Gidley Gossipings

16 May, 2006

I have just got a google notebook at http://www.google.com/notebook/user/04814795451745143598

This seems to be quite a cool service. Once you install the browser extension you can grab bits of web pages and keep them.

13 Apr, 2006

For reasons that don't really make much sense you can now access this site via http://gidley.eu as well as via http://www.gidley.co.uk. Very european of me!

28 Feb, 2006

Helen and I have just got a cat and kitten!

They are Parsnip

and Sprout

 (More)

12 Feb, 2006

28 Dec, 2005

I have recently started using Strongspaceto backup all my files. This is a really good service that provides 4Gb of space for $5 a month! The great thing about this is all our digital photo's can be kept safely. It is one of the major downsides of digital photography if your PC breaks you could lose the lot.

The only obvious downside is they use SFTP or RSYNC to upload which will make it quite hard for non techy users to use. Fortunately there is a blog with details.

The one feature of Rsync that I wanted that this does not explain and the rsync manual does explain but not very clearly is how to do excludes and includes.

In my example I wanted to back up the My Pictures and Secure folder under My Documents but not the rest. The simplest way to do this is to use a filter file.

To do this create a file (I called my exlc but you can call it what you like) with lines like the following in

- /*
+ /My Documents/
+ /My Documents/Secure/
+ /My Documents/My Pictures/
- /My Documents/*


This will cause rsync to (in order)

• Ignore Everything
• Look in My Documents
• Look in My Documents/Secure
• Look in My Documents/My Pictures
• Ignore everything else in My Documents

Then run rsync as per the tutorial with the --exclude-from option pointing at your file - e.g.

rsync -avz --delete --exclude-from=excl "/cygdrive/d/My Documents" username@username.strongspace.com:mydocs

19 Nov, 2005

There appears to be a UFO over high wycombe at the moment. Look at webcam!!

28 Sep, 2005

Recently we have bought 2 large items and recieved such different levels of service it is hard to believe. We bought a kitchen from MFI and a car from www.buyacar.co.uk
The Good
Buyacar.co.uk are an online car shop whom I bought my new Smart ForFour from. They are cheap, efficent and their web site works really well.
The site allowed me to choose what I wanted and then I got to discus (via email) with one of their staff over the details and what was in stock etc. Once ordered they delivered when they said they would. There was one slight glitch - the car came without a luggage cover (as Smart added them to the range mid year). They (without an argument) ordered one and arranged for it to be delivered somewhere convient. This is what I want from a company!

The Bad
We ordered a kitchen in April 2005 and as I write (end of September 2005) we still don't have one. There are a long list of reasons for the delay but they simply boil down to MFI don't care if they deliver or not.
They have had all sorts of supply problems and just seem to be unable to deliver the bits they need. They fitter has fitted most of the kitchen but some bits (a drawer, a plinth and a shelf) were missing. It has taken months to get these items and we still haven't got the right drawer (we have 4 of the wrong one).
The general attitude of MFI is the most annoying part - they make it all our problem and don't try and fix it.

14 May, 2005

I made a Wink video of how to copy files to a disk for my Granny - so I thought I would put it online in case anyone else wants it.

It is quite easy - so maybe I will make some more.

07 May, 2005

I just discovered Amazon's Marketplace and thus have decided to get rid of some of my old Games - I appear to have gathered rather a lot.

If you know me you can have a discount!!! See here for the list.

05 May, 2005

My sister Amy Pate (nee Gidley)... got married last weekend. The offical photos are at http://www.imagicam.co.uk/albums/index2.php?WPCodeA=p349andr

Look and see!!!!

Helen my wife was a bridesmaid see!

30 Mar, 2005

I must admit I really like iTunes and music store. It has started me buying loads more singles.

So in honour of this I created some iMixes - (some of the cooler songs got dropped off as iTunes don't have them :( ).

See  for my latest cool mix.

14 Dec, 2004

Well obviously I have been got back by my own ideas of adding adverts to this site. As soon as I do the Wiki gets full of SPAM and the number of pages indexed by Google drops.

Well probably serves me right. Anyhow I did make 5 cents!

11 Dec, 2004

Gidley.co.uk has suddenly got Google adverts on it. - Why well I have a theory that as they are content sensitive having them will make google spider the site more and thus improve its search engine ranking.

This may or may not be true - but time will tell. Today there are 912 pages in the google index for gidley.co.uk I will see if this increases with time.

Also I may make 50p which would be amusing! Though Helen tells me I will have to declare it for tax and thus complicate our finances - oh well.

09 Dec, 2004

Well now the windows are all in and finshed (well nearly) and it looks very cool. Bahama did a good job and I would recommend them.

08 Dec, 2004

Wow most of the new windows are in and they look cool. Quite impressed so far - they are going to finish off tomorrow.

07 Dec, 2004

Well it is now evening and nothing appears to have happened. Ah well hopefully they will ring soon and tell us what is going on.

06 Dec, 2004

We are getting new Windows fitted from bahama windows - as our existing wooden ones are wearing out.

They are due to come tomorrow afternoon and fit half and the rest on Wednesday.

31 Oct, 2004

I was quite amazed at how bad the free software was that came with our Sony digital camera. The camera itself is great, easy to use - but the software it had was non-existant.

Oddly enough I have a Vaio desktop and this came with a different piece of Sony picture software that was just about useable - so I have been using that. Last week - after a rather unfortunate problem that led to me reinstalling windows - I tried Picasa which has recently been bought by Google. This freeby is far superiour to almost any photo album software I have seen. It is easy to use, works with my Camera and it not a pain if I want to edit using other programs. In short it just works.

22 Oct, 2004

I have been using Prevx home on my PC for the last few weeks after someone at work recommended it. It is designed as a intrusion prevention system that does not need signatures or updates.

It works as advertised in that it looks for changes on the PC (e.g. change any .exe file in Program Files), stops them, and allows the user to veto them. However this behaviour is very annoying. It issues alert on such a regular basis that most people will simply allow them - as it is too annoying. The other problem is the messages give no idea of their severity.

In short although it is a nice toy for those who want to know exactly what their PC is doing - it is no good for a novice user who would simply get bored of it.

20 Oct, 2004

The BCS awards were last night at the Hilton in Park Lane. Although I didn't win in my category (Applications - Developer of the Year). I did get a nice medal and it was an enjoyable event. The anite contingent didn't win anything - but I am sure they all had fun.
The winners are listed at http://www.bcs.org/BCS/Awards/Awards/Professional/winners/

16 Oct, 2004

I have been using GMail for about a month and am amazed - it is really good. I can find all my emails again.

Now then they go and release Google Desktop - which add the ability to search my hard disk and local outlook files - which is even better!

I know a lot of people (e.g. slashdot or the Register) seem to think the searching capability are evil - in my opinion this is rubbish. All google are doing is supplying things other web mail providers (e.g. hotmail) and other people (e.g. the search in windows or Autonomy desktop agent) have tried to do for years - except theirs works! I am quite impressed about how well they seem to have thought out the security aspects. It does seems to be mostly secure.

Well I suspect time will tell - but I think these are going to catch on big time!

04 Oct, 2004

Once again I am amazed at the 'scam' that directline seem to insist on running for their renewals. I have been them for both Home and Motor for a number of years and every year they send a renewal that costs way more that a new policy with exactly the same details.

So the ritual of renewing comes round again. All I have to do is
1 - Get a quote off their web site for the same thing (this time only 25% less than the renewal)
2 - Ring up the sales team and point out the difference
3 - Get told it is impossible, I have made a mistake, it is a discount of some sort - but they are normally very vague as to what
4 - Get told it is someone else's job
5 - Be put on hold for 20 minutes
6 - Get told 'The policy has changed today and you can have it for the lower price'.

Amazingly I then end up with exactly what I wanted my insurance at a sensible price!

Oddly enough conversations like this (the excuse at 6 varies) have happened every time I renew my insurance. You would think Watchdog or Which would harress them into fixing this

28 Sep, 2004

I am currently addicted to startopia - I got it for £5 in game after reading a review of it somewhere. It is one of the best PC stratergy games I have played for a while (not as good as the original civilisation obviously!)

It is surprising addictive if a bit short and easy. But for £5 you can't go wrong.

23 Sep, 2004

I haven't really got a clue as to what to put on here.

So I think I will probably put nerdy random comments and also random events that take my interest.

For example http://www.ukbbnet.net/ seems to be trying to organise a school reunion for various Gloucester/Churchdown schools. Which may be fun. I lost touch with most of the people from school after Uni. But other hand no one I know is currently going. I think I will wait and see!

20 Sep, 2004

I really wanted to see Postgres on Windows - to my mind this is one of the most important developments in Open Source databases for a long time.

Postgres has sat on Linux being declared superior to MySQL for years and now finally they have released a beta windows installer. In short it now does work on Windows. On 2 of my PC's it works ok - on someone elses however it will not work at all for no obvious reason. It does seen to be ok - it is more reliable than the copy of Oracle on my laptop (though that is not saying much).

The only obvious windows glitch is with the service handler - if you reboot without letting the service stop it leaves a PID file that stop the service starting - not too good - but easy to fix. In short I think it is good enough now to develop against and should make it far easier for me to look at using it as the database for a project - as we can now develop against it easily.

I am very impressed with PGAccess 3 as it is just what I want from a DB tool (Oracle - I don't want a web enabled enterprise manager that uses 500mb of ram just to startup). It is lightweight and works and does not cause problems with the system.

19 Sep, 2004

19 Sep, 2004

Well once again an attempt at a blog.

How long will this one last?