in the cold weather.

Jan is back playing Zuma on the 360. The music is an infuriating jungle aztec drum with some ping noises as the balls fly. You now the sort of thing you get in these puzzle games.

I have a theory that when he shows up, unlike some babies who need to hear the neighbours theme, or whatever their mum watched on TV to soothe them he is going to need Zuma playing.
I dont think popcap have it on itunes, I must go and look though.
The mid-wife though says everything is all ready to go and things are happening just frustratingly slow for all concerned.

The midwife beckons

Jan has an appointment with the midwife this afternoon. I think she is going to try and entice "baby linden" out with the promise of sweets or some xbox live achievment points.
Things are still happening, regular(ish). It is hard not to get complacent and forget that the mad dash could happen at any moment.
Nearest geek analogy

The 13th Labour

A while back I managed to get the ARG perplex city.com card the thirteenth labour.
I had not been back to it in a while, but clearly it has not been solved. I spent a week solid trying to work it out and got quite annoyed.
I had not been back to it, but in wanting to let people know about Jan's labour I went back and had a look.
So I have still not solved the 13th labour and Jan is still in early labour.
We are still at home, things are happening every 15 minutes or so, they started early this morning. Yesterday it was 20 minutes but started at lunchtime.

Blackadder my second favourite quote

Blackadder has so much quotable stuff. My second favourite one just turned up on late night TV.
This on whilst not voiced as its too long as a one liner makes me chuckle when I come across any mad planning

Melchett: You look surprised, Blackadder.

Edmund: I certainly am, sir. I didn't realise we had any battle plans.

Melchett: Well, of course we have! How else do you think the battles are directed?

Edmund: Our battles are directed, sir?

Melchett: Well, of course they are, Blackadder -- directed according to the Grand Plan.

Edmund: Would that be the plan to continue with total slaughter until every- one's dead except Field Marshal Haig, Lady Haig and their tortoise, Alan?

Melchett: Great Scott! (stands) Even you know it! Guard! Guard! Bolt all the doors; hammer large pieces of crooked wood against all the windows! This security leak is far worse than we'd imagined!

All the scripts are here

Now a game of guess my most favourite quote :-)

Hmmm, not sure what to do now in limbo

We have spent the evening rating and timing various contraction like movements. The need to do something, timing them writing them down is really a replacement for not being able to help a lot. Something is certainly happening but Jan has gone to bed now having sat up waiting for it all to start properly.
So once again I guess I will sparking up Eve( No long missions though.) and a bit of work in Second Life, Snapzilla/Flickr etc whilst I am on standby. I certainly cant risk going to sleep too early!
So apologies to family and friends out there. At the time of writing its not likely to be today and I have given up predicting anything.
I almost did not bother writing this post, but I know if I dont some people will assume we are all systems go for the baby.

Here we go again?

Every 20 minutes since lunch, sounds promising.

Day 725 in the big mother house

Last night things slowed down again. Though it is the most promising flase alarm yet. I have had to tell so many people that I am about to be out on paternity that I am worried people are going to start not believing me.
However Jan is definitely pregnant, lovely and radiant.
Come on "baby linden" lets see you soon the world is waiting :-)

Looks like another late night

Things must be happening, we have the notebook out taking the timings. If you have seen coupling on the TV then you will get a kick out of that.
We seem to be on regular 30 minute twinges. They, whoever they are, say 5-10 minutes and its time to go to the hospital.
Tommorrow is my Mum's birthday so she hopes baby Linden arrives tomorrow as a birthday present.

It must be soon

The midwife visits

The midwife just came to the house. Without too much detail, dilation has started, though not full labour. Jan has an appointment on wednesday that the midwife thinks it is unlikely we will have to go to.
fingers crossed. I am work at home, but not do things that I cant drop in an instant.

Or maybe not

I managed to get to the notebook stage to write down what went where. But as you will see from the amount of flickr photos I have transferred in concerning all things metaverse. Still here......
So I have managed to get up April 4th to July 7th done so far. 279 out of 862 so I have a way to go!
The photos form a large part, or maybe total part of the book I need to write about innovation, politics, using web2.0 and finding likeminded people.

This could be it?

I was busy pushing my 900+ Second Life snapzilla shots over to flickr as a historical record of 2006. I had to stop that and I was busy helping Andy with his mega yacht in Second Life on Hursley, when Jan said. oooooh that was a longer contraction.
So we could be on for tonight. Of course we have had false alarms the last few days, but he must be wanting to get out.
I was joking with Jan that I needed to make sure I had some skills training on Eve, that take a long while. So, thats what I am doing now.