Friday 19th December 2008
Song: Girls Aloud - Love Machine
Last Saturday was quite exciting. Up at the crack of dawn (ish), and James and I were off to Hemel Hempstead to look at a car that he wanted. The sales person was a bit odd. He began with admitting he was a bit scared of James' main requirement being how fast the car goes. Then within minutes he was talking about how you could do some good handbrake turns with the unusually styled handbrake, and then trying to encourage him to overtake on a single lane road, in the wet, in a car he didn't know. Madness. Anyway, James put a deposit on it, and we're going back again next weekend to pick it up and bring it home.
Then there was a quick KFC for James, Daniel and me to quickly get down, before the annual trip to Sussex to hear some unrehearsed, badly performed songs. We got a bit lost trying to find the venue. Google Maps and my sat nav both took us to the same place, which was about a 20 minute walk from where we needed to be. We eventually got there, after asking in some posh hotel, and then asking some PCSOs. None the less, we made it, and as we were finding our seats, our host for the evening was just coming on stage beginning his first song. It was Go To Hell, done with what looked like some sort of child's music box, but presumably modified to give him the right notes for the song's intro. He is an artiste.
A few weeks back at work, I wrote a lovely little bit of code that I was quite fond of, and sadly due to changing requirements it may have to be dismantled, or at least heavily modified. (Yes, I know there's lots of magic numbers.)
/* Cumulatives first */
for (int i=0; i<4; i++) {
cumulatives[i] = 0; // Blank it
for (int j=0; j<4; j++) {
srcPos = (i * 4) + j; // 4 byte chunks per reading
cumulatives[i] <<= 8; // Shift left 1 byte
cumulatives[i] |= catData[srcPos];
}
}
/* Now the 4 lots of 48 samples */
for (int i=0; i<4; i++) {
for (int j=0; j<48; j++) {
chanSamples[i][j] = catData[++srcPos];
chanSamples[i][j] <<= 8; // Shift left 1 byte
chanSamples[i][j] = catData[++srcPos];
}
}
RIP
Wednesday 10th December 2008
Song: Stone Sour - Blotter
So after literally about 7 months of debating should I or shouldn't I... At the weekend, I handed over some money, and became an excitied owner of a new car. I now drive this thing:
When initially searching for a car, I completely forgot about the dear Honda Civics. I was talking to Imran about how all small family hatchbacks are so uninspiring to me (Euro boxes). He mentioned the new Civic, and I was quite taken to it. I did a test drive in a three door one a while back, and quite liked it, but was hesitant over the cost, and the reliability of my income. After a while I'd saved up a fair bit, and thought I've just got to go for it. I hadn't lost interest in these cars after several months of deliberating, which is usually a sign that I'm not going to regret the decision. It's been a few days now, and there's been some interesting observations, comparing it to my old car. It seems Ford make quite good handling cars, and while I've not exactly thrown this one round a roundabout at over 40mph yet, it already feels like it wouldn't be quite so comfortable with it. However, the engine in this thing is quite remarkable. In my Focus once you crossed about 4,000 RPM it just got really noisy and sounded like the engine was being lubricated with sandpaper. However this lovely Honda revs perfectly happily up to about 7,000, and gets louder in a more power sort of way, not just in a more noise sort of way. It also has this exciting i-VTEC thing, which impresses me. I don't fully understand it, but from what I've read it sounds quite clever. The gist of it is that there's two sets of cams, and above a certain rev range, it switches off the economy cams, and you suddenly get a bit more juice into the engine. While it's not quite as noticeable as it is in Imran's, there certainly is a change felt. However I think it's a bit more clever than that, and if you floor it lower down in the rev range, I think it switches cams quickly so that there is a bit more torque available. It's very clever anyway, and sometimes you can feel a very slight blip of no power before it revs up, which I assume to be the little solenoid thing shooting out and swapping the cams. Either that or it's a misfire, which would be very bad...
Anyway, aside from looking like it's from the future on the outside, the inside is remarkably exciting also.
That rev counter looks so lovely in day or night, with a screen in the middle for a trip computer (two trip computers, actually). Then there's the speedo at the top, which is nice and clear (and can be made to show kilometers). You can't see it in this picture, but there's a third screen at the top left which shows the song title currently being played (MP3 CD player), and any air conditioning, climate control, or simple old blower settings are shown on there too.
Anyway... Very pleased with it. It's a lovely machine, even if it is making my back ache and doesn't seem so willing to corner gracefully at speed.
The other thing I was going to write about, was the X Factor. I've watched it fairly religiously for the last few years, but I'm losing interest in it this year. Firstly, I really can't believe Ruth has gone. Especially as she went the week when I personally thought she was at her best. I was also a bit sad to see Diana go this week. I know a lot of people don't really like her, and I have to admit she was quite bad those last few weeks. But I thought she was sooo good earlier on, before that ill week she had. That Blondie cover I thought was absolutely superb. It wouldn't surprise me if we have an album from her following the X Factor, it will be bad, no one will buy it, and we'll never hear from her again. But I have a feeling we've not seen the last of her for now. Also Ruth, I'd quite like someone who isn't Simon Cowell to pick her up. I think she is actually a fantastic singer. She's a belter, which I like. Not unlike Kelly Clarkson in a way. Neither are amazing (though by no means bad) at soft quiet bits, but once they open up their lungs a bit and start belting I think they're both brilliant. So yes, I would like to hear from Ruth again, but I want her to be 'Ruth Lorenzo' and have her tour with a live band, rather than 'Ruth, X Factor runner up'.
My other complaint with the X Factor this year, is every bloody song seems to have a key change. Key changes can be quite good, and are widely used in pop music. Westlife liked to use them as an indicator of when to get up off their stools. Key changes generally can make the final chorus of a song sound particularly powerful (Ruth would do them well!), and I think also help keep the listener interested a bit by making the song suddenly sound a bit more interesting. But because the X Factor songs are typically only about two minutes long, we really don't need this change to wake us up. What I find happens instead is that the song starts in a key which is a bit too low for the singer, just so that they can have a key change and end up at their best. Several weeks back I remember Eoghan started a song and I said that it sounded a bit too low (in an uncomfortable sort of way)... Then about 60 seconds later it all got a bit higher and it suddenly sounded right for his voice.
So of who's left, I want Alexandra to win. However I sort of feel like Eoghan will. For the love of God though, I hope it's not JLS.