port7 – co – uk

I am sitting here watching a DVD I bought ages ago but never really watched all the way through, its Standing in the Shadows of Motown and its the story of the Funk Brothers, the criminally unrecognized house band that Motown used while it was in Detroit. It’s a sad story in some ways, considering all the hits they played, in their history they had played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined!

A great story and some phenomenal music, there is a concert where they have got some recent artists singing Motown hits with the Funk Brothers backing them. The performance of Chaka Khan on Marvin’s ‘Whats Going On?’ is just phenomenal, one of them things where you just can’t clap afterwards because you are just so blown away!

Went to Manlug today, Tim Fletcher gave a good talk on Moodle. It was interesting and I now have more of an idea of what it is and what it is capable of. I might give it a go at work and see what the new training department think of it. I found out that the Open University are switching to Moodle, good for them I say and I hope they are good citizens contribute back to the project.

Also picked up on a few good things that are on my to look at list, Helpmeict, OpenVMPS and the School ICT Register. As well as doing some pimping of the Linux Emporium and their new link of Linux friendly wireless cards.

Before hand I also managed to pick up some local sausages from the Christmas fair in Manchester’s Albert Square from Farmhouse Direct (dot com, though I think the website is down ATM).

I have been given the go ahead to get a digital music player for Christmas, great I hear you say! But the problem lies in what one to get….

I want one that I can play through my car stereo, though I can’t mess with the car too much as its a company car and not mine to mess with really. I also would like the ability to play videos and look at images.

The choice at the moment is probably between the nice but propriety iPod Video with a Griffin iTrip to play through the car stereo. The other choice is either an iRiver or iAudio, the benefits is that they both support open formats and are not tied into stuff like iTunes, the downside being is there is lack of options for playing though the car stereo.

Advice anyone?

Well, back from Sharm-El-Sheik all tanned and burnt. Would I go there again? Yes! Would I stay in the Hilton Sharks Bay? Maybe. Would I use Sinai Dive Club again? Yes!

We flew out on Monday 2nd November, and returned on Monday 8th. The flights were OK, typical Med type shuttle. We flew out at 10am and the return flight we left at 5pm, so they were reasonable times, though on the flight out because we arrived in the evening there it felt like we wasted a day. Our room was nice a clean with a view of the Red Sea, there were no roaches or anything like that which is the main thing. Most days we just chilled out on the hotels private beach, it was really nice and we were in and out of the sea as the snorkelling was amazing there being a reef about 2metres from the shore. I only managed to get 3 dives in on the account of a case of Montezumas Revenge 1/2 way through the week. Though the dives I did were amazing, really loved them. I did 2 shore dives and 1 boat dive.

While I was out there I was sad to hear that Fred Dibnah has passed on. RIP to one of the characters of the past few decades.

After a long Friday, and a longer week, I was driving home on the east lancs road. I stopped at a roundabout, and some fool in a merc decides to bump me!

We got out the car and he admitted it was his fault, and we exchanged details. There is not much damage to my car by the looks of it. My back is a little sore so I will get that checked out too. Even though there is no harm done all in all its just the hassle of it.

I have a company car and there is no cost to me, but the transport manager must love me! This is the 3rd incident I have had in the 2 years I have been in the job, none of them my fault I must add! I must be a magnet for bad drivers.