Longtime no speak
It has been quite a while since I have posted here so I feel an update is in order. I have finished my 2nd year at University so have technically finished for the summer. However I have been given a research grant from EPRS so I am now working as a research associate in the Culture Lab of Newcastle University. In this past week I have learnt a lot of C++ and started to look at OpenGL. I needed to this as I am going to be working with the OpenCV library written in C++ (so I need to learn C++) and OpenGL is going to be used to produce some GUI for applications I am going to be making.
On another note, I am currently posting this blog using Firefox 3 Beta 5, which comes with the latest addition of Ubuntu, something that I have just installed moments ago so be expecting a review on this OS in the coming weeks. I just have to say that it is already better than Gutsy in my eyes as it has support for my wireless adaptor out the box and I have connected to the Internet with no problems compared to after installing Gutsy and having issues with IPv6.
I will leave it here for the moment but will be returning soon!
UPDATE: Things have changed slightly since my last post. I installed Vista after Ubuntu, which naturally overwrote the bootloader so I could not get back onto Ubuntu without reinstalling GRUB. Once this was done I had to change the menu.lst file so have I could select Vista.
Another point I would like to make is that unlike Hardy, Vista could not connect to the Internet using my wireless adaptor so I had to search the Internet for the correct drivers - oh the irony.
Tour de California
So as promised, here is a little entry about travelling around California. This was a very last minute holiday as the weather here in the UK was supposed to be amazing this summer and it ended up being a complete wash out (literally). So me and the family set off to America, our first destination being San Francisco. I really wanted to visit here mainly to go to the Amoeba record store but also due to how cool it is.
Anyway arrived in San Fran, made it to the hotel then went to find somewhere to eat. Not a lot happened really as we had all been up for about 28 hours and where shattered so had an early night. The next day went round and did a little exploring; picking up a 3 day pass for the trams and buses as we did so. It was really nice to just look around the place as it is so nice and it wasn’t very hot due to the sea breeze.
In the afternoon we headed uptown and went to the Amoeba record store. I have never been in a record shop with so much vinyl or just CD’s. It was all laid out in a huge room and it was just mind blowing. I didn’t actually pick up any records but did get some of the Bill Graham Presents limited edition Fillmore posters from the Fillmore music venue around the corner.
The next few days in San Fran were generally spent looking around, shopping, going to Alcatrez (which was very good indeed and should be visited by everybody at least once) and eating some very nice meals.
Our next destination was Monterey where we would be spending 5 nights. When arriving we soon discovered it wasn’t the sort of town we expected. Admittedly it was very nice but everyone seemed to go to bed at 10pm, making the town pretty much deserted. Whilst here though we did manage to go to Carmel - a very nice place indeed with even nicer beaches - and go to pebble peach golf course and find the Del Monte headquarters.
After a very slow few days in Monterey it was finally time to move onto our next destination - Santa Barbara. Unfortunately we were only spending 2 nights here, which equated to about 1 full day because of travelling. This turned out to be a real shame as Santa Barbara is quite beautiful with some nice beaches.
Our finally destination in the little tour was Los Angeles. On arrival we couldn’t actually get into our hotel because some film featuring Will Smith was being filmed there, but we soon got over that. We very quickly discovered that you have to drive everywhere in LA as it is so big and the public transport is diabolical. Did the usual things of doing a tour of the star houses and visiting Universal Studios but didn’t really have time to do anything else such as visit some of the beaches or have a proper explore of this city where everything seems to happen.
All in all it was a very good tour of California but we all wanted to stay a little longer and visit San Diego as everyone we had spoken to had said it was absolutely amazing and was a very nice city indeed. I would like to return at some point and visit San Diego and possibly go back to San Francisco as I just loved that place.
