Driving – an update

I haven’t posted anything about my driving lessons have I?
Well, here goes…

The first lesson I did 1 lap of circular road on the downs
The two hours passed really quickly, I got into 2nd gear and was going at about 20mph at one point
No. of times stalled: 0

The second lesson, this time Wednesday morning I did three laps of the downs (Circular road, Ladies mile, Stoke road, and then Rockleaze/Downleaze) anti-clockwise, and two laps clockwise.
I got into 3rd gear and was doing 30mph
No. of times stalled: about 8 (i lost count!)

The third lesson, today (Monday) I was driving around Southmead practicing junctions (we went past auntie Sue’s place 3 times!)
This time I was mainly in 2nd at about 20mph (there was lots of junctions, all close together)
No. of times stalled: 2 (both towards the end)

Driving again next week
I’m getting better
More updates coming!

Muliple Style Sheets

If you are reading this on my homepage using Firefox, well done!
Go to the “View” menu then select “Page Styles”, you can then choose a style for my site.
Its not yet permanent, as it resets to default every time you move to a new page.

If your reading my blog and you thought WTF!? Then calm down, just go to my website at www.roganty.co.uk and everything will be explained.
I am using RSSread on my homepage and the previous three posts from my/this blog is displayed on the homepage

First Driving Lesson!

Hooray! I booked my first driving lesson! (even though you probably guessed that from the title!)

I booked it with Drivercraft. It will cost me £8.50 an hour, and it is a two hour lesson.
The lesson is booked for Thursday at 2pm (GMT). Thats tomorrow!

I have mixed emotions about it.
I am happy that I have finally booked a lesson, its been 3years and 8months since I turned 17.
I am also nervous and scared at the same time, but I think that is only natural.

Watch out other road users!
Here I come!
Now I go,
Bye…

RSSread released!

My latest pet project, RSSread, has been released, though it is still being worked on.

RSSread has been incorporated into my homepage.
So this post and any new ones will also be shown on my homepage.

All of this has been done by reading the XML file which is produced by my blog, this means that any RSS feeds can be read by my script, as long as they are XML files.
The script can be configured in a number of different ways which can be found on the example page
It is actually only the example page which is still being worked on, but because this file is being included in the zip file, I have not yet properly released RSSread.

I will post more details in a few days time when I have finished the example page

Spam up!

No, I’m not talking about the advert for the processed meat.
But I am talking about those faceless-f**kers who, not only choke the internet full of emails advertising bulls**t, but also spam, in their dozens, the same c**p on guestbooks.

Yes, my guest book is being spammed. AGAIN!

I don’t know whether to be glad, or angry!
At least it give me an incentive to start development on my anti-guestbook (wow! what a good name!) and i will have plenty of test material 😉

In the mean time, i have put up some temporary barriers.
But if it continues at the rate at which it has, 22 posts on the 12 and 53 today
I will have to disable my guest book

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone

This is how I celebrated the New Year with my dad and sister, mum went out to a party *sigh*
10 minutes to midnight and we decided to walk onto the Avonmouth motorway bridge, just what we did last year! Only this year we were at the bottom of the steps leading up to the roadway when midnight struck.
So we jogged up the steps and watched the fireworks from the start of the bridge instead of over the park & ride like we did last year.

So then, onto New Year resolutions:

  1. Get to where I/we want to get to early
  2. If I start a project, Finish It!
  3. Finish all current projects, like imfriends.rognty.co.uk or imgGallery
  4. Update website and blog more often
  5. Learn to drive
  6. Get a new job, preferably before my 21st, that gives me five months!

Thats it for now.
I’ll keep you posted!

No More Snow!

Aw!

Thursday night there was a few centimetres of snow, but this morning its all melted.
One day we’ll get a white Christmas, this year it is only four days late!

Though on Wednesday we had a light dusting of snow that looked like very thick frost, but it was all melted in a couple of hours

Lets just hope we get more!

Linux Rulez…

Cool, its boxing day, and I have managed to make a Christmas present work on Linux with no frustration, and I have setup two other things that I have been putting off for a while.

First to the Christmas present, its a USB 2 8 in 1 card reader/writer with a slot for SD cards, just what I wanted!
Reading the pdf manual on the CD tells me that on Mac OS 10.3 and higher just needs plugging in. One deep breath and its plugged in, check dmesg and it has been recognised.
Plug in the SD card, its put in upside-down (weird!) and a new icon appears on my desktop.
It has been automatically mounted under /mnt/removable
All my files are there. Whoohoo 🙂

The second success is finally getting DVD playback.
I was Stumbling around the web when I came across xinehq.de I’ve already got the player installed, it just didn’t want to play DVDs!
A quick google for libdvdcss, a download of the rpm and its installed
I have now watched the first five minutes of both “The Italian Job” (original) and “Johnny English”

The third and final success is the installation of the Belkin bluetooth adapter that I brought when I brought my PDA, 3 years ago!
I plugged it in, the little blue light stared to flash, and I downloaded BlueZ and managed to scan and make a short, but successful connaction with my PDA.
I also managed to find the computer with the PDA

Phew!
All that and I still managed to cook dinner!

Still Here…Just!

Christmas is only a few days away now, Ive only just finished Christmas shopping

As I’m typing this up there is the sound of sellotape being unwound from the roll and wrapped two or three times around some ones or others present(s).

The lack of updates has been partly due to the fact that I am spending so much time at work and other projects, like the infamous new project, and IMfriends which is still in alpha testing, and probably won’t ever see the light of day.

Today/tomorrow/Friday (depending on your view of things) will be rammed at work as it is payday, and there is still two days of Christmas shopping days left.

Roll on May… 😉