I’ve Gone ‘Naked’!

IMG_1158.JPGLast month I went along to the MCN Motorbike show at the Excel centre, with the intention of buying a Sports Touring motorbike to replace my Varadero.  I also had no intention of buying a Honda again.

Unfortunately, Suzuki didn’t seem all that keen on selling me a GSX1250FA.  Trying to arrange a test ride on one seemed impossible!  Then, as my Varadero went in for it’s 16,000 mile survey the lent me a Honda CB1000R once again.  This is the bike I used for a day 3 years ago and it pursuaded me to move up to a 1000cc bike.

Continue reading I’ve Gone ‘Naked’!

MCN Bike Show at ExCeL Center London 2012

2012-02-05 15.04.38.jpgI’ve been to this show for the past 4 years.  It was at one of these shows that I sat on a Varadero and realised it was the most comfortable bike I’d ever sat on, which lead me to buy one back in June of 2009.

Well, I’ve had a few issues with it in the last year or so, the gearbox failing twice.  The fist covered by warranty, but this second time it has cost me £1,400 and then another £270 to get it serviced!

This made me wonder if I should think about changing bikes again.  Much as I like the Varadero, I can’t be paying out bills like this very often.  If I get a new bike, I will at least be covered by warranty. Continue reading MCN Bike Show at ExCeL Center London 2012

Ice Cream Sandwich & Androids Progression

I’ve not posted about the state of Android for over a year.  In my last post I see we were on the verge of Gingerbread and I was using a Desire HD, well, much has changed since then!

Shortly after that I moved on to a Samsung Nexus S, which lasted me around 3 or 4 months until I moved on to my first dual core CPU phone, the Samsung Galaxy SII. Continue reading Ice Cream Sandwich & Androids Progression

Star Wars The Old Republic – Initial Thoughts

Star Wars The Old Republic is a new MMORPG that has started this week, with early access to those of us that ordered and registered back in July.  I’ve been playing it for around a week now, so I thought I’d get down some of my thoughts on the game.

You may recall the last MMO I played was Rift, which I blogged about a couple of times earlier in the year.  I still have very fond memories of Rift, if things had gone a little different could very well still be playing it and in many ways it will be the yard stick by which I measure other MMO’s.

Continue reading Star Wars The Old Republic – Initial Thoughts

California Holiday

San FranciscoI’ve not been over to America for 6 years, since me, Robert and Pete went over to Maryland in 2005. Last month me and Robert finally went back for a 10 day trip round California.  We’d been planning (and saving) for 4 months so I was looking forward to it more than any other holiday I’d had in a long time and it didn’t disappoint.

We were flying out the Friday before Thanksgiving week. We had an early start, the flight was on time at 11am and even though we were stacked for an hour or so at San Francisco airport, we landed around 2pm PT. Continue reading California Holiday

New Computer Time!

I’ve been toying with the idea of building a new PC all through the year, mainly based on the Blue Screens of Death I’ve experienced on my old machine, mainly when playing Bad Company 2.  Mid way into summer I found the crashes to be down to a dodgy stick of RAM, which I replaced, but still I had an itching to upgrade.

I was rather surprised when I discovered it was actually a month off of two years since I built the machine I was using right now.  With the Beta of Battlefield 3 on our doorstep and Star Wars: The Old Republic due in the next couple of months, I thought maybe I should get it over with and build myself something new.

Continue reading New Computer Time!

Dad’s Wedding

Well I missed the first one, but me and Robert made it up to Hull for Dad’s second!

With it taking place on a Monday, to match Dad’s birthday, both me and Robert would need to take time off from work and this is where the first drama occured.  Robert had been told no-one could have time off in October and there was talk he might resign!  Luckily, they came to their senses and agreed he could have Monday and Tuesday off. Continue reading Dad’s Wedding

Goodbye Orange!

I’ve been with Orange for what must be in the region of 16 years.  In fact, I’ve been with Orange since before they were Orange, back when they were Rabbit.

Recently I’ve been getting increasingly annoyed by how poor their data connection is.  At home, we pay a lot of money for the best possible connection we can have (50meg cable from Virgin Media) so why do I put up with such a poor connection from Orange? Continue reading Goodbye Orange!

Google Plus Arrives

Well, it kinda arrives…  it’s in it’s beta, invite only stage right now.  For some time now, I’ve not been a fan of Facebook.  I’ve moved them into a similar category as Apple in that I just see them as a little bit evil.  Some people worry about Google knowing so much about them, but as I see it, they only want this information so they can show you ads of things you might want to buy.  Surely those are the best adverts to see?  Facebook wants information on you to sell to other people, who knows what they’ll do with the info.  They will gather this info in sneaky ways too, so even if you’ve reasonable privacy settings, if you’re friends don’t, and they can see your info, it can be sold.  They also have a history of changing their minds of devs and then introducing something similar themselves.

Continue reading Google Plus Arrives