Thursday, April 30, 2009

Catch 22

Over lunch my lunch of corned beef sarnies I've been considering (as you do) the state of the world we live in. Using the venerable BBC News website as a guide, here's where we're at.

We're still in the deepest recession for many a long year. People out of jobs, companies going bust, investments in free fall and the housing market still dodgy. We're still at war with half the world it seems - though we don't call it war, although we'll soon be pulling troops out of Iraq.

There are pirates about, but not in the Caribbean. We've got a comedian on Question time, and no, it's not Gordon Brown.

According to the Met (the weather people, not the police) it's going to b the hottest and driest summer for a long time (hooray), but sadly we'll all be dead from swine flu, so won't be here to enjoy it.

Oh, and the Aussies are coming over to thrash us at cricket (again).




-- Post From My iPhone

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Dinas Powys CC start with a win

My cricket club got it's season off and running on Sunday with a 5 wicket win in a local friendly.

The weather at 10am when was doing some junior coaching was horrible, but it cleared up and turned into a glorious afternoon.

I'm not planning to play (much if at all) this year due to my dodgy (read knackered) knee. It was nice to be watching with a cold beer though.

The league season kicks off on Saturday, with the juniors starting next week. I'm praying for good weather, but frankly the forecast looks pants!

Update
The Under 13 also got off to a winning start this evening, so we're 2 from 2.

You can follow all the goings on at www.dinaspowyscc.co.uk

Up the Dinas!


-- Post From My iPhone

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Abject: City 0-3 Ipswich

City have imploded. Talk about doing it the hard way. After the first 10 minutes, where City looked to be right on top of their game they were awarded a penalty for a foul on Roger Johnson. Ross McCormack who's been so good for the spot, despite missing his last one, saw this one saved well by Richard Wright, and on that the game turned.

Ipswich substituted defender Alex Bruce with Jon Stead and the pattern of the game changed. They scored a break away goal in the 33rd minute, and after that City were abject. They couldn't pass (except backwards), they couldn't tackle, didn't want to shoot and looked tired (they've played 6 games in 16 days to be fair) and Ipswich ultimately ran out 3-0 winners, and well deserved too.

Worryingly, City still need a point from their last game, away to Sheffield Wednesday, or for Preston to only draw or lose to be certain of a play off spot. If City lose that, and Preston, who thumped us 6-0 last week and beat second placed Birmingham away 2-1 today win it's down to goal difference - and ours is only 2 better than Preston's. Preston face QPR at home next week in the final round, and you wouldn't bet on them not getting a win at the moment, so it's going to be nailbiting stuff.

The players lap of honour following the last home league game of the season and the celebrations for the last ever home game at Ninian Park seemed pretty muted as a result.

Lets hope they can pick themselves up for next Sunday's match.

C'mon City. One last push.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Nailbiting stuff: Charlton 2-2 City

Blimey! City know how to make you suffer. Fresh from their 6-0 drubbing at Preston they went to Charlton who are already relegated, looking for a win to seal their play off spot.

Things did not go according to plan, and they were 1-0 down at the break. Things got worse in the second period as they conced a second, and looked down and out.

But, from somewhere they found some resilience, with first Burke, coming off the bench to score with a long range effort in the 82nd minutes, and then Gabor Gyepes popping up to score from a Chris Burke corner in the 89th minute. Both sides had chances to win it in the last minute, but a draw it was.

By my reckoning, Swansea and Preston in 7th and 8th respectively, can now only match City's points haul, and City have a superior goal difference (just - by one) over the Jacks. So one more point from the final two games just to be safe.

Saturday sees the final league game in Ninian Park's history when we take on Ipswich, with one final play off game (hopefully) being the final ever match at the old stadium.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Quick Office for iPhone

Just see on The iPhone Blog that Quick Office have just had their Quickoffice app released into the iPhone store on iTunes.

This steals a march on Dataviz's Documents to Go which is still showing as "Coming..." on their web site, although I believe from an email I received from them recently and posted about , that it's due for a "mid-May" delivery.

Whatever, Quickoffice beats them to it, offering the following long list of features:

Quickword® (Advanced Word Document Processing)
  • Edit & Create MS-WORD Files
  • Intuitively Cut/Copy/Paste text anywhere, including to another doc
  • Easy to use, fast, accurate Double/Triple Tap for word/paragraph selection
  • High-fidelity rendering for optimized mobile viewing
  • Wrap text at any zoom level and eliminate repetitive left/right scrolling
  • Enhanced Magnifier to accurately place cursor with ease
  • Extensive text formatting; Bold, Italics, Font Sizes, Font Styles
  • Simple to Undo/Redo text changes
  • Confidently edit with Auto-Save & Auto-Restore
  • Quickly edit Bulleted/Numbered lists
  • Images scale to fit screen for better viewing
  • Open complex docs without compromising performance or stability
  • File Support: .DOC (97-2003 Editing), .DOCX (2007 Viewing), .TXT
Quicksheet® (Advanced Excel Spreadsheet Editor)
  • Edit & Create MS-EXCEL spreadsheets
  • Professional-Grade Calculation Engine
  • Supports advanced Excel features; Implicit Intersection, Array Formulas, Named Ranges
  • Simply Tap, Hold & Slide your finger to increase/decrease Column Width/Row Height
  • Extensive formatting; Bold, Italic, Cell Background, Font Color, Accounting, Currency, Decimals, Currency Symbols
  • Double Tap on a cell and drag your finger diagonally to Select a Range
  • Easily change Inputs and Recalculate
  • Confidently edit with Auto-Save & Auto-Restore
  • Switch easily between Sheets in a Workbook
  • Insert new Rows/Columns
  • File Support: .XLS (97-2003 Editing), .XLSX (2007 Viewing)
Quickoffice® Files (Remote Access, WiFi & File Management)
  • Remotely Access your MobileMe® iDisk® account (separate account required)
  • Easily Transfer files from your Macintosh or PC via WiFi
  • Create New Folders on your iDisk account or device to manage digital content
  • Save files to your device for offline viewing
  • View almost every common file type
  • Easily Organize, Rename, and Move files on your device
  • Passcode protection to keep your content safe
Buy now and receive these FREE UPDATES (soon to be released):
  • Mount device as a wireless drive via WiFi
  • Drag/Drop files between your device and computer via WiFi/li>
  • Email remote or local files without having to download them
It's priced at $19.99, far more than your average iPhone app, but then arguably, it's far more complex, and powerful than a free or 59p farting app.

I'm very tempted, as I've been waiting for DtG for a long time, and mid-May's still weeks away. Should I stick or should I twist?

Thanks to The iPhone Blog for the heads up, and a nod to Quickoffice, as I've used their picture (but I am raising awareness of their product!)

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Calamity: PNE 6-0 City

For City's chance of automatic promotion they needed to win their remaining 4 matches, and hope for others to slip up.

Today at Deepdale, they were routed 6-0, the biggest defeat I've seen since I've been supporting them, and one that's ended any hope of automatic promotion. We're not even guaranteed a play off place yet, still need 1 point from that last 3 matches I think, so it looks like we're going to have to do it the hard way.

Let's forget this one.

Up the City!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Top Ten Tracks

I knew my last post would lead to this...great songs - so what are your top 10 all time tracks? It's so hard, and frankly, a good few of these probably change from week to week depending on what I'm listening to at the time. However, here are 10 of my all time faves, and ones that I play regularly in the car or on my iPhone - generally turned up very loud - and the reason why. You can of course beg to differ.
  • Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd: Just a great guitar, great piano, good lyrics
  • Jet Airplane - Steve Miller Band: As a pretty average guitar player myself, just love the instrumental intro.
  • Picture This - Blondie: Could have picked just about any Blondie track apart from the Island of Dreams type stuff, but this is great. Short, to the point.
  • Distant Sun - Crowded House: Superb musicians. Great lyrics, neat chord changes.
  • We Didn't Start The Fire - Billy Joel: A modern day Subterranean Blues - look on YouTube for some great history lesson videos to accompany this suberb track
  • Stainsby Girls - Chris Rea. Great voice, sublime guitar (spot the trend yet?)
  • Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits. Ropey voice, superb guitar
  • Rhiannon - Fleetwood Mac. Just love the FM sound
  • Running Man - Jimmy Nail. A real pumping track
  • Beds Are Burning - Midnight Oil. Listen to that driving bass. Ethical issues too

Hooters

It's funny how some things pass you by. I've got a fairly eclectic taste in music, anything from Blondie, through Dire Straits, Fleetwood Mac, Seasick Steve, Fairport Convention, Kate Bush, traditional rock 'n roll, and a wide range of other material , electric stuff and even though I hate to admit it, recent Take That songs! Somehow though, I'd missed the Hooters, an American band that have been around in one form or another since the early 80's.

With a few exceptions, my taste has generally always been for what I call "proper bands" - ones that write their own material and play their own instruments, and especially those that do guitars and drums well.

Apart from a few of the aforementioned, most of whose material I have, I've always tended to buy albums on the basis of one track I've heard, and generally have got away with liking the rest of the album.

The other day I was driving home from work listening to Radio 2 when Simon Mayo, sitting in for Chris Evans opened the show with "Satellite" from this band. Within the first few bars I though "What a fantastic track" - it just makes you want to join in, play air guitar, sing along - a real get up and go song.

I duly downloaded the "One Way Home" album from Amazon onto my iPhone via iTunes, and listened with the headphones in and the sound up. It's a brilliant album. How I've managed to miss this band all these years I don't know. It mixes some decent rock with a folky twist - I'm not sure I'd go as far as calling them folk rock. Whatever, I love it.

Wordpop scores

Well, for a brief moment in time I was the global high score leader in Wordpop on easy mode. However, a glimpse at the attached screenshots will show that's the case no longer, and that I've slipped to a lowly third spot, and worse, the current leaders have racked up such huge scores, the chances of me ever getting anywhere near these is highly remote, unless of course I play the game continuously for about a month!
Well done to them. I take my hat off to you, especially those who have done so well on the medium and hard levels.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Still chasing down: City 3-1 Burnley

Oh my giddy aunt! We still need Birmingham to slip up (they did a bit today with a draw), and possibly Sheffield Utd (ditto), but City are still chasing down automatic promotion after a 3-1 win over Burnley in the penultimate league match at Ninian Park.

City, without Roger Johnson for the first time this season ue to his injury from the Palace game started cautiously - so cautiously they couldn't string two passes together, and Burnley looked good value for their 6th spot in the table. However City came into the game more and ended the first half the better.

After the break City continued to play the more attacking football, but it looked like a stalemate was on the cards when in the 74th minute Jay Bothroyd got on the end of a Ross McCormack flick on to blast the ball home and give City a precious lead.

They held that lead for 10 minutes looking very comfortable until the home crowd were silenced by a dreadful Darren Purse back-pass that let in Robbie Blak to slide home under Stuart Taylor. It looked like all City's hard work had been undone, but a minute later, Bothroyd returned the favour to McCormack and the diminuitive Scotsman turned to slot home his 22nd of the season. To be fair to Burnley, they were throwing the kitchen sink at it by now and a couple of iffy bits of defending could have seen them equalise again, before Mark Kennedy cooly sent McCormack on his way again from inside his own half deep into injury time. Rather than run the ball to the corner flag as we were expecting, he ran at goal, jinked in side and fired low to send the Ninian Park crowd into raptures.

A superb win that closes the gap to 4 points on Birmingham and 3 points Sheffield Utd, with a game in hand on both, and importantly just about confirms a play off spot. We have to keep winning though, but on this performance who'd bet against that?

Up the City!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Pembrokeshire

The Pembrokeshire National Park is one of my favourite places in the UK - I've been going there since I was 13, and I'm 50 this year, so that tells it's own story.

We've just been for a flying visit. Travelled yesterday, one overnight in my sister's caravan, and back late this afternoon. Never tire of the place. This view is from the cliffs above Abereiddy bay with the "blue lagoon" (an old slate quarry) in the foreground, looking back towards St David's head.

Abereiddy is especially poignant for our family, because we scattered my mum's ashes here back in 2003.

The whole of the coast in this area is absolutely superb, as are the beaches, with some real hidden gems, ranging from wide pebble beaches (Abermawr), rocky inlets (Trefin), Abereiddy with it's mixture of black slate sands and rockpools and the lagoon, and Whitesands, a broad expanse of golden sands.

If you love nature, surfing, kayaking, coasteering or just chilling on the beach, this is certainly one of the best places in the UK to do it.

Just don't tell anyone else....

Still in the hunt: Palace 0-2 City

Ross McCormack picked up a brace in what was by all accounts a fiery encounter, where both managers were banished to the stands.
After McCormack opened the scoring from the spot, Roger Johnson ended up being sent to hospital and will be kept in overnight for monitoring after suffering a battering to the head that could have been an elbow.
McCormack scored late on to make it safe for City who now climb to 4th spot, and with Birmingham slipping up with a draw, the slim chance of automatic promotion is still something for City to aim for.

Next up Burnley on Monday at home. Let's hope Johnson's fit, and we can glean another 3 points.

Up the City!

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Docs to Go for iPhone almost here

Got an update email from Dataviz tonight in which they say that the iPhone version of Docs to Go will be ready in early to mid May. For all those of us that have been waiting for this, it's great news.

What they've said is:

Thanks to all who have been waiting patiently for the arrival of Documents To Go for iPhone. The next time you hear from us, it'll be to tell you that Documents To Go is available for your iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store!

When will that be, you ask? Early to mid May. And trust us, there are some very exciting things about this app that we haven't let out of the bag yet. We hope you'll agree it's worth the wait!

If you haven't seen them, there are some great screenshots for you on our Facebook page (while you're there, become a fan!). And as always, you can stay up to date on our iPhone plans and all the other goings-on at DataViz with our Office Mobility Blog!

Big, big win: City 4-1 Derby

The Bluebirds strengthened their hold on the Championship play off spots last night and kept their faint hopes of automatic promotion alive with a 4-1 win over Dery County. The Rams had the better of the opening exchanges, forcing several early corners before a glnacing Roger Johnson header from a free kick put City ahead on 16 minutes, and the score remained like that until half time.

After the break City began to dominate more without ever being fluent, and the pass of the season from Steve McPhail (a forward pass no less) slid in Gavin Rae who rounded the keeper to slot home the second and his first of the season. Jay Bothroyd added a third a few minutes later and that killed Derby off. Substitute Eddie Johnson added a fourth well taken when 1 on 1 with the keeper, before late Derby pressure forced an own goal of The same striker from a corner.

So the last floodlit game at Ninian Park saw City sign off with big win, statistically and metaphorically. The games come thick and fast this week, with an away match at Palace on Saturday followed by a home match against play off rivals Burnely on Easter Monday. 6 points from those two would be ideal.

Up the City!

-- Post From My iPhone

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

WordPop No.1

I've just messed up a WordPop game. But my score of 52,567 on round 185 puts me No. 1 on the global all time scores on the iPhone! How about that? Never been No. 1 at anything before....

Dead chuffed.

I really messed up though, I was going steamingly well but paying half attention to WordPop and half to the Man Utd/Porto game on telly, and left myself with no vowels!!

Gabor Gyepes here for the long run

Cardiff City's Hungarian central defender today signed a deal that will keep him a City for another 3 years. I think this a great deal for City!

Gyepes joined City at the start of the season from Northampton Town. A proven central defender with international experience he had to bide his time to break into the first team, but once he did he formed a formidable relationship with Roger Johnson at centre back, in an unbroken run that was only stopped through a harsh red card against Sheffield United.

I think he's been a great replacement for Glenn Loovens who we sold to Celtic just after the campaign kicked off, and I'm pleased to see he'll be staying long term.

Up the City!

Sunday, April 05, 2009

All square: City 2-2 Jacks

So, the crack of dawn (well for a Sunday) saw us at Ninian Park for the third match between City and the Jacks from Swansea this season.

Predictably a huge number of the City faithful outside the ground gave our visitors a traditional welcome as you can see from this photo of a banner being held by a couple of Bluebirds fans.

If you can't quite make it out, its a picture suggesting no caravans, a reference to our penchant for calling those that hail from Swansea "gypos" (amongst other things that are too unmentionable on this blog).

Anyhow, a packed Ninian Park saw a suitably testy derby game. With Gyepes suspended, Purse came into the back four, and McPhail, red carded in both previous Swansea games this year held on to his place.

The City defence looked suspect early on with Johnson playing on the left of centre, and indeed atrocious defending let Dyer in to open the scoring for the Jacks on 11 minutes.

Swansea to be fair were playing neat football, whilst City struggled to get any momentum going. Inevitably I suppose there was at least one idiot in the ground, regretfully a City "fan" who threw a coin which hit Ref Mike Dean in the head just above the eye. To his credit he carried on, when I suppose the match could have been in danger of being called off, and the reports say the person responsible has been arrested and banned for life. Let's hope so. Idiot.

On 54 minutes a great break by McNaughton was followed by a couple of neat passes, sand some great control and a level head by Bothroyd who squared for Chopra to tap in from 2 yards. Initially it looked offside, but on the TV replays it was a great decision by the officials.

The games looked to be heading for a draw until on 88 minutes, City letting the opposition play in their own half, and then backing off when they come into our half (when will they EVER learn?) allowed Allen to rifle a low shot past Taylor, and frankly iot looked as though that was that.

City to their credit though didn't give up, and when a ball was lumped into the Swans area, McCormack went down, and although it looked as though he went down a trifle easily, Mike Dean who was right on the spot, pointed for a penalty straight away. (I'm not complaining!)

McCormack then stepped up and slotted hom a penalty to resuce a point - his second pressure spot kick in 3 games in the dying seconds.

So the points shared, and probably a fair result. we haven't managed to beat the Jack in 3 attempts this year - 2 draws and that appalling loss to them in the Carling Cup. We're still in the play off spots, but the chances of automatic promotion must have faded with that draw, but we'll keep on going.

Next up, Derby at home on Wednesday.

Up the City!

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Palm OS on a Pre

The Palm Pre is looking like a great device, with more info coming out on a regular basis, but one thing that a lot of current and ex-Palm users have been asking is will it be able to run current Palm OS apps?

Well, the answer is yes, and that means it's much more likley that one of these users may hang around for the Pre rather than swicth to another patform. After all, they will have invested a lot of time and money on their Palm apps.

And here at mypre.com you can actually see it working, and very impressive it looks too. The emulator functions as a WebOS app like the other Pre apps. The response speed is impressive too.

I'm liking the Pre very much from what I've seen on the web. I wonder when we'll get to see it for real?

In another Pre video at jkOnTheRun the Pre is being demonstrated with some 3rd party applications. One really cool bit was an app called Fandango that allows you to view movie listings and buy a ticket - not really zingy in itself, but the killer was the integration - when you buy your ticket, the event is automatically added to your calendar. Impressive.

Derby day: Bluebirds v Jacks

It's a massive, massive day tomorrow if you're a South Wales football fan (which I am of course, along with Mini-Stats).

City take on Swansea in the league tomorrow in a match neither team can really afford to lose, and not just because of their great rivalry. City lie in 6th spot with a game or more in hand over those above them, and whilst a play off place is surely the aim, there is still a slight chance of second spot and automatic promotion, but only if they win nearly every remaining game and other sides slip up, whilst the Jacks are 9th and harbour hopes of sneaking into the play-off places themselves.

The powers that be have decided this'll be an 11am kick off - presumably to avoid drinking before the match, although rumour has it that some pubs will be opening early for the occasion.

It'll mean an early start for us that's for sure. We only live about 15 mins away from the ground, but generally like to be there at least an hour, often more, before kick off to savour the atmosphere, and there will certainly be an atmosphere tomorrow, so it'll mean leaving soon after 9am for a home game!!!

Mike Dean a Premiership ref is supposed to be officiating, and it'll certainly need a calm head.

Here's hoping for a City win.

Up the Bluebirds!!!

Grand National

Yes it's been Grand National day, and as usual, Chez Statto has had it's annual gambling franzy, with each of us picking two horses - usually a favourite and an outsider.

Bethan, who's 11 hasn't quite got the knack of "outsiders yet, and chose "My Will" and "Butler's Cabin", the two favourites and then declared that Butler's Cabin would be her outsider. Hmmm.

Anyway, we splurged - £2 each way on our preferred donkey, and £1 e/w on the other.

Needless to say none of us picked Mon Mome the 100/1 winner, which is a shame as a £2 e/w bet on that would have been very nice. Nevertheless, we almost recouped our outgoings, as Mrs Stats had gone with Comply or Die as a last minute second choice (2nd), My Will ran in 3rd for Bethan and I had State of Play in fourth.

Mini Stats (James) was very put out as neither of his two made the frame.

So, in the end, £22.50 recouped from a £25 initial outlay, and that dear readers, tells you all you need to know about gambling.