Is This the Droid You're Looking For?

Christmas present!!!!!

Beethoven's 9th - an inspiration!!

The Millenium Falcon Build Part 2

Up to issue 45...
This is all hull underside work.

Framework, and motorised ramp fitted - top right



Underside hull plates near completion.

Creating a replica of the Empire Strikes Back movie prop - Stephen Dymsz...

'MILLENNIUM FALCON" PROP REPLICA

Just Had To Put This In!!

Waiting for issues 26-29 . . . . so

Built myself a Lego Millennium Falcon - complete with Han Solo!

20 minutes - not 2 years,  on offer in Sainsburys.

Now before you say anything just refer to the subheading at the top of my blog!

The Millennium Falcon Build - part 1

Up to issue 25

Underside Framework

Underside Panels

Main Hold

Cockpit, Main Hold, Gun Turret and Passageways

Star Wars Master Replicas Millennium Falcon

Master Replicas Millennium Falcon. Exact replica of the 32" filming miniature from The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and A New Hope (special edition). Only 1500 + 500 SE made. Every detail, scar, and battle damage identical to the filming model.

I'm using this video as a reference for finishing and painting my DeAgostini model, which is the same size.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Comic-Con 2015 Reel

Part 1 - Painting the De Agostini Millennium Falcon Scale Model with Ste...

The "Fastest Hunk O' Junk in the Galaxy"

I'm building the Millennium Falcon, you remember - Han Solo's freighter in Star Wars?
It's a Modified YT-1300 Cornellian Freighter for those in the know!
This is a two year project and is a perfect replica of the model used in the film. Here's the blueprint

The finished article is nearly three feet long, don't ask me where it's going but a wall mount is provided when completed.
If you're not familiar with this beast, have a look here:
Millenium Falcon on You Tube

After completion there's a Haynes Owners Workshop Manual to help maintain the 2 Girodyne SRB42 sublight engines and Isu-Sim SSpo5 hyperdrive generator in top nick.

More to follow ...

I've Killed My Website!

My photography site at seejayessphotography.co.uk is no more.

I haven't updated it in months and nobody visits now :-(

So here's the front page to remind me when I'm REALLY old.

Weather Update!

My faithful weather station system has had an update.  It ran on an old laptop 24/7 and was creaking a bit regards reliability although the weather station hardware - see blog in 2010 - was still OK.
The shiny new replacement is a Davis Vantage Vue.

The data is transmitted from the outside ISS (Integrated Sensor Suite) to the consul indoors in a totally wireless system which is very robust.
More detail can be seen here :http://www.weatherstations.co.uk/vue_main.htm

The consul is now connected via USB to my iMac which pumps it out to my site on Weather Underground INOTTING18 - http://tinyurl.com/3ab5rkv.



Click for weather forecast

Me ? . . . getting a proper 'phone???

I was talked into it, honest.  If you know me you wouldn't believe it either.  I have trouble talking to meself let alone other folks.  A solitary quiet life without unnecessary conversation suits me fine.
So what is it about an iPhone that's brought about this momentous event?

IT'S PROBABLY THE GREATEST GADGET EVER INVENTED BY MAN!!

Whilst it may not be the very latest Apple iPhone, it has :
 1)  802.111b/g/n Wi-Fi
 2)  Bluetooth 4.0 wireless
 3)  Assisted GPS and GLONASS satellite positioning (GLONASS is the Russian GPS system)
 4)  Digital compass
 5) Retina (hi-res) display
 6) 8 megapixel camera - f2.4 aperture / 5 element lens / Panorama / Geotagging
 7) 1080p HD video recording with stabilisation
 8) Siri - Intelligent Assistant
 9) Three-axis gyro
10) Accelerometer
11) Proximity sensor
12) Ambient light sensor

Now that is a GADGET, who needs 3G, 4G or whatever is the latest and best phone network?
Don't need the phone bit, the rest of the stuff will keep me happy for ever.

The iPhone 4s

And, of course, I have to have a look inside

Home Cinema Stuff Part II

The final part of the HC upgrade is the nerve centre:

The Yamaha RX-V773 (click for full image) showing remote and speaker calibration microphone

The smaller brother (RX-V673) won the coveted What Hi-Fi Product of the Year 2012 and I would have gone for that only I needed the pre-out facility to drive the Cyrus 3 amp. and PSX-R power supply for the front pair of speakers and the rear XPA amp.

Rear View (click for full image)

A Review: Digitaltrends

Yamaha Website : uk.yamaha.com

A very useful extra (for the Geek) is an iPad app to fully control things -

Home Cinema Stuff

My movie collection has grown somewhat over the years and I've catalogued it using various pieces of software from way back in my Windows days.
Since moving to the Mac world other choices have been available and My Movies is now keeper of my collection. My movies not only catalogues data but also syncs. it across other platforms like iPad and iPhone, it also provides a website for my collection.

There have been some hardware upgrades a Simpson Towers - a new TV and Blu-ray player.
After a lengthy research period an LG smart tv, the  47LM860, was chosen.  Smart TV means it's Wi-Fi enabled and lots of other geeky goodies including 3D!!
Here's a demo

Obviously a decent support is required here - the nattily named Techlink Ovid OV95TVB was chosen, partly for it's style and also to provide space for the centre speaker under the screen

This TV is HD and requires HD food - a blu-ray player.  The Sony BDP S790 is the  What Hi-Fi mag blu-ray Product of the Year 2012  - no contest!  Review on AVForums

So . . .  My collection of DVD's now needs refreshing with the Blu stuff  :-)

The Revox B260 - one of the World's finest vintage tuners.

I am now in possession of a legendary piece of vintage hi-fi equipment.

Produced in West Germany in 1988, it is now 25 years old but looks nearly mint!

At launch the B260 was on sale in the USA for $2000 and today can hold a price of £800.

Gramophone magazine reviewed it in 1988 here and the review says all.
Another review here

Again, I can't resist the inside view:

The top Photo is a B260 on sale at Ebay for $1250 today - here

 . . more later

Ditched the Virgin!

We've been with Virgin Internet since the dial-up days but now we're joining the Big Boys.
Fibre optic broadband, giving, for us, about 10x the speed of conventional  technology, has arrived in the village.  Being of the Cutting-Edge persuasion I wasted no time in extracting the MAC number from Virgin and passing the baton to our new benefactors, British Telecommunications.
Setup was painless on 3rd September and we've enjoyed the cheek-flapping velocity of this new technology.  We were used to a download speed of around 3.5 Mb/s at most and uploads around 0.35.
NOW, whilst not constant, we're getting in the high 30's and low 40's down and a steady 4.5 up.

BT Infinity Hub 3b

Rear of Hub

Inside ( I like insides)

The Hub is partnered with an Openreach modem which plugs into the new master socket faceplate and then in the hub thus:

Inside the Modem

Best results are in quiet hours and on my iMac which is cabled to the hub, wi-fi connected hardware won't achieve maximum speeds due to interference and loss of signal when some distance from the hub.

Here's the best so far:

The only downside, so far, is the loss of the Virgin email address, I've gone to Google Gmail (which should avoid any problems if our Internet Provider should change in the future).

Our Very Own Earthquake!!

Having my breakfast this morning in the conservatory around 09:50 hrs and there was a sudden tremble accompanied by a slight rumble and the orchid in a plant pot opposite shook like it was caught in a sudden window draught.  My Better Half looked towards me, somewhat concerned, and exclaimed "What was that??"
I calmly explained that it probably was an earthquake tremor, having experienced one a year or two earlier in the middle of the night (of wardrobe shaking proportions).  Although I only noticed the plant shaking and a cracking noise from the conservatory frame, like we get in gale force winds, she had felt her chair tremble and a strange rumble sound.
The wonderful thing about the Internet is the instant data availability, so later, after a morning walk, I inspected the British Geological Survey site

and Lo!!

It seems the tremor was very local - 1.7 on the Richter Scale.

Co-ordinates from table above

Our very own Earthquake!