Pauly's 'Stoney Soapbox

AC/DC tickets

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 23:12:29 GMT

AC/DC are touring, first time in eight years apparently, though it's certainly not that long since we saw them at Hammersmith Odeon, guess that really was a special one off tour.

Tue 14-Apr-09 AC/DC London The O2 On Sale From 10:00 17-Oct-08

Tue 21-Apr-09 AC/DC Manchester Evening News Arena On Sale From 10:00 17-Oct-08

Thu 23-Apr-09 AC/DC Birmingham LG Arena (Formerly NEC) On Sale From 10:00 17-Oct-08

Sounds like more than one date at the O2 to me, could be wrong though maybe they just need time to recover between shows...

I didn't go and see KISS when they came here last and I'm not sure I'm going to go to this, I'm a bit old these days, but not quite old enough to be looking forward to it through a misty rose tinted rear view mirror. I know how expensive these things can be these days, and can picture the hassle of getting home and that, but maybe it will be my gig of the year. Can't see it right now though. Can't even earn anything pimping AC/DC tickets on ebay these days, they've not reinstated my affilliate account :-(

Obama mix free mp3

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:46:07 GMT

Get it here, not heard it yet, but I think I'd urge people to vote Obama anyway. I'm not sitting on the fence like KISS. It's obviously not my call, but how often has the Conservative candidate been the better choice?

That link courtesy of billy squier off popbitch. Also while I'm here Popbitch book only 8.99, good christmas present! I'm not in it myself, but the toy white tiger we bought in Las Vegas does feature.

A rare night out in London tonight

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:41:30 GMT

Meeting a friend here after work before meeting Clare later, and staying in a hotel, how decadent. Tomorrow, lunching and shopping.

Camera update: it just sent me an email, the first in days. Always a bit nervy receiving a mail saying "motion detected IN YOUR HOUSE WHEN YOU'RE NOT THERE", but it's sensitive, was probably a seagull flying past the window. I checked in, it's silent and still and the telly's still there so I think we're OK.

Work update: still absolutely chocka, too busy to write much.

More camera strangeness

Wed, 8 Oct 2008 19:00:48 GMT

I had a burst of five emails in a row from the camera, not sure if it's when I'd tweaked with the settings or not so no idea if it's working or not. Might try turning off the video attachment see if that's any easier on the email. Found lots of stuff here, stuff that I wish I'd seen before choosing this camera really.

Poor Clare is stuck on a train back from London, they're stopped at Tonbridge, this page is predicting she'll only be ten minutes late in (ten minutes later than the train she's on is meant to be in, which is later than normal because she missed her normal train) but that's probably rubbish.

Ah it is rubbish, she got off at Tonbridge to find out what was going on, people at Tonbridge station have been told there are no trains going anywhere and busses are on the way, but they weren't announcing it on the trains yet so as not to cause a crush. Her folks are going to drive to Tonbridge and pick her up. On the plus side she is working from home tomorrow, and she will go sit in the pub and wait for her folks, but we'd both rather she was home. Time to stop working in London monkey!

And the camera's working at last

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 19:32:15 GMT

Outgoing mail server is mail.btinternet.com, and username is just the username, not the email address. I authorised another email address on my own clarkeology.com domain to send from my btbroadband in the end, but don't think I really needed to do that. At least if I reply to one of these messages, or Clare does, the mail will come back to me and not some unchecked yahoo / btinternet account.

Now all I want is for someone to burgle my flat!

Looks like this might be the modern equivalent of my camera.

UPDATE: and it's gone again, sent one mail and now it's back to erroring again. The mail did arrive, seemingly from my own domain so I know that bit worked. Once. What on earth did I do to get it working?

Linksys WVC54G wireless camera, btinternet SMTP and gmail

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 08:13:41 GMT

Dug out my wireless camera, to see if it could be used as a web cam - it's good quality, with sound, but more for security monitoring than sitting in front of the screen and talking. Don't think it can, but it's good to have it up and running again after about a year... It seems a little slow to respond when setting it up, like changes take a few minutes to take effect so it seems like it's not working correctly occasionally, but I got there. Even my old dyndns account was still running so hopefully I'll be able to use the camera from work today, and maybe give the address out so you can monitor my home security for me.

Only really had problems with one bit of it, and that's the "send an email on motion detect", one of the main features of this camera (pointless still linking to it, I don't think you can buy it any more). You need an smtp server for your outgoing mails, your ISP certainly provides one. I hoped to use gmail, as I use it for all my mail and have never used the email address that came with BT Broadband, but smtp.gmail.com insists on some encryption and an alternative port number that the camera can't cope with, so no go. In the end, some messing about changing settings and trying things it seems that at some point since I last used this BT made changes to not let you set your "from" address in your emails without authenticating that you really own that address. Definitely reasonable and I guessed this so I was already trying to send the emails from what I thought was my real bt broadband address, and what had been my real email address when I registered, let's say it's foo@btinternet.com. I logged on to my btinternet.com address and worked out it had been changed to foo@ btopenworld.com. Oh and there was a mail waiting explaining what had gone on, I didn't need to google round the houses after all.

Urgent – emails you send from non–BT Yahoo! Mail addresses via our SMTP servers may be blocked

Dear Customer,

You've received an Error 553 message because we've upgraded your BT Yahoo! Mail security to help prevent identity fraud and spam.

These enhancements will help protect you from 'spoofing' – when people use alternate addresses to disguise an email's real sender, possibly to commit fraud.

Making the improvements work

For the security improvements to work, we need you to take a few minutes now to verify each of the alternate email addresses you use in BT Yahoo! Mail. This will confirm that these email addresses are genuine.

Please verify addresses now to avoid any further blocking of your outgoing emails.

Simply follow the step-by-step instructions at www.btyahoo.com/verify. You won't be asked for any personal information, but you'll need to log in to your account to make the changes.

UPDATE: I've got the theory of it anyway, but no emails sent as yet. If I suddenly get an email from the camera at work today, that will be a bad thing, as it means someone is moving about in the flat...

New nephew!

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 07:36:59 GMT

Bit slow off the mark on this one, but our new nephew Luke Mahon was born to Kevin and Guiselle late on Friday night. This was in the US of States, so we didn't find out until the next day, have seen some pictures already and hope to get moving video this evening when he's home and propped up in front of a webcam.

A handy guide to how tall stuff is [img]

Fri, 3 Oct 2008 15:49:07 GMT

From xkcd.com.

Wow this makes the blog content nearly as long as the ad-stuffed sidebar! Still haven't heard back from Ebay about their new affiliate scheme. I'm chucking free links to them left right and centre to them at the moment and not earning a bean!

Have a nice weekend, I think I will, been a pretty tiring week at work, good though.

What is it about local newspaper that makes mentals write in?

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 18:43:14 GMT

Do these people not have blogs? See the comments

Got my Folkestone Literary Festival tickets

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 18:12:35 GMT

We're off to talks by David Starkey and Susie Dent, and I've also ended up with one for Sandi Toksvig. Clare was meant to be going with her Mum, but they've double booked. There are more things I'm tempted to go to, but it would mean going out on a school night... Alex Horne and Dan Antopolski are doing the comedy night at the Leas Club, and John O'Farrell is also doing something. Good to have so much to choose from.

More on Folkestone Literary Festival at folkestonelitfest.co.uk.

Very busy at work right now, I worked yesterday evening and was in early today but it all worked out and I was rewarded with champagne for helping get Easyjet parking out on schedule.

Splendid weekend of comedy, food, double dinners, and everything

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:26:23 GMT

Great weekend. As an intro though, specifically for the people from work who mentioned they had found this page recently - at no point did I drink too much and become annoying, I am a fine upstanding member of staff. Probably you can go back to work now.

Weekend, great, started with comedy up at the Tower Theatre. Was not the building I thought it was, it's a big solid old church converted into a nice theatre. Little bit cold and a bit big for the comedy I thought. Also we were sat in tiered rows and not "club style" like at Lanterns. This has got to make it a bit tougher for the comedians, particularly as they weren't huge names. I don't think I'll mention the names here. First comedian was just not good, not bad, a few laughs, but not very good. Second comedian was dreadful, he really really bombed. It was awkward and embarrassing and a bit sad. He was American and maybe his comedy was a bit American and gentle. Possibly he was in the newcomer slot, where we have seen some awful bombing acts, he did say that he'd been given the shortest slot of the night. Not sure he expected anyone from the crowd to bellow out "thank god for that", this stopped him in his tracks and I think I saw tears. He looked like he might have gone down better with a cruise ship audience, it was gentle comedy for elderly americans.

It was not all bad, the compere was Maff Brown and he was great, sharp and funny and involved the audience but without too much of the repetition that you can find when people talk to the crowd. This might be a Folkestone thing, as when you ask someone in audience what they do, generally they work for SAGA and then the comic has to make a joke about old people on coaches. This was a work do, everyone knew it and might have geared their material accordingly.

Headlining comedian Steve Day was also very good. Where the first two comedians struggled with our crowd, he was particularly impressive as he's deaf - how did he gauge the reactions of those of us sat higher up in the dark?

A good night, and all free as it was a leaving do of a friend at work. I hear the following night's "real" Lone Star Comedy Club at the same venue was better. I will be along to the next one (the next one after they move it back into central Folkestone).

Saturday, food fair in Canterbury. Great weather, so we were sat out in the park eating and drinking and it was lovely. There was a good band playing from Canterbury's equivalent twin town in Italy, which I think I just googled is Certaldo. They were a performance art type act, all in matching boiler suits marching and playing saxaphones and things in sync. We stayed and enjoyed, and drank a bit too much cider and headed in tow town.

The rest of the day, ppfff who knows. We went to Karls Food and Wine and had a drink in the garden there, very civilised. Then on to The Dolphin and Bramleys and I'm not sure were else. I think there was singing on the bus home, sorry if you were there and it did not sound like singing.

Sunday, nice relaxing day. Had dinner round the in-laws, beat Clare at Scrabble and watched quite a lot of TV.

I'd love to have that weekend all over again, I had a great time.

Come on over to my place

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:14:32 GMT

Do you want to come and work here? See our recruitment video.

I'm positive they said they would ask permission before they featured us, I think I'm pretty definitely featured there in the bit where they say WE'RE LOOKING FOR A WEB GURU!!! That's not my job, that's not actually the side of the company I work for, that's the side with the shiny new desks and things. But hey, have a look round our office, have a look at the people I work with. 'Phone me up, tell me I should have got my hair cut before I appeared on "telly" like that.

recruitment@holidayextras.com if you want to work here.

holidayextras.com

UPDATE: Someone's taken it down. I'm sure it's only temporary, it's an ad, it's meant to be seen, I did not leak something that was not already public! Hello to all the people from work who have found this page now.

UPDATE UPDATE: And it's back - there are at least two of them up there, possibly this is an even newer version.

Talk about hedging your bets

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:59:15 GMT

New KISS t-shirts. I guess they're saying "just make sure you vote", but it's a bit like selling arms to both sides of the war isn't it?

[flickr]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3138/2889673602_fcaa7fa4ba.jpg[/flickr]

[flickr]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3247/2889673592_325aef6188.jpg[/flickr]

Eggheads?

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:20:57 GMT

What's happened to Eggheads on BBC IPlayer? It's VANISHED! I've got used to watching it every day when we get in from work...

Also my torrent speed seems a bit slow, not that I am trying to download the new episode of House or anything. New series of Heroes to get going with though, plus some DVDs including The Last Enemy which has been dead good and Jonathon Creek, which I knew was good anyway. Last episodes of the last series, pleased to hear a rumour there's a new christmas special being made though.

Nice weekend

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:36:35 GMT

Had a good weekend, reasonably uneventful but just NICE! Intended to start off with a quiz at The Grand, but they called Clare on the day to say it was cancelled, for a private function. Good job she had called to reserve a table and left her number, or possibly they googled the number and found out it was us and didn't fancy the competition. Either way, no quizzing action.

Saturday went to Canterbury for a change. Lunch at Ask, actually genuinely for a change - it was a lovely sunny day, and we were hungry right on lunch time, so there was an hour's wait for our first choice. Pasta and vino in Ask were great, and we got a table overlooking the river, splendid. Did a bit of shopping, met up with Dom and Jen for a coffee, spent more than we'd planned in Karl's, had a pint in The Parrot, and then home.

There's a food fair on in Canterbury next weekend, so looking forward to that. We're going to try and make a proper day and evening of it, maybe even cocktails in The Cuban as a crazily overpriced treat.