tcbutler.co.uk

Ah no, I’ve gotten to the point where not only am I blogging, I’m blogging about writing tools for blogging. Do not read on unless you’re particularly interested in WordPress and Countdowns. <sigh> (more…)

I went on a work trip to California in December 2006, and someone suggested on my way over that I could look into buying a Nintendo Wii.

“Pah,” I said, “what would I want with a games system anyway?”

A bit of research later, and I was intrigued… 10 shops which had sold out later, and I was HOOKED.  You learn a lot about yourself when things like this unfold.

So my weekends for the last couple of months have been dominated by streams of phone calls to Woolworths, HMVs and random games stores across London in the hope that somewhere had one in stock.  I found that the HMV near work had taken delivery of a couple at some point, and in what was approaching desperation resolved to pop in every day at lunchtime, just in case.

Of course, the only day I took off sick… they received 5 at once, so a very coughy and ill-advised (health-wise) dash along the District Line later I was the proud of a brand new Wii, complete with 2 games, an extra Wii-mote and a memory card.

I’ll be writing more about my thoughts later on this blog, but it’s safe to say that it is a really robust piece of design, and everyone who tried it over the weekend (20+ people) is now thinking about getting one themselves.

Nice one.

Ah bum.

I’ve been under the weather all week, taking half-days here and there, denying the obvious – now I’ve got extreme Man Flu piled up on top of me like something warm, heavy and quite smelly. Like I imagine a hippo to be.

It has somewhat scuppered my plans to go to Band tonight, so the pivotal role of 2nd Baritone Horn will go unfilled this week as we prepare for the areas on March the 18th.

Why is this interesting? Why is it on my blog?

Well, as anyone who has ever had it before can tell you, when you have Man Flu, it’s NEWS.

I wrote a post last year about this which gets picked up in Google quite often.  I realised the other week that the link I’d provided had died, so I’ve updated my original post, including a new link to the EyeToy PC drivers.

My biggest irritation about the many increasingly complex mobile phones I’ve had over the years has been the time it takes to actually answer a call.

You feel the phone vibrate or hear it ring, then pick it up or pull it out of the case, flip the screen around (in the case of my old MDA Pro) to see who’s calling, fumble your way to the “answer” button… and the call’s already gone to answerphone.

Happily, anyone with thumbs can easily change how long the phone rings for before going to answerphone, if you know these nifty GSM codes… (more…)