Xmas desktop environments

After a very nice xmas gift (thanks gookster) of a brand new Apple 12" powerbook G4 i spent most of Christmas playing with my new toys IE Itunes,iphoto etc etc. In fact it leaves me in a nice position to compare the differing user experiences of the following environments i now have to hand at home.

1. OSX Tiger via the new powerbook
2. SuSE 10.0 (KDE 3.4) OSS version on my normal desktop PC
3. SuSE 9.2 (Gnome) on the 64bit AMD development PC
4. Windows XP SP2 on my old fujitsu-siemens lap (top, this dual boots with SuSE 9.2.
5. Solaris 10 for X86, (when my Dell poweredge servers DVD drive is replaced after xmas)

On other matters, I will after the xmas holidays start to publish my thoughts on RubyonRails, as that is the latest platform i am taking a look at.

New Poker Date

Due clashes of diaries for this Friday (21/10/05) i am suggesting that we move the Poker Night to the following Friday 28/10/05. The main reason being diary clash but also i have not been able to confirm the next host, Mr Adams, as he is in Las Vegas with Mr Hall.....lucky boys.

After the success of the upminster poker tournament and the blog updates, i am suggesting another poker night.

1. New suggested date - Friday 21st of October Starting @8pm, same rules.

We can either run the night at my flat once more or we need someone else to host, we seem to have all the kit we need apart from the host needing a 8 person table.

2. Texas Hold'em Software - If anyone in the group wants to play each other over the internet via the computer, Check out www.ddpoker.com the $30 software allows person-2-person play from any 'java enabled' computer (windows/mac/linux) you need broadband/adsl internet at home for it to work properly when playing each other. The software also allows you to practice texas hold'em against computer controlled opponents. We could using this play any night......might be a laugh.

3. if you want to play for money over the net you can join one of the poker rooms online, Richard i know uses littlewoods poker online http://www.littlewoodspoker.com, i have never played online but there is a review of the online rooms here;

http://www.pokerlistings.com/online-poker-rooms

Poker Evening Event Report

The initial poker night was a roaring success, the 3 games played were all competitive and more importantly fun, i think the noise levels were boosted by laughing rather than the drunken roar associated with our normal gatherings.

A late rush of entrants (and blowouts - Mr taylor) meant that 7 players sat down at the table;

Tony Cossey, Peter Kempster, Dale Bennett, Richard Thomas, Steve Watts, Chris Adams, Stuart McClemments (and Girlfriend Izzy). My Dad Ernie kindly took on the marathon job of designated dealer.

game one: The final pair were Richard and Steve, Richard overcoming a massive chip debt to nail the £175 prize (7 x £25 buy in). Both finalists once through the initial stages played the percentages, the cards falling very well for Richard in his winning run.

game two: The final pair ended up being myself and Dale, this time Dale skillfully playing the short stack position to beat me in a tight finish (boo hoo). Again the prize fund Dale collected was £175. I thought i had cracked this game until i misread strong position from dale as a bluff, however both of us played aggresively when down to the final shootout, Dale, i think, playing with more skill generally, all of which added to the excitement.

game three: It was decided to have a game at the end of the evening with a £10 x 8 prize fund. This being boosted by the late addition of Denis Sheriden who visited the game after his football competition had finished. The final pair were again Steve and Richard, the longest final pair duel of the match took place with Richard edging Steve out again after a run of strong pre flop cards.

The whole evening finished at 03:15am which showed i feel how much everyone enjoyed the event and the challenge, it was agreed the event would be a monthly social gathering until we got sick and tired of Texas hold'em poker.

Special thanks to Ernie who looked like he had run the marathon by the time the event closed, not bad for an old age pensioner...WELL DONE ERN!

Gooky Chips in

many thanks to Chris 'gooky' Adams who tonight let me borrow his very flash 500 chip poker set from the original home of gambling, Las Vegas, it weighs a tonne but the chips are full casino grade 11.5g.

Demon Dealer

Another poker update; We now have a designated dealer, my dad Ernie, cross him at your peril :-)

Upminster Poker Evening

Quick Update on the final list of players for Friday the 23rd @ 8pm;

Final List of players and form guide

Tony Cossey - Newbie and unfortunately stupid.
Richard Thomas - Online poker player thus porn expert as well as poker expert
Dale Bennett - All round card sharp, 'the jock beater'
Mo Bennett - Older all round card sharp, 'the silvertown kid'
Stuart McClemments - Long standing card player but not a poker regular (but a jock)
Peter Kempster - Plank
John Taylor - Dark horse, however early 90's clubbing icon.
Steve Watts - To my knowledge a 3 card brag expert in the late 80's

Donated kit;
Peter = 1 x pack of original las vegas casino playing cards
Rich = 1 x world series poker electric card shuffler
Tony = 2 x playing tables (forming 1 big table), 4 x new chairs, 400 poker chips + baize

Suggested Changes to Rules;
In addition to the rules i distrubuted, i am now suggestting we now operate an 'Ante' for each hand from all players replacing 'big and small blinds', as players drop out after losing their chips, the 'ante' increases to add difficulty as players are eliminated.

Poker Update

Hers is the latest Update for Friday 23rd's Texas Hold'em Game @my flat. The poker chips, cards and caddy were purchased today, we have 400 chips, if we have 9 players we will need 100 more chips so please confirm to me ASAP. The chips feel like cheap plastic but i am sure that won't bother anyone, the 400 chips and cards cost £20 which was the cheapest i could find. The supplier who came to the rescue were Debenhams on Ashley's advice, NICE ONE ASH.

Players Confirmed
Tony Cossey
Richard Thomas
Dale Bennett
Mo Bennett
Stuart McClemments
Peter Kempster
John Taylor
Steve Watts

Players who Cant make it
Ashley Bennett - Unavailable
Andy Hall - Unavailable
Steve 'Yon' Thomson - Unavailable
Mitchell Dawson - Unavailble

Others
Gordon Cull - Unconfirmed
Chris 'gooky' Adams - Unconfirmed
Mark Reynolds - Unconfirmed
Dave Balding - Unconfirmed
Denis 'Baby' Sheriden - Unconfirmed

Texas hold'em

Myself and some friends have decided to start our own texas hold'em poker evening, there is some great stuff on the net which gives us a guide to making the event fun and competitive, the players range from experienced players, online players and newbies, like myself. The current uk TV coverage sponsored by partypoker hasramped up the interest (and my recent visits to vegas)

Current players invited are listed here for our first evening on 23rd of september 2005;

Tony Cossey - Confirmed
Richard Thomas - Confirmed
Dale Bennett
Ashley Bennett - Confirmed
Mo Bennett
Steve 'yon' Thomson
Gordon Cull
Peter Kempster
Chris 'gooky' Adams
Stuart McClemments
Andy Hall
Mark Reynolds
Dave Balding
Denis 'Baby' Sheriden
Mitchel Dawson

I am currently purchasing the 'kit' needed and have been surprised by the variation in poker chip sets, without research i could have easily spent £100 on a 500 chip set when better quality products can be found on ebay for a saving of over 60%.

Useful links
http://ontilt.co.uk
http://www.homepoker.com
http://www.casino-shop.co.uk
search for poker chips on www.ebay.co.uk

Election

Well i suppose in life its never good to be termed a 'floater' for various differing reasons, but for the 2005 election i really feel that no party is grabbing my attention and thus i am still not swayed where to put my 'X' on the big day. In the local elections i voted 'green' for the first time ever, driven by the fact that the larger the 'green' vote becomes, the more influenced the major parties are to pushing 'green' policies thru parliment, good for everyone in general i think ,given the climate changes in the last 10 years. I will just have to email Jeremy Paxton and ask him what the lowdoan is on the best party, he seems a unbiased person on newsnight, he slates everyone from all parties :-) ! Perhaps he should swap for the evening with Mr Dimbleby on BBC's 'question time' that would sharpen up the debate.....

Back to the blog

After a long break i decided to update the blog today, the combination of being very a busy boy at work and a rather hectic social schedule based on an upcoming friends wedding in the USA has put blogging on the backburner. I have been again fixing problems with friends and families PC's over the last few weeks, one PC had over 6000 instances of spyware which dragged performance down to a crawl. The latest Microsoft Anti Spyware beta software seems to be a good bet as a 'free' solution, i have used it on the XP installs that i encounter with spyware with great success, however i still use the 'always accurate' Spybot search and destroy to confirm that all spyware is removed. The micosoft resident spyware agents seem to add to the security of a XP install so take a look at the microsoft web site.