Sep 08 2010

PockeTwit Fixed!

Category: Windows MobileChrisM @ 1:53 am

If you happen to use PockeTwit to read and write your tweets, you should start the application and make sure check for updates is ticked with the options. Re-start if necessary.
Alternatively, head on over to here to grab version 0.82a . If you prefer, just grab the CAB to copy to your device and install from here.

Because of the changes Twitter made to their authentication and application verification system, namely OAuth being the only acceptable method, we had to wait for the writer of this (FREE!!!) program to update his code. This took a while, but TBH, the program is free, works like a dream again, and matches 98% of my tweeting needs. If it had YouTube access for video uploads (like TinyTwitter that I tried to use temporarily, but also had OAuth problems with) or possibly TwitVid, I could finally dump Qik. I just checked over at PockeTwit’s User Voice Page, and someone had already requested that enhancement. Added my vote.

Anyway, once the update is installed, start up PockeTwit, goto the Settings menu on the left, and select Accounts. Assuming it is already showing your Twitter account, click on Edit Selected, and follow the on screen instructions. One other person reported a problem with OAuth verification, it might be worth temporarily changing your phone’s default browser to Pocket Internet Explorer if this occurs. No reason I can think of that this would be the issue, but worth a shot. On an unrelated note, if you get general application errors, make sure your .NET CF is up to date. (Basically 3.5 or 3.7).

Now I just need to see how easy the program will be to operate on a device without a D-Pad, like the HTC Touch Pro 2 soon to be arriving.

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Sep 08 2010

From Towers To Zombies

Category: PersonalChrisM @ 12:44 am

This is a general request for help. Does anyone own “Tower Wars: Time Guardian” on a Windows Mobile device? It is a pretty good Castle Defence style game, but I am stuck in Campaign Mode on the American Civil War level. I have tried quite a few combinations of weapons, but always seem to have lost by around the third level. I’m not asking for a complete break down of the necessary placements to win the whole level, I’d just really like to have a good solid base to experiment with, rather than play the same three waves over and over. Before any smart arse tells me to google for this sort of information, I have tried, but no joy so far. Whilst we’re on the topic of games in the Castle Defence genre, make sure you give Asgard Defence a try sometime, apparently also available for WinMo, though I’ve got the PC demo. Quite addictive. Obviously nowhere near as cute as Plants vs. Zombies, but then again I don’t think they are supposed to be the same beyond the basics of strategy planning and shooting things.

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Sep 08 2010

How Often Is Too Often?

Category: PersonalChrisM @ 12:40 am

At some point in the future we will be moving back to Britain, and Anna will most likely not be at home all day by that point. This means that both Irina and I will be able to (ha, like we would have a financial choice 🙂 ) work, whether it be full time, part time or temp work. I have decided to try and plan ahead and check out the job scene within the IT sector in advance. I don’t know whether I hope for an engineering job (I used to work as a credit card terminal installer/repairer/staff trainer), technical support (most of my recent roles) or perhaps something a little different.
Being realistic, I suspect it will depend on where we live, and the positions available at the time. Anyway, having already signed up to LinkedIn (see my profile here), I thought it was time I start collating references, especially as a lot of my old bosses don’t work for the same company any more, and so I asked a few clients, colleagues and former employers to leave a comment there. Even Kate said something nice! I also decided to start looking at the different groups there, and was surprised to find quite a lot of “content” that appeared to be little more than spam, by a resume résumé resumé CV writing service company, on the IT Job Board group. I was wondering if any other members saw this in other groups and whether it was accepted as normal behaviour or not? I am not writing this question over there, because perhaps this frequency and topic of posting is considered normal? Anyway, if you don’t want to answer publicly, feel free to e-mail me (see the Contact Me section on this page), or send me a message at LinkedIn.

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Sep 07 2010

Walking Around Painswick

Category: Anna's VideosChrisM @ 11:05 pm

The next day (the 14th of March) we went for a walk with dad around a garden and the grounds of a big house in Painswick (and also popped across from a pub to check out the Painswick Church And Yew Trees). Stood amongst a sea of Snow Drops (assuming I’ve remembered the right name for the little white flowers?), and then panning to the little maze, which was created to celebrate the 250 years of the garden/grounds being around. A little later we went for a walk around Painswick Church, where (depending on the local stories you believe), there can never be more than 99 Yew trees, you can never count them all in one go, and/or the trees also move around!

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Sep 07 2010

Blurred Vision BEFORE The Pub

Category: Anna's PhotosChrisM @ 11:02 pm

Before we headed off to a pub in the countryside for a meal, Aunty Chris and Bob came in to Dad’s house and Anna seemed very happy to have a fresh audience to perform in front of 🙂
It was the 13th of March, and as Dad was driving, I was able to have a few drinks in the pub. This isn’t the reason for the somewhat blurry nature of this picture – for some reason there was a lot of digital noise in it, and this was the best compromise I could come up with…

Aunty Chris And Anna

Aunty Chris And Anna

btw, this is Aunty Chris from Dad’s side of the family, in case anyone remembers seeing an Aunty Chris who looked a bit different 🙂

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Sep 07 2010

Plane Tickets

Category: PersonalChrisM @ 10:41 pm

I am pretty sure that this post will end up working my anti-spam plugins overtime, but I was wondering if anybody knew of where to get good Astana <> Britain tickets – price wise? Back in 2006 ChrisD managed to find a return flight that was ridiculously cheap, something silly like two to three hundred pounds. Whenever we go back to the UK for Christmas/have family or friends over, we try to find the cheapest deals going, but never really get very far. We obviously try Travelocity, Expedia and LastMinute , and then once we’ve found the cheapest flights, check the airline’s own website, in case there are special offers on. For a short while, Air Astana had a great deal on return flights (but only from Kazakhstan and back again, not vice versa) but that offer expired. Anyway, does anyone have a tip of where to look, or alternative approaches to consider? Mum will be here in Astana in a little over two weeks, so it would be too late to save her money, but we are hoping to go back to Wales around Christmas/New Year time, so if we need to book well in advance for savings, now would probably be a good time to check, I’m assuming.

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Sep 07 2010

Present Time – A Little Delayed

Category: Anna's Photos,PersonalChrisM @ 10:08 pm

Delayed in two senses. When Nick came up to Evesham (btw big congratulations to him for recently passing his driving test!) he bought the Christmas and Birthday presents that we had not been able to open due to being in Kazakhstan at the time. Even though his son Jack was about to be born, we really appreciated him making the effort and making sure we had some more time together (he also had a job interview in Cheltenham, so the timing was perfect). The second part of the delay? The video of this evening was posted a little over a month ago. I have been very slack recently at posting to this blog, other than occasional tweets. Now that PockeTwit (my preferred Windows Mobile twitter client) isn’t working due to OAuth being required for logins, the site has been quite bare recently. I am hoping to put up a few more posts by the end of the week, and if I can just create 36 hours in a day, I might even manage to post more next week 🙂 Oh, 12th of March is the date these photos were taken, which reminds me, I need to check if AnnaMerriman.com is still pulling these posts in automatically, and also start manually embedding those videos that don’t make it across.

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Sep 07 2010

Photos Sorted

Category: PersonalChrisM @ 8:21 pm

I have finished sorting the photos we have shot here in Kazakhstan since our return from Britain, and I’m about half way through cropping, resizing and minor tweaking as well. I hope to have them published on here soon, and as we will be going back to our flat tomorrow (we have been house and pet sitting for Irina’s parents whilst they were on holiday), I should be able to actually post more often.
The one problem with looking after Anna in a house, compared to a flat, is that she wants to go up and down between all the floors quite a lot, meaning even if I use Irina’s laptop instead of the main PC, I don’t get a lot of free time to post. Anyway, expect photos of Anna’s new custom built play house (no wooden swing sets needed), meals out, playing around and our trip to Petropavlovsk! I think I have spelled the city name correctly this time, I don’t fancy having to trawl through all my posts again after last time’s problems.
I have also uploaded all the videos to YouTube, though only 1/3 of the new ones have any sort of title or description yet. As there are still a few to post that were already uploaded from our UK trip, I’m not going to lose any sleep over these anonymous videos just yet.

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Sep 07 2010

Shiny Seb

Category: Friends,Pictures,VideosChrisM @ 8:14 pm

In case you haven’t browsed the Celt Photographic site recently, check out John’s latest posts when you get a moment (August and September would be a good start).

Anyway, if you check the recent entries, you can see the transformation of Seb from a bruised, battered and cut mountain biker, to a lizard man! All still images are copyright Celt Photographic, please make contact via the previous links if you wish to use any pictures etc. etc.

Seb has also just posted up a video that the artist who painted him has uploaded, and I’ve also included another from her collection.

Any ladies interested in Seb should send me their details, along with a photo, so I can vet them first!

Still Smiling Seb

All Muscle Or All Bruise

Lizard Face

All Over Lizard

(Small last minute correction, the smaller image of Seb was apparently taken by John’s friend Nick, I’m hoping he won’t mind me using a low-res copy on this site.)

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Sep 04 2010

Crank: High Voltage (Crank 2) …

Category: TweetsChrisM @ 1:48 am

Crank: High Voltage (Crank 2) – What a film!33% through it so far…PockeTwit & TinyTwitter both down due2OAuth issues.Not read tweets4while

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