They sent me the Xtendplay for the Xbox 360 controller, which is a compact-foam mould which is designed to snugly fit over the grips of the controller (it’s also available for the also available for the PS3 controller), extending the length of it, making it comfortable to rest on your legs/body as you play.

I have both the black and white Xbox 360 controllers (which are exactly the same in terms of size and shape), so I put it on my black one.

The Xtendplay is a very tight fit on the Xbox 360 controller, in fact it looks like it won’t be able to fit onto the controller as the hole looks too small – but it does fit, without too much difficulty. Once on, the Xtendplay fits perfectly and didn’t move or slip at all during gameplay, or when I tried to move it (for testing purposes) – this was very impressive. The downside of such a tight fit is that it is very hard to remove it from the control pad later – you wouldn’t want to attach and remove it on a regular basis.

I loaded a game which I thought would be well suited to a long, relaxed gaming approach – Mass Effect 2, then started playing.

The first thing I noticed during gameplay was that it was a stretch to reach the controls on the Xbox control pad. At 185cm (6’1”) I’m taller than most people and therefore my hands are on the large side, but I was finding it somewhat uncomfortable. I wouldn’t have have enjoyed using it on a button-bashing game like FIFA.

Did I find the Xtendplay relaxing to play with? Sadly not. It was uncomfortable in my hand (because I had to stretch my fingers to use the controls) and it wasn’t long enough, so I wasn’t able to rest it on myself comfortably. After 3 hours of gameplay (yes 3 hours – Mass Effect 2 draws you in!), I didn’t warm to the Xtendplay.

In addition to the handling issues, there are a couple of obvious design flaws – it covers the access to both the battery compartment and the headphone socket!

Blocking access to the battery compartment isn’t an issue for me because I have a rechargeable battery pack, which I can recharge using the Xbox cable (this socket is easily accessible). However for people who don’t have the rechargeable battery pack and don’t want to use the cable, this is an issue.

Preventing access to the microphone port means that you won’t be able to talk to other players in multi-player games, unless you have a wireless headset.

To summarise my thoughts on the Xtendplay:

What I like:

• Good, descriptive name
• The packaging is very good – the box gives a clear description of what the xtendplay is, what it is used for and allows you to touch it through a hole in the box
• Well made
• Lightweight
• Good fit – it’s very snug so the control pad won’t slip at all
• Easy to clean
• It may help protect your control pad in the event of dropping it accidentally
• If you play with it in the bath, it will probably float if you drop it (but don’t try this!)

What I don’t like:

• It makes the control pad too wide, so it’s hard and uncomfortable to reach the buttons (I’m 6’1” so my hands are larger than most people – children wouldn’t be able to use the control pad)
• While using it, I didn’t really find it any more comfortable that if I hadn’t used it
• I don’t think it solves an issue – I don’t find holding the control pad particularly tiring. When playing some games (e.g. WWE, NHL, etc.), my fingers can get tired from ‘button bashing’, but this doesn’t solve that problem
• The control pad is a very tight fit, so once it is in it is very hard to take out. You wouldn’t want to remove it often
• You can’t access the battery compartment (not an issue for most people as most people will use the rechargeable battery pack and the cable)
• You can’t access the microphone socket, so can’t talk to people online
• The price. I couldn’t bring myself to pay £14.95 for a block of foam, even if it did come in a nice Xbox green colour

Conclusion

Overall I that it’s well made, but not fit for purpose (as it’s too wide to be usable) – and (in my opinion) it’s designed to solve an issue that doesn’t really exist…

GamingZap  sell a wide range of gaming accessories (such as Kontrol Freek products which I like the look of) – I recommend you check them out. Also, have a look at their blog as they have reviews, information and decent photos of their top products. It’s nice to see a gaming company that actually talks about its products and reaches out to gamers.

Some more photos, from different angles:

I was thinking that 7″ would be nice as it would be portable (I carry my Kindle with me all the time in my jacket pocket). Whilst a 10″ tablet would be more functional.

After much playing around in Currys and PC World, I decided to buy the 10.1″ Advent Vega. The pricepoint of £200 is what really sold it to me. I very rarely get cheap stuff (I usually go over the top!) but I bought it thinking that I probably wouldn’t use it. If I found that I did use it a lot, I would sell it (or keep it for around the house) and buy a top-end one.

Anyway, I’ve had it for a week now and here is my review:

Out of the box I found it pretty useless as you can’t use the Android Market. So I flashed it with the 09/Feb r8 – MoDaCo Custom ROM for the Advent Vega with Online Kitchen – Android @ MoDaCo – I’d suggest that you have to be reasonably technical to do this. With that installed, the device is far more usable as I now have lots of apps installed. This ROM is only Android 2.2 though – I would like at least 2.3 because 2.2 means that you can’t ‘update all’ on the Android Marketplace, plus Online Mind Mapping and Brainstorming – MindMeister doesn’t work (it does on my Samsung Galaxy S mobile phone, which is running Android 2.3).

Modaco aren’t going to develop the ROM for the Vega any more, so I will install the ROM from [ROM] VegaComb BETA 1.5.2 – by TeamNewCo and TeamVillain!! once it is in a final build (currently beta). They expect it to be ready at the end of June.

Some downsides with the device are:

Screen. It is only good if you view it square on. Any angle off and the colours fade. This makes typing a bit difficult if you have it on your lap – you end up arching your back over it.

Audio. The quality is okay, but the noise level is too quiet.

WiFi. Tablets are supposed to be an ‘instant on’ device. Whilst the device comes on very quickly, you have to wait for the WiFi to start up and then for your apps (e.g. e-mail) to synchronise. If I want to have a quick peek of my e-mail/twitter/etc. I pick up my phone instead, because that is constantly updating even when it is ‘asleep’.

Between 7″ and 10″ – I’m glad I went for the 10″ as it is a nice size to use. Although I wish I could fold it in half to put it in my coat pocket

I haven’t used it that much so far, but I have found it nice to have around the house and to take to friends. I haven’t used it enough to justify getting a more expensive one yet though.

Here is what I’m getting:

Note that’s 8GB’s RAM.

I am really excited about the SSD. If I had to choose just 1 thing to give me a performance upgrade, it would be that. I just hope it’s reliable…

I’m going to keep and re-use  my existing:

• Tower (Antec)
• HD (10k rpm) – as a D:\. This is a very fast HD and is currently my C:\ It will be there mostly as a C:\ overflow as I keep all of my photos, videos, documents, etc. centrally on my WHS (and in the cloud on Live Mesh). I will actually install it but leave it disconnected until I need it (by which time I’ll probably just get a bigger SSD isntead)
• DVD-RW (x2)
• PSU

Plus I am looking at getting an additional 2 monitors (I already have 2). I think I would like a 3 monitor setup for gaming (and share-dealing) and another monitor above the central one. I would also like an electronically adjustable computer desk sometime…

I am also going to replace my Windows Home Server with a Windows Home Server 2011 when it comes out (hopefully in a few weeks). My current WHS is okay, but the 2011 version will have better network throughput and will be faster, so I will be able to run some additional services on it.

My brother Kevin will also be getting the same PC as me – we like to keep things in sync so neither of us gets jealous of the other (lol). It also helps a lot with troubleshooting issues.

I’m going to apply for the:

• Opening ceremony
• Cycling (velodrome – mens finals)
• Triathlon

Anyone (who knows me) want to go with me? If so, let me know because I’m going to buy the tickets soon (maybe this weekend). I don’t mind going by myself (often the only way to get a sensible conversation)

Most websites require users to have a user account so that you can personalise the site, have a home page, add a comment, etc. – and that in itself is good as it makes the Internet more relevant and personalised to you. The disadvantage of this is that most sites require you to have a username and password, plus enter in lots of information about you, such as a photograph, bio, ‘about me’, real name, age, location, etc. All of this is tedious and time consuming to fill in.

OpenID appeared a few years ago and aimed to solve this problem. It isn’t without its flaws, but for the most part, I am a big fan of OpenID and even have it on my cooking website GetMeCooking.

This week I was surprised to read that 37 Signals are withdrawing their use of OpenID and will be forcing all users to use a standard username and password account. I see this as a huge step back in terms of user accessibility and user experience. They say that they have very few users using the OpenID system – if so, I think they should do 2 things:

1. Improve their current implementation of OpenID. Right now they only allow users to enter in their OpenID URL (e.g. http://openid.aol.com/jesse325), instead they should allow users to select from a large number of OpenID providers (including Google, Facebook and Microsoft) using a click-through solution, like the one presented by janrain
2. Try to educate their users about OpenID

Is that so hard? No. Plus it would fit in (enhance) with their current solution. They get a big thumbs down from me.

On the other hand, ReadWriteWeb have announced that they will be doing the opposite – i.e. scrapping the standard username and password method of authentication and exclusively using the facebook OpenID service.

This is a step forward, but not a giant leap. Facebook currently has around 500m members – which is a lot, but not everyone is on it. In fact, I know a LOT of people who are not on it (many of them are fearful of being on it – big brother is watching sort of thing). So I think ReadWriteWeb should accept users via any OpenID provider. If they want to make things better or easier for the user, they could use XAuth to provide a personalised list of recently used OpenID providers at the logon/registration screen, although they might want to read this first.

In any case, it is clear that there isn’t a definite solution or best practice when it comes to handling user authentication to websites, but I certainly think that the username and password method should be dead and buried by now. It is time for the the clever techies to think about how users will authenticate onto websites, in a method which is:

• Easy
• Fast
• Personalised
• Reliable
• Rich (in terms of data being pulled in – on an optional basis)
• Secure

I could write pages about this topic, but I wont; as others have done it for me. I just wanted to highlight the fact that this week, two very large companies (37 Signals and ReadWriteWeb) have announced completely opposite strategies on user authentication – and (in my opinion) neither of them have got it right.

I am a self-confessed geek (hence the nick-name ‘Techboy’ – which Steve Bush at Barclays Bank PLC originally gave me). Before that I used the nickname ‘Mercenary’ as I have always worked hard for money, plus I played (still play!) First Person Shooter games so that name fit me well. So in short, I am a geek with a love of money (spending it as well as accumulating it).

These 2 traits led me to research share dealing online – various websites, communities, chat rooms, twitter feeds, Podcasts, Vodcasts, etc. In June last year I came across 2 companies that I wanted to try. Both were based in America and both had very different attributes: 

• Davian Letter BlackBoxx-4: A black-box (automated) solution. You give them your money and their computer does all the trading for you. It sends a buy, hold or sell order (up to 4 stocks at a time) on a daily basis to an intermediate broker (which can be set up for auto-trading).
• Bulls On Wall Street (BOWS): A real-time chat room that is active during trading hours, with at least 1 member of the BOWS company active in the chat-room during trading times. They also produce blogs (showing the market positions) on a daily basis. People here mainly do day-trading (trades within a day) and swing-trading (trades that may last a few days).

Both sounded good and I wanted to try each of them, but I had a problem – I am a British resident and live in the UK. Both companies were not set up for customers from the UK.

For the BlackBoxx-4 auto-trade system, I needed a broker who would allow me to trade in USA companies (of all sizes, including small-caps) on an auto-trade basis. I spoke with Anthony Davian directly via twitter and also once (at around 01:00 UK time) in a chat-room while he was hosting a live video teleconference based interview with another trader. He was really helpful and wanted to get me on-board (obviously helping me out would help him understand and possibly get other traders from the UK and Europe).

After a few months, he got his system set up on a US based broker called tradeMonster. I could use the BlackBoxx-4 system via them, so it was good for me. I signed up, deposited $14k with them and got started. As I was new to it, I made an error at the start my allocating 100% of my equity to the account – this only allowed the system to purchase 1 stock out of the 4. I then spoke with Anthony Davian and also the tradeMonster support team who told me that I should allocate 12.5% (as it is a margined account) and that will then allow the system to use 100% of my pot.

Since the BlackBoxx-4 account went live on 3^rd December 2010, its value has gone up and down by just a few hundred dollars. Last week it ‘jumped’ up to $14,600 which is very little, so I am considering cancelling the account in a few weeks if it does not improve.

The Bulls on Wall Street account was more of a struggle to set up. Well actually that’s not quite true – the BOWS account was very easy to set up, I was just having real problems finding a broker that would let me trade USA small-cap companies. All of the UK brokers I asked were useless, I couldn’t find a UK based broker that would let me trade USA small-cap companies. The best I could find was Charles Schwab, which is a mainly USA based broker with a European arm. I registered with them and tried to trade with BOWS, but the BOWS team kept picking companies that were too small for me to trade on, even with the Charles Schwab account. Luckily, I had kept in touch with Kunal Desai who is one of the founders of BOWS. He is pretty good at keeping in touch with people, especially at introducing new people to the system and helping them out. He knew I was having problems so in November  2010 he introduced me to a new BOWS service, whereby they use the broker Lake Street Trading (LST). LST are cheaper than Charles Schwab on a transaction basis, accept clients from the UK and allow the trading of any size USA based company – which is great! I have had a lot of issues with their trading platforms (PC and Internet based), but after a lot of complaining from me, it has gotten a lot better. LST do seem like a bit of a small, cowboy company; but at least I am now up and running and most importantly – making money!

In order to get set up with LST, I deposited $6,000 into them. After which I began trading with BOWS. So far this has been fairly successful, with me usually making around $150 – $250 per day. Some days I have ended up just above $0, but I haven’t been below $0 yet. I’m not saying that it is easy, but trading with BOWS has been far easier and far less risky than doing it by myself; plus I have learned a lot in a very short space of time. So last week I put in another $6,000, which means that I can have double the amount invested, which should (in theory!) mean double the profit (or more, as I would be able to invest in more companies, so more chance of catching stocks on breakout).

The question on my mind now is – ‘could I make a living from it?’ If I could ‘guarantee’ making as much money from share-dealing as I do from my current job as a SAB BASIS Administrator, then I would be seriously tempted. Although the hours are 2.30pm – 9pm UK time, Monday – Friday; it would be great if I didn’t have to work in an office environment (where I am now is seriously depressing, no ‘fun’ at all!) and I could work from any location in the world, all I would need is a laptop and an Internet connection (3G would be ok). Plus it would give me more flexibility to work on other things (like GetMeCooking), I wouldn’t have to do any on-call (I am currently on-call every 3^rd week) and have to work some weekends. Another disadvantage of the share-dealing that I am doing is that it is all US based, therefore all of my money is invested in US accounts – which means that I have to be mindful of the UK/USA exchange rates.

So in short:

• I am now at a position where the share-dealing is going okay, but there are some drawbacks (like not being able to trade effectively from the office, so I do most of my trading from home 6pm – 9pm)
• It would be much nicer (safer) if all of my money was based in the UK instead of over in the USA
• I know where I want to ‘be’ (i.e. trading shares full-time and working on developing GetMeCooking into becoming a profitable business), but making that step is too risky right now

It will be interesting to see how things progress over the next few months!

In my previous post I detailed the projected costs of the travel for the mountaineering course that I’m going on. After literally quite a few hours of fiddling on www.thetrainline.com, various hotel companies (including www.lastminute.com, www.expedia.com. etc.) and www.quidco.com I have revised my travel plans to include a weekend in Edinburgh and have found ways to save quite a bit of money (a double bonus)!

For the train journeys, I found that it will be £100 cheaper for me to get a train from London Euston instead of from Milton Keynes. The train to Euston will cost me £5. Nathan told me about this trick!

I was having some problems with The Train Line website, so I tweeted about it – and within minutes, someone from their customer support team tweeted me back. I gave him my phone number. He then phoned me and acknowledged the issue. Then he phoned me back 15 minutes later with a solution – this was fantastic!

I used Quidco to book my tickets, but that only saved me about £2.77 off of a total ticket price of £184.70 due to the measly 1.5% discount.

As Nathan and I are staying in the Ballachulish hotel for the course, it made sense for us to book into the same hotel the night before the course starts.If you book directly via their website, the price is already very good – a twin room is only £80.75 and it includes a bottle of wine and breakfast. We could also pay £20 up front to get 20% off of the food bill (plus they will give us a free starter). However, I did a quick search on Google and found it for £65.32 (still including breakfast), which sounds like a very good deal to me, so I bought that.

I booked 2 nights in the Royal British Hotel in Edinburgh via Lastminute.com, costing £176 for two nights, before cash-back of £15.84 via Quidco. The hotel hasn’t got great reviews, but it was a lot cheaper than most other hotels in the area and is in an okay location.

So now I have all of my travel and accommodation booked. This is what I have paid (before £18.61 Quidco cash-back. The Ballachulish hotel shows half the price as Nathan will pay the other half).

Scotland travel plans - costs

Everything has shown up on my TripIt account (except for Ballachulish hotel which I will have to add manually) – which  is a fantastic tool, as it means I have my whole itinerary on my mobile phone.

Now the pressure of organsiing the holiday is off, I can look forward to looking forward to it!

I am even looking forward to sleeping on the train (in a bunk) on the way to Edinburgh, especially as it will give me a chance to use the Kindle I got as a Christmas present! For the return (Edinburgh to Milton Keynes), I chose to go first class as it was only £12 more expensive than standard.

The course covers:

• Safety in the winter environment
• Basic navigation skills
• Appraisal of avalanche risk
• Refresher of existing personal skills (if appropriate)
• Ice axe arrest
• Use of crampons and ice axe on steep ground
• Basic rope work, including belaying
• The construction and use of snow anchors
• Emergency snow shelters

Outline Programme

Day 1:

The course begins at 6 p.m. on Sunday evening with the Course Briefing. The briefing covers essential information for the week ahead. We will discuss equipment for the following day and issue hire kit. After dinner there will be a short presentation on winter clothing and cold injury

Day 2:

This is an introductory day concentrating on the use of crampons and ice axe on steep ground. We also include practice of arresting slips and falls. During the day we will look at the practical assessment of avalanche risk.

Day 3:

Mountaineering Days. Throughout this part of the course, there is the chance to undertake mountain journeys, where the emphasis is on safety, navigation, mountain weather, essential snow-craft and general mountaineering skills taught on Day 1. These days are tailored to suit the abilities of the group along with your aspirations. The venues chosen by the staff always take account of the prevailing weather and snow conditions.

Typical ascents of peaks on the Introductory Mountaineering Courses in previous years have been:

• Ben Nevis: Number 4 Gully or, The Carn Mor Dearg Arete
• Stob Coire Nan Lochan via The Zig Zags , or Broad Gully
• Bidean Nam Bian
• Many of the Munroes of the Mamores and the Aonachs

The course starts on a Sunday, so Nathan and I will travel by train up to Fort William on Friday night (arrive on Saturday morning) and go sight-seeing around there on the Saturday.

The course finishes on a Friday, so I was thinking of popping over to Edinburgh for a weekend, but after a lot of investigation with trains, it would work out at £292.90 just for the trains and hotel, which is more than I want to spend for a weekend by myself. I would prefer to go up there for a few days, maybe for the Edinburgh Tattoo.

Projected Weekend Costs

I have only ever climbed in warm, sunny (well mostly) climates (such as Spain), so I am looking forward to climbing in the cold, wet, windy, snowy, icy conditions – hmm, does that sound wrong? If it turns out to be horrible, I can always blame Nathan At least the hotel looks really nice.

Then while walking around the Milton Keynes shopping centre last week, I walked into Game and asked about pre-ordering there. Their website had sold out, but they said that if I pre-ordered in-store, they could guarantee one if I picked it up in-store. That was good news, so I paid a £10 deposit and ordered one there. Later I cancelled the order with Blockbuster (which was a real hassle as I tried calling a few times – the third time I stayed on hold for 10 minutes before talking to a sales person).

Yesterday I read that Game would be opening some of its stores (including the one in Milton Keynes) at 23:45 (the tills at 00:00) and that there might be prizes or special offers on the night. So because of that, I decided to turn up at 23:55.

I got there not knowing if there would be a huge line of people, or not that many. I had been looking on Twitter Search, Brightkite, Buzz, etc. but there was no mention of anyone at Game in Milton Keynes. It turned out that there were about 40 people already there, but some had come with partners/friends, so I was actually the 30th customer (and there ended up being around 15 after me).

Queue for Xbox Kinect at Game, Milton Keynes

We were all given tickets with our numbers. Actually the numbers were 1nn (which confused customers) because they had a Call of Duty – Black Ops opening the night before and had forgotten to buy a new set of ticket numbers.

The Game store manager had set up a Kinect playing area where people could spectate or play games. He did a good job with that, most people weren’t so keen to play (and look silly) in front of a store full of strangers. There were a few people who did play it though, including a chav who got over-excited and was convinced that getting 7 strikes in a row in a bowling game was real skill. The Game area manager sportingly played a dancing game, which actually looked quite fun.

The tills opened at 00:00 on 10th November 2010 and the 3 cashiers started processing people’s orders – it took a while! Plus their number system was very poor, they obviously hadn’t learned from the night before. Basically they started off asking for customers numbered 1 – 3, but by around customer number 11 they had lost count of the customer numbers, so this cause some confusion.

I (customer 30) got served at around 00:25. Considering I got there at 23:50 that wasn’t too bad I suppose – not when you consider that someone started queuing at 19:00 to get served at 00:00! I actually got the Kinect that I had pre-ordered, as well as 2 other games. I only got the 2 other games because they were £20 instead of £40 for this night only and they said I could return them for a full refund if I didn’t like them. The cashier was very hazy on the return date though, I had a ask him a few times and he decided that Saturday would be the last day I could return them.

I then left the shop at 00:30, drove home and set up the Kinect on my Xbox (it was for my brother Kevin, but I wanted to try it out in my house first as I might want one). It turned out that my living room is just too small for it, even if I move my sofa out of the way. I have a 50″ TV that I could move back about 40cm, but then it wouldn’t be at the front edge of the cabinet that it sits on, so it wouldn’t look as nice, plus I don’t really want to swivel my sofa out of the way each time I want to play games – so the Sony PS3 Move control system would actually be a better option for me.

A BBC reporter (whose name I can’t find on the website report) was there with a Dictaphone and a pocket camera. He took a few photos and interviewed a few people as they were leaving the shop with their new purchases. I find it a little strange (or maybe upsetting, bad taste, biased – you choose) that he didn’t write up the interview from the first person he interviewed – a man in a wheelchair who had queued at Game since 19:00 (he was the first if not one of the first people in the queue – I don’t know). Surely that would have made a good story – i.e. a disabled person queuing up to buy a Kinect. Instead  the reporter (or the BBC team – I don’t know who is responsible) posted a few quotes from 5 people from Milton Keynes (including some very ‘chavy’ types) and left this story out completely.

Today I went to Kevin’s house and we tried the Kinect there. His computer room is quite long so the length is okay, but he has a sloping roof so can’t jump or move to the right very easily. However we played a few games and it seems just about okay (so we won’t be selling it on ebay). If we want to play 2 player or have a true single player gaming experience, we can take the Xbox 360 with the Kinect into the living room, which is a large room and will be fine. However I won’t be asking for one for Christmas as my living room is too small for it.

Knee Injury:

• Since January I have had an injury with my left knee. This has resulted in me doing a lot less sport training and events than I would have liked
• I have had 2 sessions with a chiropractor at Body Limits. The first session really helped a lot, but I didn’t really feel much benefit from the second session (although it was still good). I might try to get another session next week
• I thought that it might be because my road and trail shoes had worn out, so I replaced them – both with the top of the range ASICS road shoes and trail shoes. However this made things worse as they both pairs of shoes gave me really bad blisters behind the ball of my feet after 30 minutes running. After talking to other people, this is a common problem with ASICS – they just don’t suite some people
• 2 weeks ago I went to Runners Need in Oxford Street, London just to buy some new shoes. I didn’t know at the time, but I was served by Claire Linskill, the UK’s Under 23 National Female Triple Jump champion! I spent an hour in the shop and came away with a pair of Addidas road running shoes and Brookes trail shoes. I think both might be a bit too long for me – but I’ll stick with them for now and get new ones later if necessary
• I walked into A&E last week pretending that I had twisted my knee. I hadn’t but I figured it was the quickest way to get an X-ray. The nurses and doctor were all very good and I got an X-ray of my knee. It’s good to know that there was no bone damage, so I think it is tendon damage. I’ll see if I can get an appointment with a GP next week
• Earlier this week I bought a knee brace and have been wearing it overnight and while at work. I don’t think it is helping at all though, but I’ll stick with it for a week or two

Sports:

• I have done far less sport this year than I wanted, mainly due to my knee and bad weather (no fun cycling in the rain). I have only been out on my road bike 3 times and my mountain bike… well about 5 times – not good
• I have done quite a bit of swimming (in a pool and in a lake with a wetsuit) this year, but I am still rubbish at it despite training sessions with Team MK. I need to spend a couple of months dedicated to it – and maybe go on a swimming course
• I won a competition with 19 other people for a half-day Mitchum Masterclass at the Loughborough University High Performance Centre on the 5^th September. I am really looking forward to this – just wish I was in better shape with my knee. By the powers of Google, I discovered 1 of the other 20 winners of the competition. Ross blogged about it on his blog Run the Line
• I’m worried that I won’t be able to compete in the Questars 6 hour Adventure Race on the 11th. I’ll decide on Monday. I don’t want to let my team-mate Dave down I went to boots today and bought some deep heat type stuff (same thing but more expensive) and some pain killers
• I shouldn’t really do any sports next week – i.e. the week before a race, but I think I will have to. I will try to keep it long distance (running and cycling) and low heart rate though. Luckily I have all of next week off of work (it’s my birthday on the 8^th and I don’t like to work on the week of my birthday!)

Websites:

• Still working on GetMeCooking – we have lots of ideas for it, just not enough time. Kevin is adding lots of new tweaks and features all the time. I have one killer idea that could really benefit the site (and the users) and bring in lots of really quality content
• GetMeCooking application for Android – I am writing an Android based mobile phone application for GetMeCooking
• I have been working long and hard on the Moorespeed website and it is getting good traffic and high praise from the owner (Richard Moore) as well as the Internet community. Just 2 weeks after it went live, he has got some big orders plus interest from a BMW importer in the USA! So Richard is very happy right now!
• Starbase24 – I have scrapped the current site (based on Stack Exchange). Although it was really good, people just didn’t understand the concept so nobody added questions to it. Which is a shame because it really was very good and the static FAQ pages and forum sites that people use were never designed for Q&A purposes, so are really inadequate for the job. Starbase24 will now be a place where I can critique websites
• Baconaholic – I haven’t had time to work on this yet. It is a low priority
• Performit – I want to improve the look of the page and update the content a little
• Techboy – I want to merge it into the WordPress site that http://blog.techboy.co.uk sits on and also modify or replace the WordPress theme

Books:

• These are the books I have read recently

Holidays:

• I went rock climbing in Spain with Dave last March
• I took a week off in July to teach myself day-trading on the stock exchange (mostly USA stocks). Dave came over for half a day and taught me a lot! I have also signed up to Gold membership on Bulls on Wallstreet
• I have a week off next week – I’ll do some more share dealing
• I’m doing a culinary tour of Lebanon (plus a few additional days by myself) 22^nd September – 3^rd October
• I’m going on a 1 week Jagged Edge mountaineering course with Nathan in February in Scotland

Share Dealing:

• Waiting for my Charles Schwab share trading account to be set up. It is taking ages! The ETA for it to be set up is the 29^th September. That plus my Bulls on Wallstreet Gold account should equal profit!