2012 Championship

Watching a game on the telly, when it’s raining outside is never a bad thing. I could claim a family connection today as apparently Don Cowie is a second cousin of mine, but as we have never met and he doesn’t read this, I’ll leave it there. Don, if you do read this , Hi Cus. LOL.

West Ham had lost Winston Reid and Faubert during the week, so Nolan came back post ban, and Tomkins moved back into the back 4. Lansbury came in to the midfield after his 2 goals for the under 21’s during the week. With Maynard and Vaz Te up front, I assuming Sam wants a quick front line. Nolans reinclusion meant Noble had to drop into a holding and carrying role, despite playing at his best in the last 3 games, in a further forward position.

The first 15 passed with no excitement, but both teams had half chances. Cardiff were showing no signs of tiredness after their Carling Cup exploits the previous week. Maynard missed an absolute sitter in the 20th after a nice head back in from Collinson.

After 35 Gesate had the be replaced for Cardiff, after pulling a hamstring, so maybe there were some cup final gremlins about.

At the 42 minute mark, Collinson broke up play to get the ball through to Maynard. He delivered a great ball through to Nolan who struck a sublime pass into the net. That was the first shot on target in the whole game. One nil WHU, half time.

Early in the second half Faye played a beautiful ball to Vaz Te, who rounded the keeper, but was cut off from putting into an empty net. 2 minutes later Vaz Te showed some serious inexperience in not putting Nolan through. Maynard missed another stone wall chance after headed a pass back straight to NM on his own, who then shot straight at the keeper.

At 61 mins Faye got away with murder father he blatantly brought down an oncoming Cardiff player in a great position. Everyone saw it, except the ref

CC came on shortly afterwards for Maynard. wrong decision IMO. Should of taken off VT if anyone. Whittingham hit the post with a fantastic free kick from some distance at 67. Cardiff at this stage were in the ascendency and WHU were starting to look sloppy, and tired.

For the last 15 Gary O’Neill came on for Lansbury, who had been quiet. In the 76 minute McCartney ran over the half the length of the pitch, go a luck bounce of a defender and pushed it in the bottom corner to register his first goal for WHU in this spell of his tenure.

So another hard won 3 points for west ham, but we do need to look at some issues within the team. Vaz Te needs to get some bottle and put his foot in when needed. Collison played better than recent weeks, and maybe now will take to the left hand side, instead of wanting to play in the middle.MOTM for me was again Mark Noble. He had a very solid game and shepherded the Cardiff middle well.

The main issue I now have is this Portsmouth business. Why should anyone lose 6 points after working hard for 2 good wins. Should this happen and we don’t go up, it will be a disgrace and give Southampton effectively another 5 points. I don’t care if Pompey play their youth team in a park every week, they have to see out their fixtures. I do feel sorry for their fans, but ,I have no sympathy for bad management of both money or personnel.

WHUFC vs Crystal Palace 25/02/2012 Championship.

After the midweek drama against Blackpool with Robert Green’s red card, Lansbury’s heroics, and another 10 man win for West Ham, all we needed was a nice incident free quiet day. It was quiet alright, more due to the match being devoid of any drama, than for any good reasons.

Palace were the better team throughout . WHU were terrible. This maybe down to tiredness, of consistently being a man down, or a bad day at the office. Bottom line is that, if we play like that in the prem, then we lose 3 or more nil.

Noble had another good game, as did Faye, but my MOTM was Rob Green, who’s saves kept WHU in the game, and kept the score down to 0 0.

Collison has to pull his finger out. He was at least 2 yards off the ball all game. If he doesn’t get up to speed, he will have to leave. It’s that simple.

Ainol Novo 7 Advanced Review

I have access to an iPad. It’s great at home but a lug around on the road, for quick reference stuff. I have an iPhone, it’s great on the road, but screen is a bit small if you are doing more than 5 mins work, or reading simple email. For editing docs, forget it

So, when an android tablet came my way for under £100, with a 7″ screen and the capability of running ICS, i took my chance.

Packaging was superb, in a nice triple layered box, containing the device, the charger, and various USB cables for updates, etc. also included is a lovely manual. Only one issue, it’s in Chinese!

Off to the web then, there is some great info on gadgetfreakz.co.uk
The unit came with 2.3 gingerbread installed. The web suggested 4.0.3 is possible.
The downloads from gadgetfreakz were fine, it’s just the method is odd. You have to plug in to USB, while holding down the power button, and then you repeatedly bash the power button, until windows wakes up.
Once complete, you use the other gadgetfreakz download, to add on some finer settings and apps, such as Skype and a working marketplace.

Once running the device is quick to respond, and has a graphical quality way beyond its price. the screen itself is a a 5 point capacitive, meaning a smooth response , anywhere in the surface.
Now the bad points. I accept some may be the OS rather than the device, which is one reason why this OS cannot be currently considered for an enterprise rollout.
Exchange integration these days should be a given for any mobile device. Although, email seems to be fine, the calendar sync is rubbish, no more no less.
Also, when it hasn’t been on for a while it takes about 15 mins to sort itself out, with syncing etc.
This week the chrome for android browser beta was launched. It doesn’t work on this device.

Saying all that, the normal browser works fine, and so does twitter, etc.

In short, of you need something for quick browsing and maybe some pocket cloud style remote desktop, then this is your man for the price. Be aware, that the novo basic, has a MIPS based processor, which means a lot of the market place stuff wont work for the moment. Using the Novo advanced I am yet to find a full release app that doesn’t work.

Overall, it’s solid, but needs polishing to be a contender. But it has a niche place.
3.5 mrbens.

WHUFC vs Southampton 15/02/2012 – Championship

Valentines day. A day for lovers and couples to enjoy each others company, safe in the knowledge that they have their entire lives ahead of them, in cojoined bliss.

Or a day to watch the top two gladiators in the championship, battle out for league title honours.

Thanks to Mrs mrben, i “chose” the latter, and expected a game worthy of the premiership, where both teams should be plying their trade next season. What i got was a premiership ref, who didn’t know his backside from his elbow and nearly ruined what should of been the star advert for the second tier of English football.

The now obligatory weather report was that although slightly warmer, things were still chilly in the upper Bobby. However out on the pitch things were heating up nicely, with Vaz Te nearly getting on the scoresheet after 1 minute.

Matt Taylor was brought in to replace the suspended Nolan, and looked quite effective on the wing. Taking aside the fact that Southampton seem to enjoy time wasting by holding the ball with the keeper only to short pass to a defender, we were easily on top.

After 22 mins or thereabouts, the stand in captain, Mark Noble, turned in the box and was tripped for a stonewall pen. In some minor kurfuffle post the penalty award, a Southampton player hit the deck in theatrical style, which ended up with Matt Taylor being red carded. Now, i didn’t see this fully (Mr Wenger !), and if he hit them then fair do’s, BUT, the linesman flagged the pen and overruled the ref, who was unsighted. The same linesman had this “assault” unfold in front of him, and did nothing, and the ref was still some distance (with several people in the way) away. The ref did not consider speaking the the lino, and the lino said nothing either. You either assist or don’t, you cant just dip in when you feel like it !

The ref then preceded to call every West Ham tackle a foul, and even blew for a foul throw (think of the last time you saw a ref blow for one of these in a TV game…………….exactly !). This culminated in the ref waving away, what i can only call an assault on CC, from the goalkeeper. He came out, got nowhere near the ball, jumped into CC, and laid him out (all 6.4 and 15 stone of him) flat. Not even a free kick, let alone a red card. Disgrace.

Green made a point blank save (after a mishandle) from Billy Sharp just before half time to keep it one nil Hammers going into the break.

The second half was all Southampton, as WHU defended deeper and deeper. Same as the wall game. The inevitable came with 15 to go, as Southampton scrambled an equalizer with an outstretched leg poking home the goal.

Nicky Maynard came on for a knackered CC, and nearly got the winner from an acute angle and looks a useful addition to the squad.

All in all, a good result bearing in mind the numbers game on the pitch. 2 players stood out again, Noble and Reid. Reid was extra solid, as his usual sparring partner Tompkins was playing in the midfield, and Noble ran himself into the ground again.

MOTM Winston Reid.

WHUFC vs Millwall 4th Feb 2012. Championship.

Apparently, there was some premier league action happening on the same day, but as usual the press and radio have been building up this game into something else.

In what is becoming a more regular fixture these days, WHU entertained our near neighbours Millwall, in a match that could determine both their seasons.

First off it was my first visit to UP this year, due to work and holidays, so it was long overdue. Also it was an early kick off, which although irritating, sets the rest of the day up well, as long as we get the result. As per usual, it was bloody freezing, but once in the ground the pervading atmosphere warmed things up nicely. As both sets of fans don’t play too well together, Millwall were put into the top tier of the Centinary, with the bottom left empty. I’m sure they didn’t mind as they are well used to half empty stands.

The game started at a real local derby pace, with a keen enthusiasm. Too much , in fact, as Kevin Nolan found out after getting a straight red, after 8 mins. To say this put a downer on precedings is an understatment, but in these days of increased analysIs on the two footed tackle, He had to walk.

The game then dropped into what is rearly was, a standard issue championship game with one or two highlights. One of these was Mark Noble, who was actually superb throughout. Hopefully the lad is turning the corner that he has been looking at for about 3 years now.

About 20 mins in, some 2-300 ticketless Millwall “fans” we’re being escorted up Priory Road, and the usual exchange of “banter” was given and taken. These gimps were then kettled to the park, where hopefully they were kept until at least midnight.

CC was getting more and more isolated as you would being up front on your own, and a man down, but battled away trying to get Faubert involved. We started to get on top with about 10 to go in the first half, and a looping header from inside the box from CC made it one nil on the stroke of half time.

We started the second half in control, but then started to panic. Instead of clearing lines effectively we were underhitting almost everything. This culminated in Faye making a poor clearance while under pressure from Henderson and gifting Trotter a shot which he put away.

This then looked a lock for the draw, except that 2 mins later, the Millwall keeper made a shocking error in punching when he should of been catching, and hit it straight to Reid, who powered a shot into the waiting unoccupied goal. Cheers !

So today, our 2 best playerswhere Noble and Reid. Strange days indeed. To be fair to the whole team, they did put a shift in, being down to 10 men for most of the game.

On leaving the ground I had commented to John howwell the Met had done policing the game (still not sure if everyone needs to be in riot gear) when their their usual shorsightedness came to the fore.

If I’m walking up Green St, and want to carry on North, I don’t expect to be forced to join the tube station queue, and the when at the entrance to the tube station, shown a gap in the railing about 8 inches wide to go through. I thought crowd management was to stop bottlenecks, not create them.

In short we got the hiding from Ipswitch out of the way, and gave our local rivals a loss, which with other results, put us 4 points clear.

MOTM. Mark Noble

Review: Turtle Beach Earforce Foxtrot Gaming headphones

I have used the standard headphones for the XBOX 360 since launch, with no issues. Recently i sat on them, which did cause a bit of a permanent issue. I then used the ones that came with my slim HALO 360. These were fine to begin with, but everyone kept telling me i was breaking up, so the time was upon me to get some real gaming phones.

Picked up the TBEF’s in Game – Westfield – Stratford for 59.99. They were a fiver more than the usual models as they were the COD MW3 special editions. I know, i just couldn’t help myself.

As you can see they come in a fetching military grey, with some MW3 insignia. Just right for all that MW3 TDM !

They also comes with a bundle of connectors including USB (longest lead ever, and no batteries kids) for power and some RCA jacks for sound.

You will notice in the photo they also have a little in line controller. This covers independent chat and game volume, a stereo expander, the usual mic on and off, and an adjustable bass control.

This makes for a lot of cable around the console, that may trouble the more OCD of you (laughs at the irony, did i just say that ?), but there has to be enough for you to move around – should you choose. Not advised for Kinect use. 🙂

The sound quality is really good, and brings new reality to playing MW3. You can hear properly, things happening in all directions. For a gazillion pounds they do a Dolby 7.1 version that must be pretty special!

The first thing you do need to do though is get used to balancing game and chat levels, else things just get loud and annoying. People screetching on game chat (you know who you are), can bring an unpleasant shock, but having the game in ear adds more than i could of imagined (Headphones are for DJing or Ipods only in my house up until yesterday).

These fellows also work on PS3 and PC as well, and i really need to bring them to work for my next VOIP conference call, if only for the crack.

Well worth the money. 4 MrBens.

Official Site

Really interesting article regarding interface design

Take a look at this, it does make perfect sense.

Will windows 8 start the revolution? That’s the question.

http://conversations.nokia.com/2012/01/30/metro-and-print/

I’m struggling with adding links via iPad, so please copy and paste into your browser of choice.

Review: Motion CL900 Windows 7 Tablet

As tablets proliferate throughout both the consumer and corporate workspace, one thing they have been targeted for is field working. This is not new, take a look at any parcels you have delivered, or the AA van when he comes to fix your car. And the one thing you won’t find is an Ipad.

However the pure domination of Apples cash cow means that the rest of the world are finally getting the tablet as a tool idea , and are starting to deploy in great numbers.

Normally these devices are either attached to the user (PDA) or in a comfy environment (Car / Van). Now people have noticed the advantages, they are making their way out into more rougher areas, and undertaking more demanding roles.

The company I work for has a demand to use these types of devices in the field in quite demanding locations. Due to the software needed, it appears Windows is the preferred option, which lessens the market of available products. The Acer i used for Windows 8, although capable would not last 10 mins in a rough place, which led me down the toughened route. This is full of “Hummer” style devices which in truth are not that portable. This led me to discover Motion. They have produced tablets for hospitals and the like for a while and are now branching out using this experience to cover more demanding environments.

This review covers the CL900, and i hope to review the F5v another time.

Basically the CL900 is an Atom based touch screen tablet in a semi tough case. This means you get a rubber edging with covers for all sockets (USB, power, mem stick, sim card) It runs Windows 7 Pro (great start over home), and comes as standard with 1Gb RAM. First tip, get the 2GB option if you really want to use this. The best bit for me is the “Gorilla Glass” screen. This is a super tough glass screen, which in normal use is also scratch resistant. But being tougher does not compromise functionality, as the screen, both with a stylus or finger works exactly as expected with no delay.

The screen quality is good, but has a smaller than usual viewing angle (there is an upgraded screen available to deal with this. But in normal use this has no effect.

Performance is 2.0 on the windows scale (out of the box – no tweaking). Our box came with 32GB SSD on board, so plenty of storage.

Applications run as expected on a machine of this size. Office 2007 ran as good as my PC. The only snag was cold booting took 1min to login screen. This is not good for a machine with an SSD. My experiences with windows 8 suggest this will dramatically reduce when the full release becomes available.

One great feature is the one button CTRL-ALT-DEL. Acer take note, no super dexterity required !

In short, a perfect tool for users to take outside, and windows 7 means no retraining. For full portability get the 3G option (standard comes with Wi-fi and BT).

Good product, needs small tweaks. 3.5 mrbens (out of 5).

Back To Dubai. First time in 5 years

Back in 2007, myself and Mrs MrBen, both got on a plane for the UK and left behind the sun and imported sand of Dubai for not so sunny London and then Kent.

5 years later work takes me back, and it would be a mistake to say i wasn’t interested in the changes. Since 2007 we have had a worldwide financial breakdown and an Arab Spring.

Luckily for me, work sent me business class with Emirates, and I have to say that has improved immensely and you get a real space and a fantastic screen, with a half decent selection of movies. Food as ever was of high quality, and with attentive staff made for a great flight.

We stayed at the Meridian, which was OK. An average room, in an above average hotel.

Much of the week was work related, and as such we went from office to hotel and back for most of the week,

But on Friday we had the afternoon to ourselves and saw two things, that did not exist in 2007. First off the tube (metro). Long overdue (road travel used to be hellish), and very well run (complete with lady only carriages). 3 quid for a day pass gets my vote. 1 tip. Do not drink (even water) on the metro. My colleague, was informed by a member of staff that eating or drink would result in a 200 Dhs fine. Eating i understand, but drinking soft drinks is a little harsh (travelling with kids must be so fun).

The other was the Burj Khalifa. Now I’ve seen big buildings, and this is the biggest, but i still wasn’t prepared for just how impressive the place was. The setting and everything else makes it almost look unreal. Shame to say though, the Dubai Mall attached to it, is just too big and a little over the top and difficult to navigate. I’m sure all the shops you need are in there, but i didn’t have 3 weeks to navigate the place.

That’s about it for the tourist piece. I would highly recommend the indian and chinese in the Le Meridian. And for any expats; Dubliners, Biggles, Fibbers and the IV, haven’t changed a lot 🙂

The main changes i saw was a country not so full of itself and a population who seem to value money better. There were more “normal” cars (still caught sight of a few “super”cars, but no more than London). The locals seem out and about in the restaurants and bars, which is good for integration. Also, the press seems to less censored and there are some stories appearing in the papers reporting proper crime rather than just the next big investment. So, in short it appears to have changed for the better, but I don’t think 4 days is really enough to judge a whole country.

B+, would go again.

Xmas in Vegas

Here is a modified trip report i posted on www.allvegaspoker.com with added photos.

The end of the year brings me and my wife to Vegas for the 3rd time in 12 months.

It was the first time I had flown BA to Vegas instead of virgin but it was great and a little early. But for Xmas day, it should be !
We stayed at the Excalibur as usual, looked after by our great host. Xmas day evening we were supposed to meet friends and hit up Dragon Noodle in the MC, so we headed off quickly, got there and turns out they didn’t want to go there and were back in the Excal. So we traipsed back and ended up in the food court. Merry Christmas!
Once they left, we did what all people with 8 hrs jet lag should do, and started drinking and gambling until 6am. Rough, but hey!
After a little lay in on day 2 and breakfast/lunch in the Lynard Skynard I got some 1/2 in. 3 hours returned $192. Good start to the week. And we got to dragon noodle in the evening. And it was worth the wait. Dim sum was fantastic.
With a broken body clock i was up the next day at 5.30, so hit one of the new restaurants in the Excal. The ABX Burger place. the pancakes were fresh as a daisy and most filling. Missus TLJ hit the tix booth for some Elvis cirque action and I hit the poker room again. Another 3 hours but down 70. No problem, 20 mins of blackjack got me another 150.
I then got the call of the wife on holiday “shopping time”, so a quick trip to the premium mall got that out of the way, and we rested and then hit the Aria for the show. Bearing in mind this show is closing, I really enjoyed it, and it played to a near full house. Afterwards we went to the secret pizza bar in the Cosmo. I had heard about the real arcade machines and was a little disappointed to find a PC in a galaga shell. Cop out!

Day 4 found me at the breakfast 9am crapshoot in Excalibur. #This started a little late as a guy was being CPR’ed and then trollied out. They set the comp up with all the medics and nesr dead guy in the room (not the biggest room either), classy ! I busted early with 10 10 against a rag who hits a on the river. I’ll be back. Today we went for a wander around the strip, highlights being $167 bonus on the pinball slot in the MGM, and dinner in the cheesecake factory.
Day 5 was a bit of a washout in the crapshoot (i’ll be back), and turned into a relax with Penn and Teller in the evening. So the Rio, what a tip! You need to a be parkour expert to navigate the slots, they are that close together.

Day 6. The crapshoot had 30 runners + rebuys, etc. got to the final table with no worries . Then busted 2 guys in quick succession with back to back full houses. I was way chip leader when heads up, so asked my opponent if he wanted to play for stacks, as time was getting on. He won the first, but the second we played cards down. The board was k high, and he had qk, and I turned over………AK! $498 in the bag. I knew I would be back. Lol. My first tournie win in Vegas !
I then got a tweet regarding the noon comp in the Trop on NYE with Mr Gold. $100 buyin, 500 in my bin, so why not.
Not a lot to report the next day, so onto NYE. The Trop room is nice, and the players were friendly. I got seated on a table with a bounty. A lady who i did not know, who was a poker tv presenter. I made the break, after being chip leader (between hands one and two. Lol), but was card dead, hard. As well as me, Dennis Phillips and Jamie Gold were still in . So far so good.
I have a bad leak, that post break I always try to buy hands, and today for no different. Blinds are creeping up , so I go all in post a 455 flop with 46. Called by tv lady with ……….66 and that’s that.

Spent NYE on the strip, and it was fantastic. Outside Bellagio for midnight, saw fireworks and then back home for more beer and merriment.