Particles are back in the LHC!

countdown is ticking to restart of the worlds biggest science experiment..

from CERN website


Last weekend (23-25 October) particles once again entered the LHC after the one-year interruption following the incident of September 2008. Particles travelled through one sector clockwise and one anticlockwise. ALICE and LHCb, the two experiments sitting along the portion of the beam lines in question, were able to observe the first effects of real beams in the machine.

Android Eclair 2.0 SDK released / GoogleMaps Turn by Turn Nav

well the android bus just never stops ....

Motorola Droid phone launched
Motorola Droid specs..

which runs the newly released
Android 2.0 Eclair
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)

On October 26, 2009 the Eclair (2.0) SDK was released. Among the changes are :
New application icons
Optimized hardware speed
"Car Home" app
Support for more screen sizes and resolutions
Revamped UI
New browser UI
New contact lists
Better white/black ratio for backgrounds
Improved Google Maps 3.1.2
Microsoft Exchange support
Built in flash support for Camera
Digital Zoom
Improved virtual keyboard
Bluetooth 2.1

but the best bit is multiple email accounts woohoo


woohoo , I can only hope samsung release a i7500 version soon (remember we havent even had Donut 1.6 yet!).
I'm still running I4 which has Cupcake 1.5

and even more icing on the Eclair (2.0) lol, they have also released FREE turn by turn sat nav ...
http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/10/announcing-google-maps-navigation-for.html

only works on 2.0 thought.

lots of lovely new features, and no need to pay for nav any more (but i'll have to keep CoPilot until a 2.0 android release is available)

alas , there may never be an Eclair 2.0 release for the i7500 , but we can only hope.
Whats certain is that google are pushing on to dominate the handheld market with Android (and that now includes netbooks etc)

new MINI : low oil pressure warning after oil service? heres the reason

Got a new shape MINI ??? recently had an oil filter change (service) , and now the oil pressure light comes on at idle???

the filter has probably been incorrectly fitted !!!!
Get it fixed ASAP.
Some info after a friend at work had a similar issue.

http://www.minicarparts.net/TechTips/MC_LowOilPressure.cfm
http://www.mini2.com/forum/first-generation-faults-fixes/161688-oil-light.html
http://tech.bentleypublishers.com/thread.jspa?threadID=29791&tstart=105
http://www.promini.com/technical/tech_tips/cooper_oil_filter.php

Star Wars Clone Wars Republic Heroes Wii = rubbish

no more to say , its utter rubbish , the developers should be ashamed to let this be released on a modern platform.

cut scenes are ok and give the 'impression' of a slick game but once past them its like an arcade game from the 80's (graphic quality included)

total waste of money, played for 20 minutes and now going on ebay...


makes Dead Space look EVEN better than 8/10.

other Dead Space Extraction reviews > 8 /10

from Game Rankings website

gets really good overall comments


GamingTrend 10/26/09 Review 88 out of 100
NZGamer 10/20/09 Review 8.5 out of 10
Console Obsession 10/16/09 Review 9 out of 10
Game Over Online 10/15/09 Review 85 out of 100
Zentendo 10/14/09 Review 8 out of 10
GameFocus 10/14/09 Review 9.9 out of 10
Nintendojo 10/13/09 Review 9 out of 10
GamingExcellence 10/13/09 Review 9.1 out of 10
Edge Magazine UK 11/01/09 Review 9 out of 10
Da GameBoyz 10/12/09 Review 8.5 out of 10

car tax time!

Car tax time.
Ibiza was preregistered , so it has come up at the same time as the GTI.

New Ibiza 5 door 1.4 16v (85 PS) = £125 = 1.4 engine

Golf 2.0 TFSI (230 PS) DSG GTI Edition 30 = £215 = 2.0 Turbo

Seat Ibiza 1.4 Ibiza Sport / Golf GTI Edition 30 mpg updates

a few more miles on the Seat Ibiza , 398 miles @ 41.8MPG

From Johns Car Blog

and for the Golf Edition 30 Apr stage 1
358 miles @ 29.9 MPG

From Johns Car Blog

completed Dead Space Extraction on Normal

yep indeedy, around 8-10 hrs playing time to the end.
pretty easy and only got killed 3 times I reckon, a lot easier that Metroid Prime Trilogy.
BUT thats only on 'Normal' , so I reckon it gets very hard very quickly going up a bit on the level difficulty.....

its a fantastic game though , the controls work well, speed and graphics are brilliant. only couple of times the frame rate slowed in heavy battles.
very immersive story , and pretty creepy if you play it at night with the lights off.

8/10 , buy it ...

Dead Space Extraction Wii walkthrough found

Chapters in Dead Space Extraction Wii :
WORLD'S APART
ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE
RETURN TO THE MEGAVENTS
RENDEZVOUS WITH FATE
EMERGENCY CARE
NOWHERE TO HIDE
LIFE AND DEATH
IN THE HEARTS OF MEN
ESCAPING THE ISHIMURA
SECRETS AND SALVATION


Im already at chapter 8 : IN THE HEARTS OF MEN , but I finally found a walkthrough :

Dead Space Extraction Wii Walkthrough on GameFAQS.com

enjoy

success! H6 to I4 firmware O2 UK Samsing I7500 using NPS

I backed up my installed apps to sd card using Astro first.

uninstalled the previous NPS
downloaded the new NPS
still wouldnt recognise the phone , no options in the upgrade dropdown WTF !
Anyway I manually uninstalled (via AddRemovePrograms in Control Panel) , NPS AND all the associated drivers one by one.
then restarted PC and reinstalled NPS
This time it worked!
only mode available is upgrade (i.e. the rest of the software is useless , you cant even backup!)

phone restarted just fine.
I have not done a reset yet
As reported in the forums the keyboard has changed , and for me it was no longer popping up when trying to create a text message (at this point I got worried).
However going into Gmail and creating a message and it started to work :-)

this may not be an issue if you reset the phone after the upgrade.
All data remained including apps.
I4 has the new switchers widget to toggle settings
Be interesting to see how the battery life is now .....

From Johns Car Blog

Samsung I7500 new NPS 1.3.0.IJ1 allows O2 UK phones to upgrade to I4

at last it seems I can update my firmware using an official method..
A new NPS means the 'unsupported device' message is gone and you can upgrade to I7500XXII4
(im on H6 just now)

will check for bugs in I4 before upgrading then go for it :-) woohoo

from
new NPS software link on Androidforums.com

new NPS download 1.3.0.vIJ1
Samsung download for NPS 1.3.0.vIJ1

apparently the LHC/Universe is stopping itself from working

Universe unwilling to reveal its secrets ???

"A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather"

mmmmmmm interesting hypothesis, feels like an episode of FlashForward

only 75 more years of faster computers....

only 75 more yrs of Moores Law!

"A pair of physicists has shown that computers have a speed limit as unbreakable as the speed of light. If processors continue to accelerate as they have in the past, we'll hit the wall of faster processing in less than a century."

hitler downfall parody clips

theres a few funny clips along these lines , but this is android related lol







heres a michael jackson one

Etymotic ER4P spare filters and ear buds

Have a fancy set of Etymotic ER4P in earphones plugged into my ipod for running.
Brilliant sound , but they inevitably lose sound after a while due to ear wax clogging the filters.
They are replaceable, along with the ear buds themselves.
Few places do the spares but I recently found a shop on ebay :
Etymotic ER4 spares on EBAY
ordered filters and new ear buds £11.50 for each the cheapest Ive found anywhere...
usually last a few months.

Golf GTI Edition 30 mpg update

260 miles @ 26 MPG , a bit of a low mpg tank this one
but my excuse is that I havent driven it lol
Amy has been using it (while I use the Ibiza), clearly she has a lead foot.
Either car , doesnt matter , with me driving its 5-10 MPG more ....

From Johns Car Blog

patience is wearing thin...Samsung I7500 switches off

phones been running well , no forced closes , good battery life ...
then over the last 2 days Ive had 2 instances when the phones just switched off!!!!

Only things Ive done differently are
1. performed a lot of application updates (either thru market , but mostly via aTrackDog (superb app btw))
2. added the Calendar widget to the RH desktop

ho hum, on both ocassions I needed to physically remove the battery to allow me to switch back on (long press on end call button)

Not impressed.
Im stuck on H6 firmware , I have always maintained I would try and upgrade officially via NPS software but if this continues I'll be doing it manually as I believe the later firmwares are better.

However as we all know , better the devil we know and H6 for me is in general pretty stable.

To Samsung : this phone is good but if all the bugs were ironed out and NPS was fixed fully this would be a class leader. missed opportunity.....

samsung i7500 battery life continued....

quick update

managed 6am sat to 8pm today (monday) 14+48 = 62 hrs on a single charge! woohoo
occasional text/internet/messaging with everything turned on (except GPS)

using my own experience and from the
Android Forums
its clear that any pressing of buttons whilst locked causes battery drain.
Of note the most likely candidate is the camera button which had a two stage press.
So just keep an eye on it , if your battery drains quickly.
that includes the case that comes in the box!

I would definitely recommend the clear case cover.
However because its brittle plastic it has limitations too, namely the tabs on mine have broken when I tried to seperate the 2 halves for the 3rd time...sigh
Its a good case though.

no update yet on when if ever Samsung will provide a working NPS for us UK users!
I would love to upgrade my firmware officially but alas not yet.
also waiting realy hoping they also release a 1.6 firmware too

LMGTFY

LetMeGoogleThatForYou

fed up of tiresome newbies posting on forums without doing simple web searches...
Heres the ultimate tool, records a 'faked search' to hint to others how its done lol

try it out

simple but useful dead space extraction wii tips video

More Dead Space Extraction Info

YouTube : 100 greatest hits in 4 minutes

idea for iPhone/Android widget : iEarn : how much money youve earnt hr/day/month/yr

came to me today and idea for an app.

You set an hourly rate (contractor) or your annual leave , yr wages etc.
Then the widget displays your accumulated earnings for hr/day/month/yr , whatever you like...
which increment by the second

iEarn
iEarnt
iWage

notifications for

tax limits hit
items you could have bought with todays/weeks wages link to web
% targets to item you want "you are 20% towards a Ferrari 456" lol

YikeBike

yikes!
bit pricey , limited range but hey it looks cool.
But not for fatties (100kg limit) , gonna have to keep on those 10k runs lol

Yikebike website

Google Apps Status Dashboard

its rare but recently gmail has been offline....
heres the page to check if you suspect theres an issue.

Google Apps Status Dashboard