Half Term Over and Last Stretch of School

Wowzers, half term went quickly. Some was spent well revising, some was a complete waste of time playing xbox. However i felt it was fun anyway.

Highlights:

• Hectors House
• Some fun times with Jamie Rumbelow on Xbox Live
• Barbecue

Hectors House - For revision's sake. Not much got done but it was fun anyway.
Xbox Live - Call Of Duty: WaW was fun with Jamie Rumbelow. Also the double EXP weekend on Halo 3 was fun.
Barbecue - A nice chilled out few hours, Saturday Evening. So chilled i even had a beer, even though i don't like it. Remind me never to have one again cause its not that great.

So that is basically my week of chill over. Now, I have 4 weeks of exams ahead of me (public timetable here) although only 2 are bad. Then on the 16th of June it is my birthday! w00t! and i'm 16, which means a few things, like being legal to engage in hardcore sexual activity (not that i will for a while) and maybe getting a moped (which would make my life so much easier).

Then a 12 week holiday. It's all to look forward to! Wish me luck...

My Thoughts: WWDC 2009

I was looking through Gizmodo (as you do) when i came across this article by Gizmodo's very own Jesus Diaz and so i thought i would also give my thoughts on Apple's WWDC 2009. (WWDC = World Wide Developers Conference)

For those not "in the know", there have been rumors around for ages about these things.

Firstly, there is a new iPhone coming out. Well, we don't know that. Well, we sort of do. Because everything points at it. From the first rumor of a new matte plastic back to the latest addition to the iPhone SDK of a iPhone 2,1 picture, the internet has worked out that there will be a new iPhone. I believe it will be unvieiled at WWDC and released to the public in late July, similar to the iPhone 3G last year.

(I'm also very excited about this one, cause I should get upgrades on 02 in the UK as they did from the first iPhone to the iPhone 3G. I really hope anyway.)

Secondly, Snow Leopard. The next OS in the Mac OSX line, 10.6 promises performance enhancements and new GUI's for applications, as has been found in recent developer betas around the internet. I think it will be shown off a little at WWDC as the main showcase item, with a new developer beta no doubt available just after. I think this will be great as it has already confirmed

Third, A Mac Tablet. Many rumors have been about for this one and i really hope it becomes a reality, as a mac netbook or tablet would be great, as in my opinion OSX is by far the cleanest and best OS out there (but i am stuck on windows cause i can't hackint0sh my laptop cause of the graphics :( ). However, a netbook is likely in the current climate and i think Apple would be silly not to release one. But whether it will take a tablet form or a netbook form is unknown. There have been rumors of screen orders that are 9.7 or 10 inches and i think this is the perfect size for a tablet. Whether this would come with a keyboard or not is a good question. Drawing new netbook users in would require a hardware-keyboard but most people would still go for a virtual, on screen keyboard. But snow-leopard, as a slimmed down OS could be installed on a 8GB chip similar to the iPhone's and, with multi-touch capability confirmed in the OS and rumors coming out all the time, it looks more and more likely.

Lastly, other product refreshes. iPhone is the big one, as detailed above. iPod Touch refreshes i think shall also happen soon, with a similar time frame to the iPhone. There have also been rumors of MacBook Pro rebrandings, but I don't think this will happen anytime soon, and definetely not at the WWDC 2009 conference.

The Beginnings of Half Term

So, it's half term. Any other half term that isn't in the middle of GCSE's or exams would encompass major xbox playing and staying up into the early hours. However, this half term has been a major exception, with many hours of revision. However, there has also been some xbox playing, as there has to be a good balance between work and play, otherwise stress sets in. If i'm honest, i am still feeling pretty stressed, even if I am not the huge panicer. I don't show it while i'm around the house, but i am constantly worried about not doing well. But i'm sure it will be all for nothing, then i will open that envelope mid-august and see nice high grades and say "i am so happy i spent that time revising instead of messing around" cause its not like a few weeks lost to hard work cannot be got back in the 12 or 13 week holiday afterwards.

Anyway, I am writing this in my break so i should probably get back to revision. Thinking of a tutorial on making the perfect firefox browser later, so i think i will do that after dinner.

Link of the day: One awesome tweak for firefox! Check it out on mine (its the transparent effect if you are slow or can't be bothered to click the link) (i got this from Lifehacker)

(edit: i just did a blog post on making the ultimate browsing experience: check it out)

A Normal Saturday

So, my normal Saturday began normally, just as it usually would. I went to work and did the jobs i should do and had a very interesting conversation about the night before (for him, anyway) and how he had a mate... and they both went round this girls house... and there were 2 girls... and... need i say more?

Anyway, after work, i met up with Henry, my friend. I also walked past someone else i know, who is pretty awesome but i didn't get a chance to stop him, he looked in a rush and so was I. anyway, then me and henry went back to my house and we played a bit of Half Life 2 and a bit of Halo 3, which was fun. He left about half 4ish, i revised from then till 6, then had a nice chat on Omegle (see below) then had dinner. After that, watched a great film (in French) called Jean de Florrette. Brilliant film. Anyway, then i came and wrote this.

Now i am going to play Halo/COD5/Half Life/something on the xbox.

Anyway, Omegle is a great website that lets you talk randomly to people. Now, some might say this is dangerous, but I say f*** off. As long as you're not stupid and give away your postcode or something, i don't see why it would be dangerous. Anyway, i had a nice chat with an Indonesian guy about music and trains (because he wanted to go to England and were talking about journeys).

Nite everybody.

A Friday

Friday with no school before exams = revision. Most of the day was composed of revision. However, while i did revision i was installing XP on my sisters Aspire One, as she HATEs linux with a passion. However, i also didn't like it as it was very locked down and difficult to get to the settings of the system. Anyway, this went on until around now, where i will be having a well deserved break while i finish this installation and play a bit of Half Life 2.

Check this out too (Mac users) courtesy of Lifehacker. Very cool, and wish i could have. If only i had OS X (the finest operating system around).

Battle of the Browsers

OK, well one of the biggest argued points on the huge network called the Internet is the one over which is the best browser.

Main contenders: IE8, (IE stands for Internet Explorer for non internet speak people), Firefox, Safari 3.2.3 and the newest addition to the group, Google Chrome/Chromium.

Now for the sake of this article, i am going to talk current versions of the browsers. For IE, this is self explanatory but for Firefox, i am talking 3.0.10 and for Google Chrome, version 1.0.x.

So, without further addoo, here is the order that (i think) the browsers are in order (best first)

1: Firefox 3.0.10

The king of all browsers: Firefox. With its huge development team for extensions (everyone and anyone) and its open source base, it is a perfect browser, being updated all the time with speed boosts and new features. The next full version, 3.5, is currently in beta promising huge speed boosts, a new private browsing mode (similar to Chromes Incognito Mode and IE8's InPrivate mode and a faster start up time.

Bad points: Sucks away your RAM and is bad for SSD's, cause it is constant read-write to the drive as opposed to other browsers which run mostly in RAM.

You can get the latest version of Firefox here.

2: Google Chrome/Chromium

Google Chrome entered the market of browsers not so long ago, but it is already one of the best browsers around. It also has a very promising future, bringing extensions. Because it is new and based on Webkit, it is a very fast loader of pages full of interactive content. The clean interface also allows even internet newbies to make bookmarks and use tabs instead of windows. The single process for a tab system, which i believe is being picked up by Firefox soon too, is a very robust system too and allows for use of the browser even if one of your internet pages manages to crash, you can continue use in another tab.

Bad points: It's lack of extensions puts it right down the list for me, but the clean user interface and fast loading times bring it further up the list than Safari and IE8.

You can get the latest stable version of Chrome here, and you can follow Chromium (the open source version) here.

Edit: Google Chrome has been upgraded to 2.0. Links above.

3: Internet Explorer 8

Internet Explorer controls most of the internet share. This is only because of the standard built in nature of it in all windows systems. However, it is still a good browser, not to be forgotten about at the moment.

Internet Explorer is now famous in the web industry for being annoying. This, however is not because of IE8. Standards that web designers must comply to include being compatible with IE6. This is annoying as it takes extra time and effort to make an IE6 compatible version of the site. But, the latest reincarnation is a wonder for internet browsing. It is based on WebKit, so it is fast. It is also built to be fast. However, it is closed source and so takes a lot longer to produce extensions that cannot be fully integrated into the browser unlike Firefox. It also takes quite a while to load up.

Main page here, downloads available here.

4: Safari 2.3.2

Safari was the first browser to be based on WebKit, as it was built by Apple. It has also been the most innovative, using tabs and the like first in a mainstream browser. However, it lacks any sort of extensions and has quite a dull interface that could be difficult for first time users to get used to. However, Safari 4 is promising with lots of visual features. However, this order is based on current browsers.

Windows version available here, Leopard available here and Tiger available here.

This is my roundup of all the mainstream browsers at the moment. However, there are plenty of betas out too.

Chromium
Safari 4
Firefox 3.5

These are all massive improvements over their predecessors, however should be used with care. While i believe that Firefox and Safari 4 betas are fine for everyday use at the moment, Chromium development is still in early days and so maybe shouldn't, as it is unstable and could have multiple security problems.

There is that space on the far left of my Windows 7 Taskbar reserved for my browser. While at the moment it is Firefox 3.0.10, it could easily be replaced with Safri 4 Beta or Chrome, as they both fantastic browsers. Chromium is also very promising in the future. Leave thoughts below :)

An exam filled Wednesday

The most interesting important part of the day today was the 40 minute science exam i had this afternoon. It was incredibly easy, as i find most science papers (and Reading papers in languages).

Chatting at lunch about having a party after my school prom on the 26th of June, cause y'no, the party at school isn't great because of the lack of alcohol and the fact that we don't want to make fools of ourselves in front of the teachers. Anyway, you can fall asleep at parties at other peoples houses anyway. Asked my dad if we could have it at the Vaults (his place btw) but he said no because of the fact that we are all underage and its open to the public and is a licenced premises where kids are not allowed after 10.30 anyway. Sad face. Looks like it will be at my house anyway, if my dad lets me have one. I will be talking to him about it tomorrow after my Italian exam in the afternoon. But no school! lie in. yay.

Other stuff: I was thinking of stuff to write about on my Tutorial blog and came up with a short list.

• Customising your Windows Desktop
• Doing a Jailbreak on the iPhone/iPod Touch
• Upgrading to Windows 7 RC/Build 7100
• Installing and Running Ubuntu (cause i need to do this to my other computer anyway)

Some thoughts on this would be great. sound off in the comments below.

Anyway, i will shortly be participating in some major Xbox playing, as i am basically now in half term because of the fact we have "study leave" tomorrow and the day after.

Tuesday the 19th... Great

Second day of proper exams started with a English Literature exam. I thought it was ok, considering i had done one of the poetry questions before as a practice paper. Also, the Lord of the Flies question was quite good. But enough of boring exam speak, after that i went to the Apple Store and contemplated buying an Apple Keyboard. I thought, i have better things to spend that money on. Besides, there are better keyboards.

After that, moved onto the Vaults. Had a nice chat with Rob, Stu and DJ, who i haven't seen for over a year. Turned out he has sort of been in blackout back and forth from America every other month to see his family who have illnesses at the moment. Turned out, he didn't even hear about my uncles death in December, who all of the staff who have worked at the Vaults in the past 10 years would know him cause he was a regular customer. Anyway, we chatted for about 2 hours while Henry was being bored playing Bloons on my iPhone while we waited for lunch.

Anyway, i went home afterwards. Did some revision for the science exam tomorrow, redesigned my desktop (which is looking mighty fine now) using Enigma and some random picture i found while searching. Looks great and matches my black/seethrough theme i like. Anyway, having a break from revision now and having a bit of Xbox play. Hoping Jamie Rumbelow will join me momentarily, cause playing xbox live without friends is like having a burger without a bun (nothing dirty intended). Then will be off to bed nice and early no doubt, as i have to be at school usual time for revision lessons before the great boring Science exam tomorrow, featuring B4, C4 and P4. Happy days!

Peace out.

Monday so Far

so, here i am, after finishing what i think is the easiest GCSE paper i have ever done. (Maths, compared to the other past ones i have done). Just been chilling out since i got back, bit of xbox, bit of music, bit of chatting etc. Haven't got much to do really, the xbox is gradually seeping out of my life (probably for the best really :D) and my mind is elseware, especially Long Road and what is to come in the future, including money making schemes and girls (mmm...).

Just been helping Jamie Rumbelow with some audio direct thingy (on his shiny new macbook of course), which makes me sound like a complete technophobe. which i am definetly not, i just didn't know the name of the program. Anyway, i need to do some facebooking then go to dinner. I'm sure i'll end up blogging again later about life, but for now, au revoir.

Sunday night

G'day people who read my blog. Hello to any newcomers. Today is a Sunday, which has been alright today.

Firstly, i got up. (otherwise everything else would be quite difficult?) then i showered and shaved etc. Nothing that great. Had some breakfast, checked my feeds. I also switched to Google Reader today. Highly recommended. Then watched England thrash the West Indies in the cricket, before going down to the pub for a quick coke while meeting up with my dads mate, Chris. (i don't like alcohol, before i get loads of complaints)

went home, played a bit of halo 3 and packed my stuff for my mums house, went to my mums after a lovely roast dinner at my dads. Did the Liquid Metal Background tutorial on my Tutorial blog, then i typed this out while talking to my friend Henry in binary. I leave you with this:

01101000 01110100 01110100 01110000 00111010 00101111 00101111 01110111 01110111 01110111 00101110 01101100 01101101 01100111 01110100 01100110 01111001 00101110 01100011 01101111 01101101 00101111 00111111 01110001 00111101 01010010 01101111 01101111 01110011 01110100 01100101 01110010 00110010 00110001 00110010

Goodnight. Tomorrow, i have school and a Maths exam in the afternoon. Fun stuff!

Its a Saturday

Today was busy and tiring but pretty good.

Number 1: get up for work and go to work
Number 2: Meet with Jamie Rumbelow and get a MacBook
Number 3: Grab a Starbucks
Number 4: Go back to the Vaults and unpack the MacBook.
Number 5: Go collect some ice for the Vaults.
Number 6: Go to Sainsburys and grab some challots (random i know)
Number 7: Meet with my dad and see Star Trek. Great movie btw, highly recommended.
Number 8: Go to the Vaults. ate some swordfish, pidgeon, and some crispy duck + some cheesy potato dish i can't spell. Also opened a £150 bottle of port and filtered it and had a sneaky try. Bloody tasty stuff.
Number 9: Go home, write blog and then play some Xbox and send some pics to Jamie Rumbelow.

Anyway, this was my day. This blog is turning more into a sort of diary for me, and thats fine by me. I will start on my tutorials blog soon, maybe tomorrow afternoon. Peace out for now guys.

Friday and Mac talk.

well its a Friday. not that bad for school, and its the last working day of the week. well, last full day of work, i do have to work on Saturday mornings, but that's not really much of a problem. Anyway, today was pretty bad. normal Friday, science lesson, then nearly froze to death on Parkers Piece. I felt quite sad today, cause of various things that have been bugging me recently. Anyway, i got home about 3.30 after pretty average Maths and French lesson. Just got home, looked at Gizmodo and Lifehacker and Engadget etc. and then started to play Forza on the xbox. Got bored quite quickly.

Talked to Jamie Rumbelow (what a legend) about his immenent purchase of either a MacBook Pro or a Macbook. In the end, he decided on a plain MacBook, as the only difference between a fully speced MacBook and a low end Pro is the graphics and the extra screen space, for £350 that is not worth it. Anyway, he is going to get a macbook with 4gb of ram and extra Apple Care plan, which you sort of need with that kind of hardware. Anyway, off to play the xbox with Jamie and another mate of mine and Jamie.

will blog some more and do my first tutorial on the tutorial blog later. wow what a boring day i have had.

Tutorials blog is up!

visit roostertutorials.blogspot.com

Basically, anything i can do that is tech related will somehow end up here, and you can learn how to do it. first post will be up soon.

Revision and divorced parents.

Well, everything at the moment seems to be centralized around exams and/or revision. For a good reason, i need to do well. Fair enough, but my parents both have different ways of dealing with it.

For example, lets say that this Sunday, i was looking forward to going to see my local team at Wembley Stadium, as they have got to the top of the conference premier and they will be promoted if i win. Very rarely will i get the chance to see my local team there. I already have tickets off a mate. I ask my dad, he says fine. But i ask my mum (as i am supposed to be with her that evening anyway) and she says no, cause i have an exam the next day. Fair enough, you might say, but it would be nice for once not to have to work my ass off to the last hour on a sunday night. A break would be nice.

Anyway, this then erupts into a huge flame war between my parents. i swear, this happens everytime. Its as if my mum doesn't understand i am old enough to make my own decision and she cannot accept that. Just because she was brought up near exams being under house arrest and not having any sort of communication apart from at school doesn't mean that she can treat me in the same way. Its just unfair. off to revise now... chow chow.

Random Rant

hmm, well i feel like having a rant so here goes.

today was a pretty average day. got up early, went to school to do some revision. School is so empty an hour before everyone else is supposed to be there? you would expect there to be at least a couple of people who wanted to revise apart from me, but no, just me.

next: boring science lesson. just basically talked to the girl sitting next to me and to the teacher about randomness such as exams, life and general naughtyness. Felt quite bad about a friend of mine though, last week we were sending loads of email just talking, which was nice. But for some reason, on sunday, she sort of just, stopped. I also feel like she is ignoring me at school, but then again i might have just got a cold shoulder. just my $0.02.

had an italian exam in the afternoon. pretty boring really, but incredibly easy. A listening test, not a single written question in the Italian section. all just "write the correct letter in the box" shit. pretty simple :D

after that, signed out of school (free periods for the win!) and went to the Vaults for a snack and a chat with my dad. then, my dad took me to my mums to pick up some stuff, then went home. on the way back tells me, oh well, you are supposed to be going to the theatre. Now you tell me! was good though, got back about an hour before this post. An Inspector Calls was it's name, was pretty good. Also, feeling pretty strange. feeling really chatty, hence the random rant. although i don't have anyone else to chat to so i just blog to the masses. or my 14 followers on twitter anyway, cause i don't think anyone else reads my (newly redesigned) blog.

nite all. signing off.

Exams and Long Road Sixth Form College

Well, a few days ago i received my rejection from Hills Road sixth form college in Cambridge. Very disappointed at the time, as all my friends are going there, as would be expected. However, i was accepted into Long Road, which is not bad at all. I have applied for Electronics, Maths, Computing and Physics. Geeky stuff :D

Exams. ergh. Just today i had a photography exam, all day in a dark room with just red light to see by and a lot of toxic chemicals. Great. Looking forward to the Italian exam tomorrow. Also, i will see my dad aswell.

Last thing, going to wembely to see Cambridge United v Torquay in the Blue Square Premier Conference Play Off Final. wow that took ages to type correctly!

also, am looking for a better logo for my blog. the standard one is boring, will fire up photoshop and have a go later. If anyone reads this and has any ideas, drop us an email at jamieroos1@googlemail.com