RadicalStu Blog

Doing a 10K

It's over a year since my last post on this blog. It's been a very traumatic year during which I lost the love of my life to cancer. As a way of sending my love to her, I am doing a sponsored 10k run in October. You can donate using the link to the right of the screen.

Alton Towers Hotel Review

I was in a party of 2 adults and 2 children (ages 8 and 4) and stayed at the Alton Towers Hotel for 3 nights. We arrived late on Saturday afternoon to be told that we did not have a reservation, despite the fact that I had booked it on the hotel web site. Luckily, I had my laptop with me and was able to open up the confirmation email (they had free Wi-Fi in the bar area) and get the reservation number. When I took this to the desk they confirmed that there was a booking, but somehow they had it in the name and address of my next door neighbour! This is extremely dodgy data protection practice. I assume that my neighbour had visited the hotel before and they used the post code and brought up their details. Bad, bad, bad. The person on the desk was as helpful as they could have been and apologised for the problem but, whatever system that allowed this needs to be fixed immediately. I had visions of having to drive 5 hours home with two disconsolate children. The hotel pubic areas were well done and the entertainment that we say was good for the children. The room was far too hot, with no discernable reason. There was no heating on and the weather was not particularly hot. We had the fan on all of the time we were in the room. At the prices that are being charged, it is not acceptable that there was no air conditioning. The room was fairly basic but OK. The shower had problems, though. Most of the time, the water pressure was very low, although, occasionally, it would operate at acceptable pressures. The promised 'bunk beads' for the children were not actually bunk beds; one of the beds was really just a mattress on the floor and the space was tight when this was being used. The TV picture was bad and the interactive service did not work until the day we were due to check out. I could have done with some more power sockets and Wi-Fi in the bedroom. The restaurants were extremely expensive and/or limited for what was offered. They were not particularly child friendly for what should be a child focused hotel. Breakfast was good, though. Alton Towers have a bit of a captive market here. The theme park is excellent and makes the trip worthwhile. In the past we have stayed at bed and breakfasts which are a little bit of a journey from the park. Overall though, the hotel's proximity does not make up for the extra expense and generally poor quality.

Ruth and Wendy Race for Life

Race for Life - Ruth & Wendy Race For Life
My two sisters-in-law, Ruth and Wendy are running (maybe not actually running) in aid of Cancer Research. Sponsor them now!

Are Scots sectarian?

The Scotsman - Beware myths that tarnish 'sectarian' Scots
How the perception that Scots have of the prevalance of sectarianism is different from reality.

Vista Activation DNS Error

SuitedCowboys » Vista Activation DNS Error
A solution to the "0×8007232B DNS name does not exist" error when installing Windows Vista Business Volume Licensing

NBBC

nbbc
The service aggregates video content, monetizes content by connecting it with advertisers, and distributes content to a network of heavily-trafficked websites.

SpeedFiler

Claritude Software: Products
Good looking tool to help you file emails in Outlook

2006 Hanselman Tool List

The latest edition of Scott's fabulous list of resources.

Scott Hanselman's Computer Zen - Scott Hanselman's 2006 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows

FairUse4WM

Freeware program FairUse4WM removes the digital rights management (DRM) from your Windows Media files.

Download of the Day: FairUse4WM (Windows) - Lifehacker

Scrape Torrent

Your new favorite bittorrent site - Lifehacker
Web site Scrape Torrent is a bittorrent search aggregator that scours the most popular torrent sites to find you the best download available.

Parking In Florence

Slow Travel Italy - Parking in Florence
Some ideas for parking in Florence

Change of Plans in Italy

Due to some very disappointing circumstances, that I will almost certainly blog when the situation is a little clearer, I am now staying at a different location on my trip to Tuscany.

Bed & Breakfast I Parigi Florence Italy Hotels

I Parigi Hotel - Florence - I Parigi Hotel Reviews - TripAdvisor

Recent Links 4 Aug 2006

QUINN RENTALS LTD
Glasgow area car rental company

How to Set Goals You Will Actually Achieve
Steve has recently been experimenting with different types of posts; not always successfully. Here, he is right back on form with a paradigm shifting thought that could change your life.

InformationWeek | Windows XP Management | Langa Letter: XP's No-Reformat, Nondestructive Total-Rebuild Option | June 19, 2006
how to completely rebuild, repair, or refresh an existing XP installation without losing data, and without having to reinstall user software, reformat, or otherwise destructively alter the setup.

How to Prepare a Vacation Countdown Checklist - eHow.com
Make sure you leave with everything--and with everything taken care of.

Reviews of vacations, hotels, resorts, vacation and travel packages - TripAdvisor
Invaluable source of reviews and ratings about hotels and attractions.

Download of the Day: ZuluPad - Lifehacker
"Notepad on crack" desktop application ZuluPad is a cross between a plain text editor and a wiki.

Paint.NET

Paint.NET
Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Server 2003. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

It was written in .NET and just keeps getting better and better.

Local Planet Legal Decision

The court found in favour of Local Planet. A tough exercise but, hopefully, a worthwhile one.

LOCAL PLANET SOLUTIONS LTD v. RITCHIES HGV TRAINING CENTRE LTD, 19 May 2006, Sheriff Fiona Lennox Reith, QC