A moderate film; not really enough plot or action to satisfy, and only one significant car chase in a film where 50 high-performance cars are stolen!

Meant to say – saw Shrek last week at the cinema (superb film – go see!), and then Gone in 60 Seconds on DVD (a moderate film; not really enough plot or action to satisfy, and only one significant car chase in a film where 50 high-performance cars are stolen!).

Also played my first Playstation 2 game (Sky Odyessy) which is fun, but also very frustrating as it is sort of half a flight simulator, only with the useful aspects of flight-sims missing (such as an artifical horizon on the HUD). Was glad I only rented it (would be worth picking up for a tenner, I guess, but not worth 30 or 40 quid).

Last of all I chipped my PS2 to play all-region DVDs and output them in RGB. The RGB fix works, but haven’t tested the region coding bypass (see channeltechnology.com).

Very exciting week – had my first paper published (at my first computing conference), and found out that one of my patents has been granted!

Well and truly broken my enigma losing streak; although there have been a couple of tricky ones recently, which I didn’t do. Last week’s (1141: Powers of Two) was good, haven’t started this week’s yet.

Summer School two weeks ago, photoshoot this morning, and then away at a conference Monday and Tuesday – what a busy life we lead!

Long time without an update – mainly ‘cos nothing’s happened!

Did find a very good online gaming site; check out itsyourturn.com

Fun, but also very frustrating as it is sort of half a flight simulator, only with the useful aspects of flight-sims missing (such as an artifical horizon on the HUD). Was glad I only rented it (would be worth picking up for a tenner, I guess, but not worth 30 or 40 quid).

Ok Enigma this week – used the computer as a calculator.
I’m away all next week in Guildford at the BVMA/EPSRC Computer Vision Summer School. Should be good.
European Grand Prix this weekend too.

Great Enigma (1139: A Simple Addition) this week – took me probably about 3 hours in the end, but it’s the type I enjoy most.

Wow – not written anything for a while – been busy + had a week off last week.

After two weeks of naff enigma’s (1136, 1137) last week’s was good (1138: Pedal Power), although I have little confidence in the answer I eventually got!
This week’s is my favourite type (letters for numbers). Oh yes, and I got 1133: Smile right too.

What a nice weekend. My mum and step-dad came to stay, plus I had Monday and Tuesday off, watched a grand prix, and got to play loads of Tomb Raider IV.

Lots of new words too:
stripling \STRIP-ling\: A youth in the state of adolescence, or just passing from boyhood to manhood.
inveterate \in-VEH-tuh-rut\: Firmly established by long persistence; habitual.
nudnik \NOOD-nik (“OO” as in “good”)\: A person who is a bore or nuisance.
abusage \uh-BYOO-sij\: Improper or incorrect use of language.
descry \dih-SKRYE\: To catch sight of; find out, discover.