It Ain't Half Hot Mum!

Its official... Today is the hottest day of the year, with temperatures reaching 38.6°C in places! Add another 10°C or so to that if you want to know the temperature in our server room at the school!!

The picture above is actually a view taken about 2 minutes ago from the server room using the Evesham High School Webcam (website designed by me of course). What you don't see is me melting behind the camera.

Less than 24 hours to go, and I finish work for 6 whole weeks!!! Wooooooooooo

Aye Aye Cap'n

Michelle is out doing a disco, Kieran is in bed sleeping, and I'm sat here in front of the computer having spent the last hour writing a very basic little tune called "Sailors Song". It was written using the fantastic SkaleTracker software, (amd slightly edited using Goldwave).

Download "Stuart's Sailors Song" <---- Right click and select Save Target As

Credit where credit is due - This song is based on "The Sailors Hornpipe" by Mike Oldfield which of course is featured on his excellent album "Tubular Bells", and this particular version which I have done is based on Bob Hartsthorne version which was featured on CRL's Tubular Bells music demo on the Commodore 64.

Bloody Gypo's

Had a phonecall from the police this morning. Apparently some kind hearted old man found Michelle's purse in the river and took it to the police station. All the credit cards were still in it (albeit wet), but of course all the cash had gone. Apparently there has been a number of pick pocket incidents in and around Marks and Spencers in Evesham town and it looks increasingly likely that Michelle was a victim.

Crazy thing is, Michelle had put her purse in Kieran's changing bag on the back of the push chair, so whoever it was, they must have been really quick. F!@#*ng gypos must have had a whale of a time spending our cash!! Evesham is full of them. The dirty, rotten scum. They walk around town smelling awful, they can't talk properly, and they will try anything for some easy money, even if it means robbing from decent people like us.

Oh well, life goes on... I'm not going to let it bother me any more. It's just money. Let this be a lesson to everyone who is reading this - take care of your belongings, and make sure you never leave your wallet or purse out of sight (especially if you ever visit Evesham!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

A day in the life of an...

ICT Network Technician

This is what I have done today, and gives you an idea of what each of my days at Evesham High School is like.

- Start work at 8.00am. Switch on all computers and printers in all classrooms.
- Create new user accounts in Active Directory on our server (running Windows Server 2003)
- Change tons of passwords because the students keep forgetting theirs
- Create VBS scripts to run on the server.
- Salvage old PC's and rebuild them in new cases for a new ICT suite
- Setup, install and configure brand new PCs for yet another ICT suite.
- Design a Star Wars flash animation for use as an example to 6th form students currently learning how to use Macromedia products.
- Run a very quick game of Halo over the LAN between myself and another teacher.
- Purchase 4x Sony Memory Stick Duo Pro for new digital cameras
- Losing a screw in a laser printer and having to dismantle the thing just to get it out (and put it back together again).
- Network installation of new Business Studies software
- Configurating wireless access points so that the laptops in the DT faculty can connect to the wireless network.
- Making lengths of Cat5e cable (with RJ45's and my trusty crimping tool!!!)
- Go home at 4.00pm
- Plus lots more which I have forgotton to mention.....

And if thats not enough, we also had the Evesham High School Staff Ball tonight at Dumbleton Hall, and as we were doing the disco, I haven't had a chance to rest until now.

Oh.... and all our credits cards and over £100 in cash were lost earlier today!! Oh joy!!

Still, only another 7 days to go before I finish work for 6 weeks!! I love working in a school, as its great that I get all the school holidays off!!!!! Not only that but its great to get a wage at the end of August even though I haven't even worked in that month!!!!

Roll on Friday 21st July

The Beeb...

I collect computers.... Mostly Commodore computers, but I love collecting old, retro computers. My latest addition is a BBC Master which I found hidden in a cupboard at the school that I work at, with about an inch of dust covering the keyboard!!

It even comes with a 3.5" disk drive! I wasn't expecting the thing to work as apparently it has been sitting around for ages (well, ever since the school threw away a ton of them over a decade ago!!)

I gave it a good clean, plugged in the power, flicked the switch at the back of the computer..... and then.....

BEEP....

Yes... That immortal sound brought back so many memories of Computer Club when I was at school.

I actually have a couple of old disks (unfortuantly 5 1/4") with some little basic programs which I wrote back then which I would love to run. I might have to look on eBay for a compatible disk drive now.

Still, I've managed to load Repton on it (remember that game Dan?), and it nearly brought a tear to my eyes. Those were the days!!!

Anyway, the school wont miss it, so I have given it a new home. It'll probably end up with the rest of my old computers up in the loft in a few weeks, but I'm gonna make sure it gets a good amount of usage initially. I wonder if I can find Elite for it?

Oh bugger.....

Opps - update!!

The link to my Doctor Who Dalek Invasion website was pointing to an old version. Try this link for the latest version (with sound). Flash and Quicktime are required.

http://www.stu-wilson.com/drwho