And it just so happens to rhyme with ‘bog’.
davidrickard.net
Random stuff, randomly updated.
Archive for June, 2008
"Pollywog" is another name for a tadpole
Monday, June 30th, 2008Blind faith in the little green man
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
No, not little green men from mars. I’m talking about the little green man we all look out for when crossing the road.
I was having a wander around during my lunch break at work the other week. I was crossing over the road using the pedestrian crossing. The light changed, and I felt my legs automatically hurling me into the road and across. At that point, it occurred to me that I hadn’t actually checked that there were no more cars coming.
Since that happened, I’ve noticed quite a few people doing much the same. They’ll stand and stare intently at the pedestrian signal. As soon as that little green man appear, they set off like whippets out of the traps at the dog races. They pay absolutely no attention to whether the traffic approaching has actually stopped.
Sometimes, it’s quite simple, as it’s a crossing on a straight piece of road, so I suppose even in their peripheral vision, it is possible to still see anything oncoming. Even so, it’s a bit of an assumption to make.
Similarly, I’ve noticed an increase in traffic light-controlled roundabouts. These are springing up all over the place, and I’ve found myself driving across them without really looking to my right. ‘It’s OK’ I think to myself – ‘the light will stop them’. All well and good, but a light won’t stop somebody who isn’t paying attention. Same goes for a pedestrian crossing.
I think in future I’ll be looking more closely when I cross.
Picture from Flickr by PhotoOptik
Greased lightning…
Saturday, June 21st, 2008
So, ignore the fact it starts off the wrong way round (don’t ask) and is a bit dark…
Get out! And don’t come back
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008I just read this
Well, quite frankly, she can get stuffed. Her play deserves to fail big time for acting like such a child.
God that’s annoying!!!!
BBC NEWS | Technology | Card details stolen in web hack
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008I had my credit AND debit cards cloned recently. The bank caught the credit card being cloned. They were tying to phone me all day, and automagically suspended the account. The debit card – I noticed that when I was about £800 down on my current account. That was eventually refunded.
Now I know how it happened.
At the time, I had my suspicions about where it could’ve been, but I put it down to possibly untrustworthy staff stealing information off their systems. Apparently not. It was probably hacked, sold, and then used elsewhere.
BBC NEWS | Technology | Card details stolen in web hack
Damnit all.
Driving me mad
Thursday, June 5th, 2008I recently furnished myself with a Logitech G25 steering wheel, and a copy of GRID.
Two very awesome things, but they don’t always sit together all that awesomely.
There’s a known ‘issue’ whereby if the G25 is installed incorrectly, it screws up the defaults, and the force-feedback doesn’t work, and the controls are all screwy. I had this, despite the fact I’d been very careful with setting up. So careful, I’d not plugged in the PSU, so I think Windows mis-detected the wheel.
Logitech have released a ‘fix‘ of sorts, and it works for some, but not all. Somebody on the GRID forums found another fix though:
1) Determine the hardware ID of the wheel:
Open Device Manager and select Human Interface Devices
Right-click the wheel in question and click Properties
Click on the Details tab
Under the Property dropdown, select Hardware IDs
Under Value you can find the hardware IDs, which will look like (but not exactly- these are examples):USB\VID_046D&PID_CA03&REV_0019
USB\VID_046D&PID_CA032) Unplug the wheel from the USB Socket on the PC.
3) Uninstall the Logitech Gaming Software (LGS)
4) Run regedit
5) Delete the following registry keys which correspond with the hardware ID found in step 1:
EG: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\CurrentControlSet\Control \MediaProperties\PrivateProperties\DirectInput\VID _046D&PID_CA03
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\System\CurrentControlSet\Control \MediaProperties\PrivateProperties\Joystick\OEM\VI D_046D&PID_CA03
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
\MediaProperties\PrivateProperties\Joystick\OEM\V ID_046D&PID_CA036) Re-install the LGS, making sure you correctly follow the prompts regarding plugging the wheel in. (as in “don’t plug it in till it tells you to”)
This worked for me perfectly! My wheel is now working as it should. I need to tweak it a wee bit to suit me, but it’s now quite drivable.
Now I’ve got to stop driving into things!
