Well I have a new gadget (read toy) which is a 30GB iPod. After many years of looking at them and admiring from afar, I must say it looks better in the flesh...er steel and plastic.
I had initial conflict with iTunes but after a little perseverance, ripping CDs became a very quick and easy exercise.
The only issue I have with it at the moment, is that I cannot get it to work under Suse 9.2. I will have to try it under Ubuntu and see if I get any more luck.

Solution below:

Bxnl, guvf yriry jnf cnegvphyneyl rnfl vs lbh eha Yvahk.
Va Yriry 24 jr trarengrq n mvc svyr gung pbagnvarq gur cvpgher gung yrq gb Yriry 25 NAQ n svyr pnyyrq 'oebxra.mvc'. Nf vg unccraf, Nex naq Xbadhrebe va Fhfr 9.2 jrer noyr gb ernq guvf svyr jvgubhg svkvat vg - urapr gur rnfl cneg sbe Yvahk hfref. Gur cebcre fbyhgvba ubjrire cebirq gb abg or zhpu zber qvssvphyg.
Svefg lbh unir gb ncbybtvfr gb Yrbcbyq Zbmneg. Lbh qb guvf ol fraqvat uvz na rznvy fnlvat 'fbeel' gb gur rznvy nqqerff jr unq sbe uvz va na rneyvre yriry (yrbcbyq.zbm@clgubapunyyratr.pbz). Lbh gura trg na rznvy onpx fnlvat gur sbyybjvat:
Arire zvaq gung.
Unir lbh sbhaq zl oebxra mvc?
zq5: ooo8o499n0rrs99o52p7s13s4r78p24o
Pna lbh oryvrir jung bar zvfgnxr pna yrnq gb?
Guvf uvag gryyf lbh gung gurer vf bar olgr va gur 'oebxra.mvc' svyr gung arrqf 'svkvat' naq gung jura svkrq gur ZQ5 purpxfhz jvyy or nf fgngrq. V gura jebgr n yvggyr ebhgvar gb eha guebhtu rnpu olgr bs 'oebxra.mvc' punatvat rnpu olgr gb rirel pbzovangvba cbffvoyr naq pbzcnevat gur erfhygvat qngn ntnvafg gur ZQ5 purpxfhz. Jura gurl zngpurq, jr unq gur svkrq svyr juvpu V fnirq naq pbhyq gura bcra jvgu nal mvc fbsgjner. Gur mvc svyr pbagnvaf n TVS juvpu fgngrf 'fcrrq'. Nybat jvgu gur uvag sebz gur yriry cntr 'qba'g zvff gur obng', V chg gur gjb gbtrgure naq tbg 'fcrrqobng' juvpu vf gur fbyhgvba sbe guvf yriry.

Damn, my Suzuki Bandit 600 played up last night on the way home from work. The day had been cold and damp, with a cold morning (for Dorchester), and it had started to stutter on the way into work. In the evening it rode like a complete rodeo bronco, spluttering and jumping, I was glad that there was no ice on the road.
Ran it for about 10 minutes this morning to get it warmed up, and along with this morning being quite a lot warmer, it ran like a dream again.
I have experienced Carb Icing on my old Bandit a few years ago but this was something else. Unfortunately my bike is a little too old to have received the carb warmers I believe they installed on later models. I guess I will have to warm it up a little more in the future.

About four weeks ago I applied for a set of Ubuntu Linux CDs to be sent to me. Yesterday they arrived and I have been handing them out at work. It looks like a really good Linux distro (it has certainly been getting rave reviews) and I hope to have a play with it this weekend.
So if you haven't tried it yet, either get some disks sent to you or download them, and try it for yourself.

I completed this level yesterday - so here is the solution:

Guvf vf nabgure bar bs gubfr chmmyrf, juvpu vaibyirf svaqvat svyrf ol punatvat gur HEY. Gur uvag fnlf fbzrguvat yvxr 'Ybbx ng gur jnirf'. Gnxr guvf yvgrenyyl naq ybbx sbe gur jni svyrf, gurer ner 25 bs gurz fgnegvat sebz ../cp/urk/ynxr1.jni guebhtu gb ../cp/urk/ynxr25.jni. Fnir rnpu bs gurfr jni svyrf gb n fhvgnoyr ybpngvba.
Ybbxvat ng gur jni svyrf va n urk rqvgbe, gur qngn frrzf gb or ohapurq va tebhcf bs guerrf. Ntnva hfvat gur uvag nobhg 'ybbxvat ng gur jnirf', guvax bs guvf qngn va n zber ivfhny jnl naq guvf fubhyq tvir lbh na vqrn gung gur qngn inyhrf zvtug or ETO cvkry qngn.

V gura evccrq guvf qngn bhg bs rnpu jni svyr hfvat gur 'jnir' zbqhyr naq gura hfrq CVY gb pbaireg gur qngn vagb vzntrf.
Ybbxvat ng gur bevtvany ynxr1.wct ntnva, gur uvag guvf vf tvivat vf gung rnpu bs gurfr 25 vzntrf trarengrq sebz gur jni svyrf vf n cvrpr va n wvtfnj. Nyy lbh arrq gb qb vf wbva gur vzntrf gbtrgure gb cebqhpr gur svany vzntr, juvpu unf gur fbyhgvba sbe gur chmmyr rzoynmbarq npebff vg, juvpu vf qrprag.

With Monday night currently being Poker night in the Vincent household, I managed to play five STTs last night. As I only had 8 FPPs to get to clear my WSOP bonus (I know that was in July but I have only been playing $5.50 tables) on Pokerstars, I played my first ever $11 NL Holdem STT as well as a $5.50 Omaha HL STT. I have played $11 MTTs before with little success (including one of Wil Wheaton's Friday night specials) but this turned out to be far more successful as I won it and, although I blinded out of the Omaha STT, this meant that I made over $100 profit on that bonus.
So I promptly took my profit and placed it into Titan Poker. I have been meaning to have a go on Titan for some time but their levels of traffic are very low during UK daytime hours. However on a Monday evening the traffic seemed to reach a reasonable level and I thought it was worth a toe dip.
Not in the mood for too expensive a introduction, I started with a $1 6 handed NL Holdem STT. It turned out to be tough little game with everyone certainly playing for the (small amount of) money. Unfortunately I got little in the way of cards and blinded out in third or fourth (only first and second get the money).
Not to be downtrodden, I registered for a $2.40 10 handed NL Holdem STT and a $5.50 6 handed Omaha HL STT. I much prefer 10 handed for STTs, you get a little more time to think (which suits my playing style) and that extra money place makes a lot of difference. As it went, I came second in the hard fought Omaha STT (making $9) and won the Holdem STT (making $10), so I ended up $9.90 for the evening on Titan which was not a bad start really.
My first thoughts on Titan are:

1. The Titan software is pretty damn good. The response time after making a play is very good and the look and feel of the table are good too. It is miles above the dreadful software that Pacific Poker has (which was why I took my money out of their system).
2. The players seem to be a reasonable level, from these initial games. Maybe a little above the standard you would expect from low money tables - however they won't be bluffed easily.

I certainly will be spending some time on Titan from now on, maybe I will start playing the $5.50 Jackpot STTs.

Woohoo!!!

I got dealt my first ever Royal Flush yesterday. I was playing a $5.50 NL Holdem STT on Pokerstars and was dealt Ks-10s. Qs and Js got dealt on the flop. I hung in hoping that a King High Flush would come out and would not get hit by an Ace High, as another player bet pretty heavily. Nothing on the turn, still kept hanging in and then IT happened. The Ace of Spades (cue Lemmy from Motorhead) came out on the river - pushed and the other player folded. Won 1000 points (which got me into the money in the end) and showed the cards to one response of 'Wow!'. Unfortunately it all happened so quickly that I did not manage to get a screenshot for future prosperity and i'm not sure the tournament hand review will list the hands - if it does I will post it here.

It is times like that which remind you why you play Poker.

[Edited 12:52 21/11/05]

Good old Pokerstars, yes their hand history did show the info:

*********** # 33 **************
PokerStars Game #3108564617: Tournament #15370858,
Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2005/11/20 - 10:17:10 (ET)

Table '15370858 1' Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: corhog (1285 in chips)
Seat 2: radiola64 (1990 in chips)
Seat 3: DorsetBlue (1440 in chips)
Seat 5: Hardenboy (1420 in chips)
Seat 6: djhjf21 (5385 in chips)
Seat 7: Warduck (385 in chips)
Seat 8: krauser99 (1595 in chips)
DorsetBlue: posts small blind 50
Hardenboy: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DorsetBlue [Ks Ts]
djhjf21: folds
Warduck: folds
krauser99: folds
corhog: folds
radiola64: calls 100
DorsetBlue: calls 50
Hardenboy: checks
*** FLOP *** [Js 2h Qs]
DorsetBlue: checks
Hardenboy: checks
radiola64: bets 100
djhjf21 is sitting out
DorsetBlue: calls 100
Hardenboy: calls 100
*** TURN *** [Js 2h Qs] [Td]
DorsetBlue: checks
Hardenboy: checks
radiola64: bets 200
DorsetBlue: calls 200
Hardenboy: folds
*** RIVER *** [Js 2h Qs Td] [As]
DorsetBlue: bets 1040 and is all-in
radiola64: folds
DorsetBlue collected 1000 from pot
DorsetBlue: shows [Ks Ts] (a Royal Flush)

Well I have had a rough and slightly unproductive few days. There is a tummy bug doing the rounds and with four kids, the chance of getting such a bug is pretty good.....yes I got it.
In the Ibuprofen fueled gaps between feeling rough, I tried to get MPlayer installed on my PC so that I could download BBC radio real audio streams onto my PC and onto my iPod (once it arrives). The problem is, the MPlayer installation will not detect the codecs I have installed for Real Audio no matter what I have tried. I am hoping someone on uk.comp.os.linux can help but I have not had any joy so far.
I have felt so rough, that I have not even played poker for a few days, that was until tonight. With nothing on TV at the moment, Mondays have become a poker night. So whilst the wife was playing on Bugsys upstairs, I thought I would have a go on Pokerstars. I had a good night.
I played in a $5.5 NL Holdem STT, a $5.5 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo STT and a $5.5 NL Holdem MTT. I came third in the Holdem STT (+ve by $3.5), second in the Omaha STT (+ve by $8) and 117th in the Holdem MTT (+ve by $1.30). I was most happy about the MTT result, okay 117th is not the best result in the world but I did not get much in the way of cards and when I did, I played them well. The fact I got in the money was due to a great new payout structure on Pokerstars that pays out to the top 20% of players, so with 716 entrants 144th was needed to get in the money. This tournament was an experiment by Pokerstars but I really hope they keep this structure for at least some MTTs.

Oh well off to bed now, doped up with Lemsip Max, honey and tequila.

Okay, this solution I describe may not work for everybody - I was unable to get it to work on a Windows based system. All is explained below:

Bxnl, jr arrq gb svaq gur fubegrfg cngu guebhtu gur znmr fubja va znmr.cat. Nsgre cynlvat nebhaq jvgu inevbhf nytbevguzf, naq fbzr qvfphffvba jvgu nabgure Clguba Punyyratre (gunaxf Avp), V hfrq na nytbevguz onfrq ba n erphefvir shapgvba. Orsber V qrfpevor gur nytbevguz V hfrq, yrg zr zber terngyl rkcynva zl rneyvre pbzzrag nobhg gur ceboyrzf V unq. Jura V ena guvf nytbevguz ba n Jvaqbjf 2000 yncgbc, vg jbhyq penfu orsber pbzcyrgvat gur cebprff. Guvf jnf qhr gb gur P fgnpx yvzvgf orvat oernpurq ba gung znpuvar. Ubjrire gur sbyybjvat nytbevguz qvq jbex svar ba zl 64ovg Yvahk flfgrz:

Gur erphefvir shapgvba vf pnyyrq jvgu k naq l (fgnegvat ng 1, 639) naq na neenl[640, 640] bs obbyrnaf, frg nyy gb snyfr vf nyfb cer-perngrq.

Shapgvba
--------
vs l<0 erfhyg vf gehr (jr unir sbhaq bhe jnl guebhtu!)
ryfr vs k be l ner bhg bs obhaqf, erfhyg vf snyfr
ryfr vs gur neenl ng (k, l) vf gehr, erfhyg vf snyfr
ryfr vs gur cvkry ng (k, l) vf juvgr, erfhyg vf snyfr
ryfr frg neenl(k,l) gb gehr naq....
pnyy gur erphefvir cebprqher jvgu (k, l-1) vs vg ergheaf gehr, erfhyg vf gehr, ryfr pnyy gur erphefvir cebprqher jvgu (k+1, l), vs vg ergheaf gehr, erfhyg vf gehr, ryfr pnyy gur erphefvir cebprqher jvgu (k-1, l), vs guvf ergheaf gehr, erfhyg vf gehr, ryfr erfhyg vf gur erfhyg bs gur erphefvir cebprqher jvgu (k, l+1).

VS gur erfhyg bs gur nobir vf gehr, fnir gur cvkry ng (k,l)

svanyyl, erghea gur erfhyg.


Ubcrshyyl guvf fubhyq cebqhpr n svyr bs 43.6XO. Abj nyy gung arrqf gb or qbar vf gb gb erzbir rirel bgure olgr sebz guvf svyr (juvpu ner ovanel inyhr 0) naq jr fubhyq or yrsg jvgu n mvc nepuvir svyr. Pbagnvarq va guvf svyr vf n wcrt svyr jvgu gur fbyhgvba sbe gur arkg yriry 'ynxr' naq nyfb nabgure mvc nepuvir pnyyrq 'zloebxra.mvc' jvgu n tvs svyr va vg pnyyrq 'zloebxra.tvs' juvpu V qb abg pheeragyl xabj gur ernfba sbe,

Well it was certainly a hectic day yesterday. Not covering in depth the rather damp (but good) Bonfire and Fireworks display at the oldest daughters school last night, the day was spent collecting the oldest's scooter and finally getting broadband (woot!!!).

We bought the scooter from Wallisdown Scooters in Bournemouth, which is a subsidary of Three Cross Motorcycles near Verwood. I bought my Bandit 600 there in June and their service was good then. They certainly kept their quality up this time too, with a very good package that they put together for us (or rather Paul). The scooter in this case is a brand spanking new Peugeot Speedflight 2 and is a really nice looking bike (for a moped):

Damn, this level had me going for quite some time....and then you figure it out and slap your forehead rather hard!

Solution in ROT13:

Juvpu vf npghnyyl dhvgr vebavp, nf guvf yriry vf engure urnivyl EBG13 vaibyirq.
Lbh unir gb gnxr gur pyhrf sbe guvf yriry IREL IREL yvgrenyyl. Gur znva pyhr vf gur gvgyr bs gur jrocntr 'jung vf guvf zbqhyr?'. Gur rzcunfvf vf ba gur 'guvf'. Gur guvf zbqhyr vf na haqbphzragrq zbqhyr juvpu frrzf gb or yvxr n Clguba Rnfgre Rtt. Vs lbh glcr 'vzcbeg guvf' vagb gur clguba vagrecergre, lbh trg n 'Mra bs Clguba' erfcbafr. Guvf erfcbafr jnf bevtvanyyl va EBG13 naq gur pbqr ng gur raq bs gur guvf zbqhyr qrpbqrq vg. Lbh pna rvgure er-hfr guvf pbqr be whfg hfr nal bgure EBG13 qrpbqre gb qrpbqr gur svany 'in the face of what?' pyhr. Guvf jvyy tvir lbh 'va gur snpr bs jung?', juvpu vs lbh ybbx guebhtu gur grkg bs gur 'Mra bs Clguba' erfcbafr, lbh jvyy svaq n yvar fgngvat '...va gur snpr bs nzovthvgl', nzovthvgl orvat gur fbyhgvba gb guvf yriry.

I finished my second book written by Robert Rankin last night. The book in question was 'The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse'. As you can tell from the title - it is a pretty wacky read. It was very enjoyable, if maybe not quite up to the standard of 'The Witches of Chiswick' which I read before this. 'Witches' is so good, my wife is currently reading it on my library ticket.

I used to read Tom Holt quite a bit, and 'Flying Dutch' is still one of my favourite books, but I started getting a little annoyed with the way that he ended some of his books in what I considered a rather abrupt fashion. Rankin has certainly replaced Holt in my comedy fantasy reading.

Phew! Just finished this level. It was certainly more entertaining than the last two levels had been. Following on from my earlier post, here is my solution in ROT13:

Bxnl, V qvq guvf yriry jvgu n zvkgher bs Clguba, TVZC naq tbbq byq snfuvbarq cncrejbex.
Gur svefg guvat V qvq jnf svaq gur uvqqra TVS svyr vaqvpngrq ol gur fbhepr pbqr bs pbccre.ugzy, juvpu jnf juvgr.tvs. Guvf ghearq bhg gb or na navzngrq TVS ohg jvgu irel yvggyr fubjvat va gur navzngvba. V fnirq gur TVS bagb zl flfgrz naq ybnqrq vg vagb TVZC naq fgvyy fnj abguvat bs vagrerfg. N dhvpx vafcrpgvba bs bar bs gur yriryf hfvat n Uvfgbtenz fubjrq gung gurer jnf vaqrrq bar cvkry va gur ynlre gung jnf abg oynpx, ubjrire vg jnf abg sne bss.V abj ybnqrq gur TVS vagb Clguba hfvat gur CVY yvoenel naq purpxrq gur svefg senzr sbe gur cvkry gung jnf abg oynpx - vg ghearq bhg gb or pbybhe 8. V gura jebgr n ybbc gung jrag guebhtu nyy bs gur senzrf, punatvat guvf cvkry gb juvgr naq nyfb bhgchggvat gur K,L cbfvgvba bs guvf cvkry gb n ybt svyr. Sebz gur ybt svyr V sbhaq gung gur K,L cbfvgvba bs gur cvkry jnf vaqrrq punatvat fyvtugyl, fb jurer gurer jnf na bssfrg sebz 100,100 V chg na nqqvgvbany juvgr cvkry jvgu n 50 cvkry vaperzrag va gur erfcrpgvir K naq L bssfrgf, fb gur bssfrg pbhyq or zber rnfvyl frra. V gura rkcbegrq rnpu senzr bhg nf n TVS (V pbhyq abg svaq bhg ubj gb fnir gb na navzngrq TVS va CVY ng gur gvzr).Erzrzorevat gung gur bevtvany cvpgher sbe guvf yriry jnf n wblfgvpx, V 'svanyyl' svtherq bhg gung gur cvkry zbirzragf sebz prager jrer rzhyngvat n wblfgvpx naq hfvat n cvrpr bs cncre naq n cra jnf noyr gb 'rgpu-n-fxrgpu' rnpu yrggre bs gur fbyhgvba hfvat gur ahyy wblfgvpx cbfvgvba (100,100) nf gur oernx orgjrra rnpu yrggre. Gur vzcbegnag guvat gb erzrzore jnf gung fhpprffvir TVS senzrf jvgu gur cvkry va na bssfrg zrnag gung gur yvar pbagvahrq va gung qverpgvba sbe n havg, abg whfg fgnlrq fgvyy.Naljnl, nsgre hfvat svir furrgf bs abgrcnq cncre, V jnf noyr gb ernq gur yrggref O.B.A.H.F, juvpu vf gur fbyhgvba sbe gur yriry naq gur hey sbe yriry 23.