Canley news

Development on Canley, my car restoration management program, proceeds in fits and starts, but I managed to get a fair bit done last night.

Here's a screen shot. I've still not done the parts tree, but I've moved the photo area to it's own tab. This gives more space for notes.


The second screenshot shows the restoration tab in more detail. It needs fine tuning but you can see that the top list shows all the tasks that need doing to the selected part, where as the bottom list will show supplies and spare parts needed.

Still to do:

• The parts tree.
• A wizard for adding parts.
• Help system.
• Reports.
• Other stuff I haven't thought of yet (Suggestions welcome).
• A bit on my website about it. Come to think of it, my website does need some work.

It will be ready when it's ready.

15,897,600 seconds older than me.

Happy birthday to the esteemed Tom Reynolds, who is 35 today. According to http://www.timeanddate.com, I'll be 35 in 6 months and 3 days. Tom, you'll find your present over there...

Christmas is nearer than my birthday, so if anyone wants to buy me a present, you could do worse than buy me Tom's book...

PS Still no PS2...

Just saved meself £18

I've got a Panasonic DVD recorder, which until now has been resolutely Region 2 only. Most of the cheapo players and recorders have a code sequence you can enter using the remote, but not the quality ones. Panasonics also use a sequence of infra-red commands to change the region coding, but one of the commands is not on the standard remote. You had to either buy a multi region player, or pay £18 or so to buy a special remote to send the command sequence. As I only have a few region 1 discs, I never bothered.

Then I found this site. These guys have not only been hacking Panasonic firmwares, but they've discovered the hitherto unknown command sequence to make the majority of Panasonic DVD players and recorders region free! There are methods to suit just about any device with an infra-red port (I used a boot CD for a laptop), and you can make your player any region you wish. Now I can watch The Last Starfighter (unavailable on a region 2 disc!)

Kudos to Tom & Martin!

Yeah, right.

Among my RSS feeds (the only way of keeping tabs on the blogs I read), is the most excellent Tom Reynolds. It was his blog (which pointed me to Dr. Crippen's also most excellent blog) where I found out that apparently parts of the NHS spent too much of the money allocated to it on doctors and nurses. So presumably somewhere there are too many doctors and nurses kicking about somewhere. I suspect they're bussed about to wherever there might be politicians and/or TV cameras.

Thinking about it, I guess we should've kept the cushions.

Took the 3 piece suite to the tip today. Hope the new one comes tomorrow...

Welding

Been doing some welding this week. Mrs MnG had a Forever Living cosmetics party, so I banished myself into the shed to join bits of metal with electricity.

I'm using 0.8mm gasless wire, so my results aren't as neat as I would like. Maybe when I get round to getting some gas and some 0.6mm wire things will be neater. The gasless wire produces a bright light which makes it difficult to see what's going on. But it seems to have good penetration, and it's strong.


I also had a look at a rear panel I bought off eBay for the princely sum of £3 from a nice bloke in Manchester. It's in pretty good condition as you can see. There's some surface rust, but the areas around the light apertures (which is where my car is rusty) are solid. Good news, as these panels are unavailable new.

On another note, me, Mrs MnG, and kids #4 and #5 have all been struck down with the vomity flu bug going about. No pics, you'll be pleased to know...

Still no PS2. My mum's been badgering Kay's for me. I've asked her to try and blag some games as compensation.

Is there a PS2 shortage?

Recently my PS2 died. I can't complain. I bought it off eBay as faulty, had a fiddle with the insides with the help of one of those guides I found on that interwebby thing, and it worked fine for a while. Now it's died, I stuck it back on eBay to someone who can be bothered to have a bit more of a fiddle, or strip it for parts.
To replace it, I ordered a silver one out of my mum's Kays catalogue, to match the cable box, video, etc. Later that week, we ordered a 3-piece suite to replace the one my inlaws coerced us into having offered us from a friend.
This was four weeks ago. We've had a call about the suite, which will be delivered next week. Would've been this week, but their lorry broke down, apparently. But no PS2. First they said 14 days, then on or around the 30th October. So where is it? Surely it's too early for the Christmas rush?

Something that makes me look good.

Your Vocabulary Score: A

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary!You must be quite an erudite person.

How's" Your Vocabulary?

testing 123

If this works, I'll have sent a blog entry on my phone. Cool.

Something curious I found.

You Are 4: The Individualist

You are sensitive and intuitive, with others and yourself. You are creative and dreamy... plus dramatic and unpredictable. You're emotionally honest, real, and easily hurt. Totally expressive, others always know exactly how you feel.

What Number Are You?

I'm not sure about the last part, I'm so quiet and withdrawn normally, people can't tell...

And the first bit's comlete bollocks. I'm undergoing psychiatric treatment for suspected Asperger's Syndrome, and I'm terribly unintuitive.