July « 2007 « NullMind’s Lair

To be single again ? .. no thank you.

Friday, July 27th, 2007

As I mentioned here, I have bought a Holiday Home in Blackpool

Well, it’s a week now since the wife and the kids went there for the weekend … and never returned

And for the looks of it, they wont be returning for another 2 or 3 weeks !!!

I did spent the weekend there, but got back Sunday night .. I’m about to go back there tonight and once again return on Sunday .. but the wife and the kids .. they wont have none of it, they loving it so much they dont want to come back home.

So it’s just me and the cat these days .. yeah, one might think “Cool” … but it kind of sucks, one misses the family after a few days, and to be alone on a big empty house, with nothing but a cat for company can be quite lonely, plus the cat is a bad poker player, he cheats too much.

Well, at least they are enjoying it .. the kids love it because there is a huge play area right outside the doorstep and the clubhouse new pool will open this coming Sunday.

As for me ? .. well, that God for take-out.

27.07.2007 Family No Comments

XTM Grinders

Friday, July 27th, 2007

A few weeks back, i bought a set of XTM wheels, I tough I was going to be able to use them for my XTT Losi tires .. once they arrived it became evident I was not going to be able to, the XTM rim uses a buggy like design, so the XTT where out.

Instead I decided to buy some XTM tires, after bouncing back and forth between the Grinders and the Knobs, i opted for the Grinders (thanks Pete for the help too)

I was pleasantly surprised on how easy it was to glue them, I feel the buggy design is an easier one to glue tires .. I am also using a “thick” super-glue, that gives me a few extra seconds before bonding, it makes gluing tires easier, as you have a precious few seconds to correct imperfections, but also, I find the tires glued with this ticker bonding agent does come unglued as fast as the ones done with the very thin regular super glue.

Here they are, I am hoping to try them out this sunday at NNRC .. they sure look mint.

Technorati Tags: Losi, NNRC, RC

27.07.2007 RC No Comments

New (Used) Car

Monday, July 23rd, 2007

For the past 4 or 5 months, I have been driving around on a old 1994 Fiesta Van … I bought it at the beginning of the year as a carrier for all my RC gear.

While it works great, the fiesta was a bit old, it had a great engine, but the rest left some to be desired .. and above all, it had no power steering.

Still, I was happy, for what I need, it was fine. But then I started to use it more and more, and my RC addition grew as well, to the point the fiesta became too small for all my gear.

I was also worried with long trips, as I now will do more traveling between Sandbach and Blackpool, time was to get a newer and bigger Van.

Well, here it is, it’s a 2002 Citroen Berlingo

Plenty of space for all my stuff, it’s a nice reliable modern van, next .. get rid of those hideous tires and rims and put some 16″ alloys.

23.07.2007 General, RC 1 Comment

You Spin Me Round …

Thursday, July 19th, 2007

Earlier today I noticed most of my tires where looking quite dirty, plus they had allot of dry mud stuck to them, and while the wheels are not yet balanced, the dry mud cant make any better (besides, it’s more weight).

The prospect of washing 6 sets of tires by hand was not an appealing one, so I decided to take a shortcut .. and use the clothes washer

The tires where looking quite dirty

I set the washer to 40 degrees, NO spin cycle (wife was laughing from me asking how to do all this)

Threw them all in, plus some soap

spiiiiin …

And to use a cliche .. the proof is in the pudding .. they came out spotless

Of course, some of them have a little bit of water inside, so I squeezed it out, not much of a problem there, expect the wife did a load of clothes after and they came out full of dirt (yep, make sure you run a empty load after you do this, she stop laughing then) .. I am still avoiding her and her wrath

Technorati Tags: Losi, RC, RC Nut

19.07.2007 RC No Comments

New Tire Hauler

Thursday, July 19th, 2007

Pete from BMM was selling a nice GS Racing Hauler bag on Maxbashing .. after some consideration and haggling we made a deal and it arrived today.

He was laughing I was going to use it “just” to carry tires .. but after these pictures, I think he might see the beauty of it

It fits all my tires, unfortunately there is no room to spare .. so any new tires I buy, will have to go mounted on the Car .. but to be honest .. I have ALL tires one can need .. so it’s unlikely i’ll be buying more tires except to replace bare ones.

Sure beats the Old bin I was using

Technorati Tags: 8IGHT-T, 8T, Losi, RC, RC Nut

19.07.2007 RC No Comments

Speed Test

Monday, July 16th, 2007

I have just cancelled my Bulldog DSL account and opened a new one with BT

Bulldog only gives me 2Mps .. BT says they can go up to almost 8Mps on my exchange.

So, as a test, this is the speed test today .. next Monday, when the BT one is suppose to be up, I will test it then again and see if there is a difference

155641691

16.07.2007 Computers / Internet 1 Comment

Sold Relio

Monday, July 16th, 2007

Now, here is a post i’d never tough I be making .. the sale of Relio.

A few years back, I decided to sell DataColo and just keep Relio, at the time Relio was very small, just a few servers, it was a perfect “testbed” for H-Sphere.

But soon things changed, clients just continued to come in, and while it was good news, it did meant it was growing quicker than I could manage by myself, after all, I still had to manage Positive Software and H-Sphere.

So, a little over a year ago, I contacted a god friend (Robert Rolfe) who runs a H-Sphere company called Weberz .. we discussed a plan where he and his support team would manage the Relio cluster and provide support to the customer, therefore freeing me from 90% of the day to day workload that Relio was demanding.

But that was not the end of it, Relio kept on growing, and became very visible, that started to upset some of our clients at PSoft, who did not saw fit for their Control Panel provider (H-Sphere) manager to have a Web Host of their own .. and while I did allot of smooching to appease those people, deep inside I knew it was a problem, i’d be upset if I where them as well.

And so, Relio continued to grow, and with that I started to make plans for an ambitious plan, take it to the next level with GRID-like distributed hosting .. the idea was (and is) great .. but when announced, it would forever make me a person-non-grata with the PSoft clients .. adding to that, another good friend of mine, started to tempt me with an offer of work, an offer that would see me on a great company that was also deploying such a system as I was planning, and above all, managing great staff and collaborating with great people.

But above all, it also started to take more time away from myself PSoft .. and that was not fair for PSoft.

So decisions had to be made, drop PSoft, drop the new offer and take Relio to the next level .. or Give Relio to the people that can take it to the next level and concentrate on different challenges

Well, I choose the second.

I also decided to open a RC Shop .. it was just too much to handle .. Relio was then sold to Rob and the Weberz team, meaning no changes for the end customers, it’s the same company, I’m just not there.

So i am now free to go forward with new and current projects, there is a upcoming change coming to PSoft, and it will require me to work hard on it, I will open the RC shop on September 1st, and hopefully in a few months, I will be collaborating with some new people one some exciting new projects.

Unfortunately NDA’s and the works prevent me from being more specific .. but to the Relio clients, you are on great hands.

Technorati Tags: Relio

16.07.2007 Work 3 Comments

OS Speed … WOW !!!

Sunday, July 15th, 2007

As some know, i have been using a OS V-Spec on my 8T for a few months now, and at no fault of the engine, love it to bits.

So much so, I bought a second one, anyway, the opportunity to buy a SPEED came up a few weeks back and I took it, I was quite unsure what to expect, a part of me was wondering “will I see a difference ?”, after all the V-Spec is an amazing engine, what can the Speed offer more ? I have more speed than I need on the V-Spec already …

So today I took the speed to the track, I had done the break-in of the engine already, but was not sure what to expect…

Only one word can summarize it … WOW

Dont get me wrong, the V-Spec on the 8T is a powerhouse .. but the speed ? .. well, let me just say, I never saw a truggy do wheelies before @!!@

The power is immense, and it goes on and on and on .. I was only hitting temperatures of 160 degree !! .. which meant .. I could have leaned it even more (?).. it’s just insane laugh.gif

Nut above all, I was amazed by the sheer smoothness of the engine .. the idle is just perfect .. no bogging, no shutting off after a minute of idling .. and when I was running, it never skip a beat .. just perfect RPM’s all the time

I used to think there was no excuse to spend £200+ on an engine .. until today

Simply Amazing !!!

Technorati Tags: 8IGHT-T, 8T, OS SPEED, RC, Team Losi

15.07.2007 RC 2 Comments

New Holiday Home

Saturday, July 14th, 2007

For a while now, me and my wife have been thinking of buying a holiday home, we usually go to Seton Sands in Scotland for Holiday, and they have these very nice homes (we call them mobile/manufactured homes back in florida) .. and we did considered buying there, but it’s a 4 hour drive, so it means we would only use it a few times a year.

Instead we decided to look at Blackpool .. it’s considered by many to the the Orlando of England (?), and when i visited, I did got the feeling it’s a Holiday town, lots of different parks and attractions .. maybe a mini-orlando is more precise

Blackpool is a mere 70 miles to us, and of those 60 are all Motorway miles (M6) .. so in less than one hour and fifteen minutes, we are there, it’s a very easy drive too.

Anyway, we looked at a few Holiday Parks, and some of the were just a bit busy for our taste, they where more targeted to people on a week or weekend holiday, vs holiday home owners .. therefore, it was very busy, but luck had it, we found one that was just what we wanted, not a “rental” focused park, but instead one that caters to owners .. therefore, it was extremely quiet and tidy.

Plus it’s in walking distance to the tram and the beaches

We bought this Place, it’s a 1997 model, it has 3 bedrooms, luxury interior (proper recliner couches, actual dining tables, etc .. not the “fitted” crap that these houses are usually associated with), the previous owners kept it immaculate, as it is right now it’s perfect, but we wish to do some work on the outside (the grounds) and put a nice big deck for some outdoor entertaining and a “skirt” all around it to loose that “mobile home” look, it is also currently missing the steps & rail to climb up to the doors, they will be in Monday.

Here are some pictures … we will be going there next Friday to spend the weekend .. the bonus for me is that the NNRC racetrack is just a couple miles down the road, so I’ll be racing there on their Summer & Winter series

It is great to have a second place to call home, it is also double nice to have a place to go if the wife ever gets mad at me and sends me to the dog house.