Just to name a few, there is the pure legend that is Ferg Burger, have a teapot at the World Bar, enjoy the views hanging upside down at the Nevis Canyon, go for a swing at the Shotover Canyon. Quite happily I can say I have done all of those, so I thought I might share with you the famous 134m Nevis Bungy jump I did!

Currently I am in New Zealand, in the capital Wellington after recently finishing my travels on the Kiwi Experience bus, so I am taking some time out to do some work and it should give me a chance to recap what I have been up to and get it written down.

So check back in a few days where I should have the first post written entailing the details of my trip around the North Island!

Matt

Back then he had a passion for motorbikes and racing them, and one day during a race a photographer for a local newspaper took this fantastic photograph that I just have to share.

Could this be one of the earliest fail photos?

Currently the photographer and the newspaper are unknown, but once I find out I will update the post!

But for now I would like to introduce a new forum started up by a few guys at work to talk about the new Dell Minis!

So come and check us out at MyDellMini.com! See you there!

Now we all have our own personal opinion on what we should be using and why. I won't be going into the pros and cons of each, as this isn't the point of this post.

My setup at home consists of one custom built desktop running Windows XP and one Dell laptop running Windows Vista. I do most of my work on my desktop and also use it for gaming, which is why for me its not a good idea to switch to Ubuntu on there as the games won't run on Linux, there is the option of running the games through WINE but I really can't see the point off that right now. But with my laptop, all I use that for is work which is coding based.

When it comes to Linux I am a novice to say the least, I know a few basic commands, but since all the servers we use at work are Linux based, and my VPS is linux based, I really need to learn how to use it more. So I came up with the idea of switching my Windows Vista laptop over to using Ubuntu and try it out to see what all the fuss is about.

I plan on doing the switch this weekend at some point, so I will post updates on how it goes and how easy it is to do the switch. And as a final few words, I would like to say that I have not found any problems yet using Windows Vista, for me its run perfect every time I have used it.

Back to work for me!

My initial ideas were that I needed to find / work out some complex function that will convert a postcode into the easting and northing co-ordinates. But once I had set off into Google seeing what I can find, I actually realised I was going in compleatly the wrong direction.

After a bit of digging, it turns out it is actually quite simple, all you need is a table of all the UK postcodes with their co-ordinates. When the user enters their postcode, you find the postcode in your table and return the co-ordinates, et voila, you have the basics of your postcode search.

The next challenge was to find this postcode data, so I set off in my search. It didn't take long to get my answer, the UK postcode data is controlled and published by one company in the whole of the UK, The Royal Mail, which in short, can only spell problems. With the Royal Mail in control of this data, it means they can do whatever they want with it, including the pricing. And let me tell you, whoever decided how much to charge the public, was not in a good mood the day they decided this.

Now Royal Mail offer a few different packages off the data they hold, all ranging in prices. The dataset I am after is whats called the GIS Base Table. In short it holds all of the postcodes in the UK with their OSGR Easting and OSGR Northing co-ordinates, perfect for what I need to do. They then allow you to choose how many updates you wish to get per year, I have a nice list of the updates with its cost below:

• One-off supply (No updates) - £350
• One update per year - £350
• Two updates per year - £525
• Four updates per year - £875
• Twelve updates per year - £1312.50

Now looking at that, I would be more then happy to spend £350 a year on the data, but the real kick in the teeth comes when Royal Mail slap an extra £600 on the top for using the data on the internet.

The question that comes to my mind as I am writing this now is why? Why charge so much for this data, when data like this is freely available in countries like the USA and Canada. By charging a ridiculous sum of money, they are just halting what could be some cool projects and ideas because people can't afford to pay for the licensing fees. To me it is all just stupid and some questions need to be asked down at Royal Mail.

There is a small glimmer of hope. People are setting out to create their own lists of Postcodes which they are releasing into the public domain for free downloads. The best one I have found and will be using is New Popular Edition Maps. From what I have seen so far they have created a great service, its really quick and simple to add your own postcode if it isn't there already.

Its been a bit of a long rant, but its well worth it. If your still reading this, then thanks for reading, any comments then the form to submit is just below!

Matt Godwin

Its a simple website, powered by good old wordpress, you can upload a funny photo and caption it and the best ones make it onto the homepage. There have been some really good ones recently on there so I feel I have to share these!

Hope you enjoy these!

Matt

On the whole I thought the judges did quite well, other then the sending through of the Romanian singer Simona Armstrong, who was dressed a bit like an ostrich. I thought the whole point of the eurovision is to send someone from your own country, so if she is from Romania then how does she qualify to represent the UK, all very strange to me!

I have to admit though I am quite supprised, I thought for the first time in a while the UK has actually voted for a half decent act to go. Andy Abraham was the winner with his song 'Even If'.

Though I still don't think we will win, I am just happy we look to be taking this slightly more seriosly then last year! Lastly I leave you with Spains entry Rodolfo Chikilicuatre with his song Baila el ChikiChiki. Need more be said?

I inherited mine from my grandad when he passed away. There was really only one game I ever played on it, and that was the legendary Bomberman. I played the game every time I went over to my grandparents house and there was rarely a moment I wasn't playing it at home. Even though that was many years ago, I still know and remember the great gameplay. For those who havn't played this game here is a taster video below...

From what I do remember, this game gave a two really good game types, the single / dual player 'missions' and the battle royal. Newer versions of the game that I have played I found lacked on either one of the game types which is a shame because to me its an old classic.

Problem is now, can I resist buying a 2nd hand console off ebay and get the game?? Will just have to wait and see!