Plucker - The web in your pocket

Just found plucker for my Palm Vx, really good application allows me to DL webpages and view them offline on my Palm. Good for pages like The Onion. Has a natty little interface that will go off and DL a load of channels for you. I've even had a go at shoving some of Charles's Go Articles from gobase at it, and it's done a pretty good job, though the image's tend to be a bit small (I can still zoom them so it's not too bad).

You can find plucker at the Plucker homepage

Sharpe's Eagle & Shapre's Gold

Recently finished these two books: -

In Sharpe's Eagle events centre around the battle of talavera. At the start of the book a standard of the ficticious "South Essex" is taken by the French, and a bit of blamemongering goes on and Sharpe is blamed (of course Wellesley doesn't fall for this, but the blame mongers have high political positions back in England). Sharpe tries to recover the regiment's honour by capturing a French Eagle.

In Sharpe's Gold, the British Army are short of funds and withdrawal is imminent. Sharpe's mission is to "recover" some Spanish Gold from behind the French lines. It brings Sharpe into contact with a group of Guerilla(sp?) fighters. Very well written - gripping to the end.

An update on my goproblems

Here is a list of the go problems I've submitted: -
Problem 3009 - rated as difficulty 3d
Problem 3007 - rated as difficulty 5k
Problem 1592 - rated as difficulty 4k

Deadline

With a deadline looming in the office,I decided to search for "deadline" and see what it's etymology might be ... this site was quite helpful word origins.

My first search in google brought up lots of butterfly collecting websites I searched for entimology - doh!

Ladders

A few weeks ago I fell off of a ladder onto a concrete driveway. I was doing some work on the Eaves of my house when the ladder decided to fall, and I had no option, but to fall with it :-(. I managed to escape largely unscathed, but quite bruised, and have only just managed to resume my exercise schedule. Last night I went to Circuit Training and I still seem OK, so that's good. Will resume karate tomorrow.

GTL : Reviews by me

Here are the reviews I've done for the Go Teaching Ladder GTL : Reviews by chrisg.

Sharpe's Rifles

Finished this book (also whilst on holiday), another very good read. It introduces Sharpe as a Leiutennant in the Rifles, and the main story is based around the British retreat to Corunna.

This book was also written after the main Sharpe novels and acts as a prelude to the main series which focus around the Penninsular War.

I am now looking forwards to reading the next Sharpe Book, but am taking a brief break from fiction to read "A Brief History of Time" by Steven Hawking

Sharpe's Triumph

Finished this book whilst on holiday, an excellent read. It continues from Sharpe's Tiger and is also based in India. It deals with the battle of Assaye in which General Wellesley with ~13,000 troops (British and sepoys) takes on and beats a force at least 3 times the size. A very impressive victory and one which Wellesley was rightly proud of.

This book was written after the main Sharpe novels, and fills in some of Sharpe's earlier exploits.

Ireland

Just come back from Ireland, beautiful scenery and wonderful people. Spent most of our holiday near Killarney, and Killarney National Park. Walked the Gap of Dunloe a glacial valley. Also went to Dingle for a day, where we saw Fungi the Dingle Dolphin , and visited Slea Head.

Hyperion Records Home Page

Hyperion Records Home Page Classical Music

Music

I like most Punk, Goth, and Indie music. Including bands like The Smiths, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Men they Couldn't Hang, The Pogues. More recently I've been listening to The Rolling Stones, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (like early JAMC), Alabama 3, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd.

Books

I am very impressed with the Cambridgeshire library scheme, I am able to use a web site to reserve books on my reading list, and to extend the loan I have on some other books. Cambridgeshire Libraries OnLine Catalogue.

Currently I am working my way through the excellent Sharpe Novels by Bernard Cornwell. My other favourite books include: -

C.S. Forrester's Hornblower Books
Isaac Asimov's Foundation Books
Terry Pratchett's Discworld Books
Jon Courtney Grimwood's Arabesk Books (Pashazade, Effendi, Felaheen)
Larry Niven's Ringworld, and Mote Books
Neil Gaiman's Sandman Comic Series

Favourtie Authors (in no particular order):-
William Gibson
Isaac Asimov
Larry Niven
Terry Pratchett
Jon Courtney Grimwood
John Irving
Neil Gaiman

Karate

I am a 2d in the SKA in the UK. I train in Cambridge, I know the following kata - but would not claim to be proficient in all of them: -

Heian Shodan
Heian Nidan
Heian Sandan
Heian Yondan
Heian Godan
Tekki Shodan
Tekki Nidan
Tekki Sandan
Bassai Dai
Bassai-Sho
Kanku-Dai
Kanku-sho
Enpi
Jiin (for 1kyu grading)
Jitte
Jion (for Shodan grading)
Hangetsu
Gankaku
Chinte
Sochin (for Nidan grading)
Nijushiho
Meikyo
Unsu

Still to learn: -
Gojushiho Dai
Gojushiho Sho
Wankan

Computers

Many years ago I was bitten by the computing bug - and got myself a Sinclair ZX-81 I was hooked!, I was always writing games, programs and saving them to cassette tape. I upgraded to an Oric-1, this was a great machine though fraught with loading problems, but I still loved it so much I upgraded to an Atmos.

Time passed, I did a degree in Mathematics & Computing, at Surrey University (my industrial year was spent at ICL working on OfficePower using Clan 7 and Clan 5 UNIX machines). I started work for Logica, and worked on various software projects and got myself an Amiga A500, then I rapidly upgraded that to a PC. I really like playing around with Linux and the UNIX clones.

My favourite editor is vim, which I like because it is available on pretty much any platform that I work on, saving me the learning curve of learning a new editor when I move to a new platform/IDE.

Go

I play Go, quite a bit (not as much as I'd like). It is a fascinating game, with many hidden depths. I have also devised a go problem (postsed to Go Problems.com) - here it is: - My Problem(1592). Here is a picture of some go equipment: -

Motorcycles

I am a keen motorcyclist - in fact sometimes it is very difficult to stop me talking about bikes :-/. I have a CBR1100xx SuperBlackbird, which I commute, tour, and go for general blasts on. Here is a picture of a CBR1100xx (in the colours I have it): -