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Printing Problems with Calibri Font, Images and Office 2010

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Marchie

My organisation currently uses a range of Xerox multi-function printers – these vary in age from the reasonably old (seven years – WorkCentre M24) to the new (ColorQube 9203). Also, we have recently rolled out Microsoft Office 2010 across the organisation, to users who are running Microsoft Windows XP as their operating system.

The rollout of Office 2010 was completed without too much bother – there were a few teething issues as there always are when software is rolled out en masse, however then the organisation re-branded. As part of this rebranding, there would be a new logo and it was decided that the new corporate font would be Calibri, whereas it had previously been Arial (well, actually it was “Dax”, but since that font is licensed, it was only used in publicity stuff). Templates were all changed according to the new branding rules, and then… BAM! Everything started to go wrong. Documents were being printed, getting a couple of pages in and then literally sixty-five pages of what can only be described as gibberish was being printed. There would be a line or two of what looked like Wingdings at the top of some pages, while others would contain one or two characters.

65 pages of this...

...or maybe this

Other documents would print for a number of pages and then a PCL XL error would occur.

I did some testing at to what could be causing this, with six scenarios:

Constants:

Xerox WorkCentre Pro C2128 printer
4-page document incorporating new corporate logo and font

Variables:

Office 2003, Windows XP, PCL5 Printer-Specific Driver
Office 2003, Windows XP, PostScript Printer-Specific Driver
Office 2003, Windows XP, PCL5 Global Printer Driver
Office 2010, Windows 7, PCL5 Printer-Specific Driver
Office 2010, Windows 7, PostScript Printer-Specific Driver
Office 2010, Windows 7, PCL5 Global Printer Driver

Note: I don’t think the operating system was a factor, in this particular scenario, however I have included it here for completeness.

The document printed fine from Office 2003, regardless of the driver that was used. However, from Office 2010, only the PostScript driver printed the document correctly. The printer-specific PCL5 driver exhibited the same issues as described above, while the global PCL5 driver failed somewhat more gracefully, but still quite catastrophically, in that the page with the logo image didn’t print at all, while the rest of the pages printed fine!

So, problem solved – change all the printer drivers over to their PostScript versions!

Of course, it is never that simple! A couple of days later, I start getting reports through of users having problems with the new drivers. The symptoms included missing characters, sometimes this was random, but then on one occasion it was capital letters and numbers only. Sometimes, a few pages of the document would print OK, then some pages would print with random characters missing, then a PostScript error would occur (invalidfont was certainly a common one, but there were others too).

Printing with PostScript

The print fails totally here...

...and a PostScript "invalidfont" error is output

So today I sat down again and did some experimentation. The document this time was longer at 15 pages, but had a common theme with the other failing documents in that it was written in the Calibri font and contained images. So, I got the user to send me the document to do some testing and I printed it to the two printers on my floor (WorkCentre Pro 265 and WorkCentre 7228). Both worked absolutely fine. So I printed to the machine on the user’s floor (ColorQube 9203). Worked fine. What?

Being a geek with the rights to do such things, I have installed Windows 7 on my machine, whereas all the end users in our organisation are still using Windows XP. So, I logged on to a Windows XP machine and attempted to replicate the problem. Aha! The problem only occurs with Office 2010 running on Windows XP.

After playing with the PostScript settings in the printer driver, it turns out that the key lies with the PostScript Output Option. This was set to Optimize for Speed on all printers. Changing this setting to Optimize for Portability appears to have fixed the problem. I verified this with another user who was also having trouble printing a different document. Now all that’s left is the small matter of getting this setting out to the drivers on each machine… easier said than done!

Update 20th April 2011: A side-effect of this change has been to cause PostScript errors when printing PDF documents from Adobe Reader 8.1.2. The solution is to update Adobe Reader to the latest version.

Posted in Computing, Help & How To | Tagged calibri, error, office 2010, pcl, postscript, printing | 4 Comments

Moved Out of Home

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Marchie

This post is part of a continuing series which charts how I gained weight and then lost it. If you would like to read the story from the beginning, these posts are being indexed on the About Marchie page, as and when they are published.

After finishing university, I moved back in with my parents and I also started working for them.

Although I didn’t eat well at university, I didn’t have a stock of chocolate and fizzy drinks on hand to consume at any given time. When I moved home, this changed, and I indulged!

Another change from university was that Jenny and I were no longer living together. We would see each other on weekends. We were both earning money now and if we were ever sat in each others’ houses for more than a few minutes we were normally asked “so, what are you two doing this evening?” We usually ended up going for a meal and then some drinks.

Consequently, by the time I moved out of my parents’ home in February 2008, I was at my heaviest ever weight. I stepped on some scales at work, which are used for weighing fabric. These scales told me that I weighed 102kg (16st 1lb). These scales, which are calibrated on an annual basis, were telling me that I’d reached a metric century. What was my response? Total denial. The scales were wrong – I was nowhere near that heavy!

Marchie at his heaviest, New Years Eve 2007

I was that heavy.

It was at this point that things started to change for the better. Moving out of my parents’ home and into a city centre flat meant that I wasn’t being given three-course meals each night and I didn’t have a constant supply of sugary drinks and snack foods. Nor were there the temptations of readily available fast food that were abundant during my days as a student; indeed, my working day was sufficiently rigid to ensure that going to bed in the early hours was no longer an option!

I feel that the big change here was that Jen and I were now shopping and cooking for ourselves; there were no sugary drinks and snack foods in the flat because we chose not to buy them. We didn’t eat three-course meals because we did not want to, nor did we have the time or the inclination to make them.

Moving out of home was where my weight-loss journey began!

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Finished University

Posted on April 10, 2011 by Marchie

Marchie at Helvellyn, Spring 2005

I started university at around 75kg (11st 11lb) – reasonably trim for me at the time! I made a tiny bit of effort at fitness – still not participating all that regularly in sports or anything like that, but I may have gone for the occasional jog or walked up to university. Indeed, I was an occasional visitor to the gym – ugh!

My first try at university, at Kings College London, was a bit of a false start. I hated it. Looking back, I was in no way mature enough to go to university and should have taken a year off and gone out and got a job, or volunteered, or even done that stereotypical thing and headed off into the back end of beyond for a few months. However, I didn’t really gain any weight in London because I was cooking for myself. My diet was quite routine – no breakfast, lunch would normally be Benjy’s (a London-specific version of Subway, no longer with us) and dinner would be one of three microwave meals: Chicken Tikka Masala, Tomato and Cheese Pasta Bake and Pasta with Meatballs. I would also be fond of raiding Sainsbury’s late at night for their discounted baked goods – Danish pastries for 10 pence a pop? Yes, please – I’ll take them all! I did once try cooking a chicken curry for myself, but I neglected to stir the thing and so a piece of chicken at the bottom of the pan ended up turning into charcoal. Yes, I still ate it.

My second-stab at university, back home in Manchester, was far more successful, both academically and socially. As far as the food was concerned, I outsourced it! I went to a catered hall and otherwise relied on local fast-food establishments and hostelries for my nutritional needs.

When I was a student, the nature of my course meant that lectures were infrequent and attendance was not compulsory (and one may argue unnecessary!); my day became a little skewed.

Late starts meant the first meal would be lunch, which would normally consist of some kind of fast-food sandwich. I also remember, towards the end of my time at university, buying full-size baguettes and a pot of coronation chicken sandwich filler and eating the lot in one sitting. I’d wash that down with a litre carton of orange juice.

There was the dinner at the halls, which was sometimes good, but seemed to get progressively lower in quality and smaller in size as my time at university went on. However, by 11pm, when I was still a good couple of hours away from being ready to go to sleep, it was time for ‘supper’. This, almost invariably, was a chicken kebab from one of the many places that serve such gastronomic delights in Fallowfield, though occasionally I’d mix it up a bit and have doner meat instead – ugh!

Chicken Kebab (Part Of, In Shoe)

Come the end of university, I graduated with a first class honours degree in finance and a significantly larger waist-line; I was now tipping the scales at 95kg (a shade under 15 stone):

Marchie at Graduation, July 2007

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Weekend Sponsored By 30 Days of Biking

Posted on April 10, 2011 by jenny

Friday

My ride home on Friday was very enjoyable. There was the usual number of arrogant, self-important Friday night drivers desperate to get home as quickly as possible dismissing anyone who dared to get in their way. But it was such a lovely beautiful evening I wasn’t bothered by them. I even made friends with a jogger, who caught me up at the lights even though I’d shot past him a little earlier on. As he remarked although we were going at about the same speed (he caught me up after all) he was considerably sweatier than me, and indeed he was. But then I don’t ride my bike to get sweaty, I ride for pleasure and enjoyment, and because the tram is horrid in the warm weather.

Money saved, tram, £3.40

Saturday/Sunday

A fire at the Battered Cod in Withington - other traffic had to turn around, we didn't!

I am writing this in a mild state of exhaustion sitting on the sofa on Sunday evening. My eyes are only half open – so please forgive any typos! This has been a fantastic biking weekend. I’d like to think we’d have been out riding this much without the 30 Days of Biking challenge. But I think the truth is I need to be thankful to 30 Days for helping me have such a great weekend.

On Saturday we completed our ride later on in the day as the weather was getting cooler. We rode out of the city down to Didsbury (about 5 miles each way) where we met up with a friend for two quick beers sat outside. Although it was probably touching on the too-cold side for drinking beer outside, the ride down was fantastic. We took a cycle down ‘memory-lane’ and visited some of the places we used to hang out when we were students. It was after sundown for the ride home, so not so enjoyable. A really lovely way to spend the evening. I felt like I’d made the most of the good weather.

The sun being out again today, it felt like a great opportunity to get in a full ride, and include a day out. Today I’ve done my longest ride yet this year (actually since November of last year – but I’m not going to dwell on that). Chris and I visited Quarry Bank Mill in Styal. We rode 11 miles out to the mill, had a lovely afternoon, then rode 12 miles back again (we made a detour to get fish and chips – v. tasty). The ride was tougher on the way down, than on the way back, due to height climbed the prevailing head wind (and maybe the fish and chips on the way back helped a bit too). But overall it was a great ride, and we’ll certainly be doing it again – with or without 30 Days.

Quarry Bank Mill

Money saved is more difficult to judge because I just don’t think we’ve have bothered making these trips otherwise. We’d probably have hung about in town, and really missed out. So although no money saved this weekend, I’d say we gained in other ways.

Posted in 30 Days of Biking, Cycling | Leave a comment

Prologue: Childhood

Posted on April 9, 2011 by Marchie

This is the first in a series of posts that will describe how I lost a lot of weight. These posts are indexed on the About Marchie page. First though, I need to set the scene; how did I get that weight in the first place?

Year 2 or 3 at Primary School

Up until around the age of seven, it appears that my weight was rather average. However, after this I started to balloon, so that by the time I was leaving primary school at the age of eleven, I was fat. It wasn’t really a problem for me at the time; I was the heaviest in my class and also one of the tallest, and in a childish way I saw that as a positive thing – yet another thing that I was the best at. My weight didn’t really stop me from doing anything that I wanted to do – I played football and cricket for the school teams and I wasn’t bullied about my weight or anything like that. Nobody saw my weight as a problem.

Marchie at the start of high school (Year 7)

Wowzers! Me at 11 or 12

With the move to high school, circumstances changed somewhat. I was no longer the big fish in a little pond – I was now outside my comfort zone. Sports went out of the window very quickly – I didn’t have the confidence to try out for the sports teams, which in any case I probably wouldn’t have been good enough for. More dangerously for me, my particular high school presented grazing opportunities at every turn; multiple vending machines selling sugary carbonated drinks and a host of chocolates and crisps; a ‘butty bar’ selling anything from donuts to pizzas at breakfast, lunch and break times; a ‘tuck shop’ selling crisps and sweets at morning break; toast and other baked goods, moist with butter, for sale in the refectory. This doesn’t even include the sandwiches, coated in butter, accompanied by sugar-filled fruit juice and yoghurts/mousses that I would bring in from home for lunch each day. Combine this with both a lack of facilities and no compulsion to go outside during break times… well, before long, I wasn’t just very fat, I was obese.

The range of junk food on offer at school was mirrored by the selection available at home. A cupboard full of Coke and other carbonated drinks; another cupboard full of sweets and crisps; two- or three-course dinners every night of the week (normally involving some form of fried potato).

Of course, there is one common denominator in all of this – me. Ultimately, it was me who was putting the food in my mouth. Looking back now, I had a big problem with that. For example, I can remember on more than one occasion going past Millie’s Cookies on the way home from school and getting a box of twenty and eating the lot on the bus home… and then eating dinner about an hour later. I also flat out refused to eat vegetables – it was chips or nothing for me. So I got chips.

Having said this, by the time I was due to leave school, I had gotten better. I’d started playing football every lunchtime and I’d cut out a lot of the bad food while I was at school, so I lost a bit of weight. By the end of sixth form, I was probably tipping the scales at 75kg (11st 11lb), down from a peak of probably 85kg (13st 5lb). My phrase of choice at the time was “I weigh the same now as when I was fourteen!”.

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30 Days of Biking – Week One

Posted on April 7, 2011 by jenny

Week One

So week one 30 Days of Biking is done, well almost – I still need to ride home today. I am really enjoying it.

The idea behind 30 Days of Biking is really just that – ride your bike every single day for 30 days, in a row. And the month of April is an excellent time to take up this challenge. I don’t think I’d be taking part quite so keenly if it was December, not that I don’t ride when the weather is bad, I just ride a lot less. Although the idea of a ride on Christmas Day is indeed tempting, maybe even encourage the family to join in. In fact, the Christmas before last, in an attempt to spread ourselves too thin and please too many people, Chris and I rode from Chester to Manchester on Boxing Day. Needless to say I was too tried to properly enjoy the Boxing Day party we had rushed home for – Chris has some classic photos of me fast asleep on the floor well before I was decently drunk enough to be doing so.

Day One – Friday 1^st April

Friday’s ride was lovely and very enjoyable. I am normally more likely to ride to work on a Friday than any other day, just because it’s a Friday. So starting on a Friday was relatively easy.

I was disappointed to see that a portion of cycle path on my regular route was still closed.

At work we have a baking circle, where someone from the group bakes a treat every Friday. Karina baked a lovely light fruit cake. I enjoyed my ride in knowing there would be a treat for me at the end, and Karina’s fruit cake with a cup of tea really hit the spot.

Money saved, Tram, £3.20

Day Two & Three – Saturday Day/Sunday Morning

We rode out to our friends Mike and Helen on Saturday evening for a lovely meal. Helen even made her own ice-cream for pudding, two flavours. It was excellent.

I’m not sure if we would still have gone on the bikes if not for 30 Days of Biking. I like to think we would have done. But I’m not sure. It was certainly an enjoyable ride, and not too strenuous. Plus Christopher did his little trick of telling me it would take longer than it actually did, so I felt pleased when I realised we were closer than I thought we would be.

After a lovely evening since we had the bikes with us we ‘had’ to ride home (we could have gotten a taxi and come back for the bikes or something, but really that wasn’t an option). So at 1.30am (technically Sunday) we rode home. At first it was very very cold and I thought maybe we’d made a mistake. But I was surprised at how quickly I warmed up once we got going. Certain bits of the ride were very deserted, it being 2am on a Sunday, but then when we got into town I wasn’t sure having drunk people around was any more pleasant than the eerie emptiness of earlier in the ride.

Money saved

Tram Sat, £2.40 + Taxi Sunday, £15.00 = £17.40

Day Four

Monday, so work again. It was cold with a very strong head wind today on the ride into work and I wasn’t wearing enough layers, but generally an ok ride. Made good time on the ride home, which might have had something to do with the wind being behind me the whole way.

Money saved, tram, £3.40

Day Five

Put a scarf on this morning, so felt much warmer. Made for a more pleasant ride, even though it was still windy and cold.

Driver said hello to me through his window at the traffic lights. I said “hi” back, although it was a little bit unnerving to have a friendly driver on my commute.

Money saved, tram, £3.40

Day Six

Lovely ride in the morning. I left in good time, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, it felt great, and especially so because this was my third day of riding this week, and it was probably long before Christmas the last time that happened. The only shame about today was that I didn’t get to ride home when the weather was even more lovely and the ride home would have been even more enjoyable. However, for a good friend I had agreed to pick up some cupcakes on my way into work the next morning, these particular cupcakes from http://www.heylittlecupcake.co.uk/, are fabulous, but exceptionally delectate. I often ride carrying whatever I need for my destination, getting on and off with badminton rackets sticking out of my panniers takes a bit of getting used to, but I knew there was no way these cakes would survive even a short cycle. So I had no choice but to get the tram in on Thursday morning, but I didn’t want to miss my Thursday ride, so the compromise was to ride into work on Wednesday and home again on Thursday, and get the tram for the other halves of both days. The tram home on Wednesday was unpleasant and disappointing as it was so pleasant outside.

Money saved, outward tram portion, £1.20

Day Seven – Thursday 7^th April

Cakes from Hey Little Cup Cake

The tram this morning was horrible, and much much worse than yesterday. Of course I was carrying my precious cupcake delivery – which were more than worth the trouble in the end – so I had to be careful of those which wasn’t too bad as I managed to get myself a double seat, I don’t know what I’d have done if the tram was busier or had been stood up. The driver was rather heavy footed with both the accelerator and the brake, the result being that all his passengers were flung all over the place, and at each stop we came to a sort of screeching halt that sent me flying forward in my seat. Cycling is certainly one way of enforcing the idea of gentle acceleration coupled with easy braking that anticipates the road ahead. I certainly don’t waste my own energy and efforts tearing off at high speeds only to brake again in a few metres time, so I don’t understand why a driver should waste resources and their own money doing just that. On the very rare occasion I manage to build up more speed than Christopher when following him (normally down-hill with the help of gravity) I yell at him to move out of my way, no way am I braking unnecessarily!

Needless to say I am really looking forward to my ride home this evening, the sun is out and the water in the Quay looks lovely (soon be time for open water swimming again). I am very pleased to be riding home tonight, thank you 30 Days of Biking.

Money saved, return tram portion, £1.20

Money saved this week* = £30.00**

*I’m not suggesting that saving money is the only benefit to riding every day. There are loads of benefits I’m looking forward to enjoying during 30 Days of Biking. I just thought money saved might be an interesting thing to know.

**Think I already know where I’m going to spend that. I’ve been looking at a new helmet. http://www.cyclechic.co.uk/shop/helmets-c-22.html

Posted in 30 Days of Biking, Cycling | Leave a comment

Why I don’t wear a helmet

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Marchie

The “great helmet debate” is something that crops up time and time again on cycling fora, blogs and occasionally on mainstream media sites. The arguments are normally empassioned, often ill-informed, usually decend into a slanging match and, in a strange parallel to Godwin’s Law, they always make reference to Dr. Ian Walker’s research on the subject. They never result in any conclusive, convincing argument in either direction.

On Sunday, my mother asked me would I wear a helmet if she were to buy me one. My answer was ‘no’, but the manner in which I tried to justify myself to her was both incoherent and a little bit preachy, therefore I’ve decided to write my thoughts on the matter down, in a bid to concentrate my own mind on the matter.

Ironically, as a child I only ever owned one helmet, which was purchased on the basis that I believed it to look cool. It was worn on a couple of occasions before I grew bored of it; it was then quietly forgotten about and left to gather dust in the garage. I do not recall either of my parents ever encouraging or compelling me to wear a helmet as a child. Yet now, as an adult, I do indeed find my mother encouraging me to wear a helmet!

The problem with not wearing a helmet is that “common sense” dictates that my choice is wrong. After all, wearing a helmet will surely provide me with potentially life-saving protection in the event of an accident?

It is a simple argument and it is a persuasive one. In a fear-addicted society such as the UK, this argument is enough to convince the majority of those who don’t cycle and many of those who do that a helmet is as essential to cycling as handlebars and pedals.

Yet, despite the “common sense” argument, and despite a continuous stream of overt and covert helmet promotion from many sources, despite the dangers we face, many of us who cycle in the UK choose not to wear a helmet. I’m one of these people, and is my reason:

Cycling is not dangerous!

Cycling is generally percieved to be a dangerous activity, but it really isn’t. Even in the UK, where cycling doesn’t enjoy the popularity, the respect of fellow road users or the provision of quality infrastructure that can be found in some of our neighbouring countries, cycling is still about as safe as driving, when measured in terms of the number of accidents per unit of time spent doing the activity.

This is not to say that cycling couldn’t be safer – it could be much safer in percentage terms if the numbers of people riding were higher, if all road users were encouraged (or perhaps forced through measures such as strict liability) to show appropriate respect for each other, if the quality infrastructure was put in place – but it’s still pretty damn safe!

The bottom line is, I am comfortable that the risk to me is so minimal as to warrant not wearing a helmet. Others are not comfortable with this level of risk, so they choose to protect their heads. Neither point of view is wrong!

So… what about the preachy bit?

This article has taken a quite a bit longer to write than it should have done. When I first settled down to write it, I went away looking for as many reasons as I could find not to wear a helmet. I found quite a bit of material – cyclehelmets.org provides a large body of academic evidence as to the effectiveness of helmets and the impact of helmet promotion and legislation. Having filtered through some of the flame wars, a post by a somebody who goes by the name of ‘normy’ sums the arguments against helmets up far more clearly and concisely than I ever could. Mikael Colville-Andersen of the legendary copenhagenize.com gave a lecture on the subject which can be viewed on TED.

I found myself writing a different article. I found myself getting angry because I want cycling to be normal and promoting cycling by showing people wearing protective headgear and high-visibility clothing is never going to encourage my mum, dad, family, friends, colleagues or the vast majority of others to dust off their bikes and cycle the mile or two to work rather than drive it. However, none of this was relevant to the question, so I relaxed, took a step back and thought about it some more.

Whether you wear a helmet or not, it’s your choice. No matter how many statistics and facts you read about the ineffectiveness of helmets, there is always going to be that one nagging question – what if? That is what helmet promotion plays on. I am comfortable that it won’t happen to me, so I don’t wear a helmet. If you’re of the same view, join me in cycling bare-headed. If you are not sure and you’re only confident when cycling while wearing a helmet, then wear one! The most important thing is to cycle!

A conclusion, of sorts…

There is no right or wrong answer in the helmet debate; this is probably why so many of these debates end in childish arguments with both sides calling each other idiots. On the one hand, there is evidence to say that helmets are ineffective at best and possibly even detrimental to your safety at worst. On the other hand, there is also evidence to say that in some specific types of accident, a helmet will have a positive effect in protecting your head – it could prevent injury or save your life. However, neither side has been able to present conclusive evidence to support their views. This is why the choice to wear a helmet or not must be a personal choice for the individual; there should be no malice towards them if their decision is different from your own.

Posted in Cycling, Public Policy | Tagged cycle helmets, cycling | Leave a comment

It’s been quiet round here…

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Marchie

Once again, I’ve neglected my part of the internet.

I do have a pretty good excuse though – Jen and I have moved flat! We’ve not moved very far – in fact, we moved downstairs! Our new flat is quite a bit bigger than our old one though, and we’re very happy with it.

I’ve been busy doing some “Ikea hacking” – gone are the wood veneer bookcases and shelves of old. With some sanding, a couple of coats of water-based primer, a triple-coat of ‘feature wall’ paint and a couple of nights of back-breaking painting into the early hours of the morning, we have…

Ikea-Hacked Bookcases

Ikea-Hacked Shelves

My special Ikea-hacking project though was my Ikea PC. In our old flat, we had a table upon which sat the television and various bits of computers and gadgetry. This was not a problem in itself, but there were a phenomenal number of cables. It looked pretty ugly. So, with the flat move, I had a good opportunity to get this sorted out. So, behold, the Ikea PC!

The internals of the Ikea PC

As you can see, the printer is hidden away on one side, while on the other side there is the PC. For the geeks amongst you, the PC is home-built – an Intel Core i5 2300 on an Asus P8H67-M motherboard with 4GB of Corsair XMS3 memory. Hidden away at the back is the hard drive storage – this consists of 5 (FIVE) 1 terabyte Seagate Barracuda drives. One of these is used to host the operating system, while the remaining drives have been combined into a 3-terabyte RAID-5 array. The RAID-5 array maximises storage while providing redundancy in the event of a hard-drive failure.

DVD drive and Wii built into the cabinet

The bottom shelf is used to hide all the cables and plugs, plus there is a little bit of room for storage of general unsightly crap. The wireless router is also hidden away in there.

I have built a slot-loading DVD drive and our Wii into the cabinet, so that they are flush with the surface. These are held in place with shoelaces!

Ikea PC

I got some coloured 5mm Perspex cut to size and made them into doors. The colour matches the other colours in our flat pretty well. These hide away the horrific clutter that comes with computers and peripherals – it’s still a mess inside, but out of sight is out of mind!

I’m running Ubuntu Desktop 10.10 as the operating system. This works pretty well, after a bit of hacking around getting the various codecs for the media. The Intel Core i5 has on-board graphics – currently, the display is a little bit flaky when there are panned shots in videos (there’s a little bit of tearing). I am hopeful that Ubuntu 11.04, with its support for the Intel Sandy Bridge architecture, will solve that issue when it is released on 28th April.

So, now we are moved in and things have been tidied away (more or less). We are probably short of a cupboard for Jen’s stitching and crafting stuff, but apart from that, we’ve very happy with the move!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Supernova E3 Pro on Dawes Galaxy

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Marchie

I spent quite a bit of time looking for this information when I was looking for a dynamo-powered lighting solution for my bike. The Dawes Galaxy has cantilever brakes, the transverse cable of which has a wide and low spread from the ‘yoke’. This means that if, like me, you want to mount your front light on your frame just above your front wheel, the Supernova multimount bracket will not work. To overcome this, I initially crafted a custom mount by cutting a wall attachment bracket from a piece of Ikea furniture down to a suitable size, then bending it into shape. Unsurprisingly, this required constant readjustment and it failed after a few months (the metal had sheered due to road vibrations).

The answer to the problem is to buy a ‘Thorn Alloy Dynamo Headlamp Bracket‘ from SJS Cycles. This has an alloy spacer which reaches under the cantilever brake before rising up to raise the light suitably above the wheel and mudguard. It fits the Supernova E3 Pro perfectly!

Supernova E3 Pro mounted on Dawes Galaxy with Thorn Alloy Dynamo Headlamp Mounting Bracket

Posted in Cycling, Equipment | 1 Comment

Crime Scene on St. Mary’s Parsonage

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Marchie

The police were not willing to disclose to me what had happened, however from what I can gather, a serious assault occurred in Parsonage Gardens in the early hours of Friday 28th January 2011. This involved a gang beating a man for a prolonged period of time; the man is now in a critical condition in hospital.

Posted in News | 2 Comments

Printing Problems with Calibri Font, Images and Office 2010

Moved Out of Home

Finished University

Weekend Sponsored By 30 Days of Biking

Prologue: Childhood

30 Days of Biking – Week One

Why I don’t wear a helmet

Cycling is not dangerous!

So… what about the preachy bit?

A conclusion, of sorts…

It’s been quiet round here…

Supernova E3 Pro on Dawes Galaxy

Crime Scene on St. Mary’s Parsonage

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