I was talking a walk through Hyde Park the other day and saw some guy cycle past on a single speed bike.

Naturally I thought “Here goes another fixie-mad cycle courier” he looked the part at least.

Once in front of me I took a look at his bike and thought “That’s a rather bulky untrack-like looking hub…” and imagine my surprise when I saw him starting to coast, his chain looked fairly slack too.

Now I had always assumed that anyone who converts their bike to single-speed does it for the feeling of connection between rider and machine one supposedly gets, and the great workout from constantly having to pedal.

Maybe this guy did it to cut down on weight, or because shifting gears confuses him, I’ll never know but feel cheated by seeing someone coast.

In my many conversations with people in my halls I’ve discovered just how naive they can be about various marketing techniques, they’ll pick up on overt ads onfacebook (their favourite haunt) and won’t click on them, but won’t pick up on the more subtle things.

I’ve noticed that some facebook applications cleverly insert affiliate links, which if used by people will offer them certain rewards like worthless “in-game” money which is hard to come by for the user but costs the creator nothing. Said creator is instead rewarded through whoever signs up to the products/websites they advertise using the aforementioned affiliate links, something the people I know have never picked up on, and probably wouldn’t have had I not mentioned it.

“Right, so you sign up to eBay using the link provided and get X amount of useless in-game money?” “Pretty much.” “Why would you? It’s a site you would use on a regular basis anyway…” “Yeah, but this way I can get stuff for my character!” “The guy who made this is making money off you.” “He is? I don’t ca…*collapses from head-wound*”

Something along those lines anyway, slightly worrying considering that these affiliate schemes tend to pay not only for sign-ups but also purchases, at least for a time.

And I’ve just given the very obvious game away, haven’t I?

Guess I should read up on writing facebook apps.

My last kind of touched on dumpster diving, and personally I think it’s a great hobby, because you just never know what you’re going to find.

Personally I would have to describe a set of blueprints for an off-shore oil platform which Esso threw away whilst vacating one of their offices as my greatest find, and the one I am most saddened to lose (my mother decided it was junk and made it disappear if I remember correctly).

Computers for their magnets, RAM and what ever else I may want are another find…I once found a stuffed server cabinet I couldn’t move due to me lacking a car, frustrated I left the lot alone (big mistake!).

What else?

I have found N64s, which again annoys me for not taking them Mostly because I lack one.

Corporate manuals, and phone directories? Yup!

It’s definitely something I want to do more of, just for the sheer satisfaction of finding the strange and slightly obscure, but I don’t drive which makes things slightly harder, as it limits the ground you can cover.

I think I’ll try it get back into it over the summer, when I’ll be back in London and cycling all over the place…possibly trying to shift that server cabinet a company decided they could just throw into a skip, giving my mother a heart attack.

Maybe if I stuck to it, and found some good haunts I’d be able to build a truly free cluster for messing around with!

Now if only electricity was free as well…

I have this terrible affliction which I get from my father, the hunter gatherer thing is highly developed in both of us and has been as long as I can remember.

Even as a kid I’d spend hours taking apart electronics equipment I found out and about somewhere, to the horror of my mother, taking out wire coils and anything which took my interest with the aid of my trusty soldering iron.

I still do that today but to a much lesser extent, today I’m more interested in computers and related equipment, as a result the closets I use to store for general stuff are pretty full… Need a floppy drive? I’ve got 8.

You get the idea.

One thing I lack are keyboards, but that;s because I have this hygiene thing and you won’t believe what the insides of most (even on the surface clean looking keyboards) look like.

I also have quite a cool collection of magnets I got by disassembling hard drives, as well as platters and cases that I would ideally like to convert into something cool at some point…

For those of you that do not know hard drives have some pretty strong magnets, if attached to a radiator the strongest guys I know can’t pull it off, they have to slide it…Gives you an idea, no?

Obviously kids love them, and when my aunt was over my little cousin couldn’t get enough of them, while we made sure he didn’t hurt himself. (more…)

Well it would appear that I am still pretty high on google for the following search term as a result of a frustrated rant I posted while I was going through the UCAS submission process.

Your application has not yet been checked by your referee/co-ordinator

So I’m going to make a slightly more informed and helpful post.

“Your application has not yet been checked by your referee/co-ordinator” means exactly what it says on the tin, whoever is in charge of checking UCAS applications at your school/college has yet to do so, and is probably severely delaying your submission as was in the case for me (I had to say good-bye to those tasty low early entry offers). I had to bug my head of sixth form repeatedly and she didn’t do anything, typical for that place…

Anyway, relax and keep bugging them, they will eventually submit it and you will enter the exciting stage of the UCAS application process.

One exciting bit would be going to an interview (in my case at the University of Kingston), having a brilliant interview, being made an offer which was subsequently withdraw, with the official letter stating you did not attend the interview you went to, fun stuff!

Something which was sorted out by a phone call to them, and which still annoys me to this day, as it in my opinion soils my good name, as an extremely punctual person.

Snow is inevitable and something I dislike intensely. After decades of bad experiences with the stuff I’m not looking forward to it this year.

This year is going to be quite different as I’ll be cycling in the damn stuff daily, something I’m not looking forward to as I don’t have a lot of experience cycling in those conditions. I have done a bit of cycling in snow, as a kid on a mountain bike, so it hardly compares to what I’ll be facing in the coming weeks.

If anything, it’ll be incredibly exciting and it’ll turn me into an even bigger hazard to pedestrian scum.

Where to begin?

I’ve not updated in a while so here goes:

My midi controller did eventually come, within 4 days of me owning it I managed to break it. I managed to do this by spilling water whilst drunk all over my desk, computer, keyboard and midi controller.

The midi controller is fine again, but missing a screw which is somewhere in my room at uni, and will therefore be found.

Not quite sure about the keyboard, hopefully it’ll work once I put it back together again, three weeks should be enough drying time.

I expect to be fined when I return to uni because I fell asleep when I didn’t want to, which sadly meant that I did not have enough time to wash the three plates and a bunch of glasses I needed to do…so I bagged them up and put them in a cupboard with a bowl of vinegar.

Hopefully that won’t be discovered or woe is me.

They may also use one or more of the spare rooms in the flat as short term accommodation, so some random fuck might be holed up in there right now, dirtying the bathroom I cleaned. Blood sweat and tears, not to mention having to remove disgusting hair and something which looked suspiciously like blood.

(more…)

A list of things I have discovered while living away from home.

1. Lifts generally do not work in halls of residences, are noisy, have somehow been used as a toilet and will be directly in line with your bed.
2. Thanks to the ’80s electrical heating system, and shoddy double glazing your room will have a complete inability to keep a constant temperature.
3. You want to hoover your room, but no hoover bag will be supplied (like it was meant to be) once the bag which was in the hoover when you moved in is full.
4. Employees think that European and International human rights laws do not apply to them and will enter your room without notice, permission or in fact knocking.
5. Jesus does not make your flatmate unblock the shower drain blocked by her hair. (more…)