There’s not that much to see to be honest, how interesting can an office be? However, if you’d like to help celebrate this occasion it’d be great to see you.

Please drop by any time between 6:30pm and 7:30pm for a glass of something and a snack or two followed by a couple of ales in the pub over the road.

Location: 240A Fleet Road, Fleet, GU51 4BX
Google map (Above the ageuk charity shop)
Time & Date: 18:30 – 19:30 Tuesday, September 14th 2010
Followed by: More drinks in Propaganda if you’re up for it.
(If you can’t make it between 18:30 and 19:30 come
to the pub and I’ll give you a personal show-round.)

It was a dry start and the YMCC team arrived promptly and without orchestration got to work on the preparation. Just before 10am it started to rain (only lightly I might add) but luckily we had just finished putting up the 2nd gazebo. Guests started arriving in unison with the rain but the team re-assured them we would continue with the day unless it became a down-pour. Everybody was happy with this decision. Luckily it soon stopped raining and those small showers we had later were not even noticed, as everybody (including the Mums and Dads) was having far too much fun.

So onto the day itself. Following an introduction to the club, brief history and general welcome Ian Finch, the club chairman handed over to me to kick the days proceedings off. The new Tamiya Mini’s were then brought out and lined up on the pit tables, transponders were installed and a race number placed on the windscreen – They looked awesome with their vibrantly coloured bodies. We started with a track walk for all the Junior Racers where I talked them through the basics of RC Racing and gave some hints and tips about the tracks more difficult off-camber corners. We finished up walking the best line, hitting the ‘apex’ on every corner. While this was going on the YMMC team made final tweaks and prepped the cars ready for their first outings. Meanwhile Race control was frantically busy with the computer being set-up to accommodate this unique event and a battery station created whereby all the stick packs would be charged. Everybody was now ready!

Then it was time for teams and practice runs. There were 3 teams in total which consisted of either 4 or 5 racers. Once in their teams and given an overview of the car and controller by the team managers and engineers (YMCC Team) each racer was then taken to the rostrum to have a practice run of 2 laps. This gave everybody a chance to try the car and get the feel of RC Racing before the all important heats and even more important finals. From the off a few drivers caught the eye of many and it was clear that racing was going to very competitive. Not only that, but the cars looked in great shape being very robust and quick/easy to work on.

So then it was time for the first of 2 rounds of 3 heats. The best of the two heats would be used to determine the grids for the finals. There was some great driving throughout the qualifiers and we saw over two thirds of the drivers improve in their second run. It was great to see the progress being made especially by those that had never even driven an RC car before.

Next it was time for another track walk, but this time we stopped at the start/finish line and looked back at the grid. We talked about how and when to start and what cars would be on what position. I was then bombarded with some of the toughest RC related questions I had ever been asked – one thing was clear, they were all competitive and all wanted to get back on the sticks!

Then after a short break so the team could clean and prep the cars for the finals we were ready to go again. Everybody drove brilliantly in the finals and the gathered crowds snapped away on cameras or filmed the action whilst encouraging the drivers on. Every driver finished every race and we got to see some great close racing. The smiles on everybody’s faces (including the YMCC team) as they came down the rostrum stairs were the evidence that a good time was had by all. After the last driver was down and all the drivers had received their stickers and raffle ticket we then showcased a 1/10th scale electric touring car driven by one of our most experienced drivers Ashley. Seeing jaws drop as the car literally flew around the track was great and everybody thoroughly enjoyed the demonstration.

Ian Finch then presented the first 3 drivers in each final with a great prize while ‘Blink’ captured the moments. Next up was the raffle and some awesome prizes were given out including a brand new RC car. Final words were then shared and we closed with the YMCC team receiving a round of applause from the parents and racers.

Oh and I almost forgot to say – Thanks to all the Mums & Dads and YMCC Members for helping out with the marshalling on the day – you all did a great job…!

YMCC wishes to thanks the sponsors for this great event: Apex Models, Gamespod, MuchMore UK.

Click here to take a look at all the photos from the day
Click here to see the results

Finishing 1st in the first qualifier after some frantic setup changes to help rectify my tail happy TC, which was as much of a shock to me as it was to the others on my heat. I met Stuart for the first time after this race as he pointed out that my car was ‘out of tweak’ so a little assistance to rectify this issue saw a good result in the second heat, although my batteries dumped I would have been on target to win that qualifier too. Stuart lent me a set of Lipo batteries to see how these compared to my second hand Nimh’s. Wow! Amazing, such a difference a decent set of cells make. I managed to qualify 1st again! This placed me in the B final in 4th place! Not too shabby for my first go!

During the 1st final I clipped a barrier and my steering arm popped off and lost me 30 seconds. I ended up finishing 3rd behind Giles and Elliott. A bit gutted as I was chasing Elliott a treat until my little ‘off’. Then the second final and starting in third place on the grid, I had a great start and followed Elliott and Giles for a good portion of the race, Elliott passed Giles, and a couple of laps later tipped a corner and lost his lead to me and Giles. I was chasing Giles down and eventually I managed to take a nice tight line onto turn 2 and passed with no contact. I then managed to gain a nice advantage. With about 3 laps to go my new Lipo’s decided to dump on me as I’d not had the time to fully charge them beforehand. I was totally on target for a 1st place in the B final on my first time racing a 10th scale touring car at Newbury!

I’d like to thank all the guys at Newbury for helping me to setup my car and a big thanks to Stuart who let me borrow a spare Lipo and set the ‘tweak’ early on in the meeting. Also to Tim and Matt for helping me with my setup.

Iain on the other hand had a foul night of ‘engineering central’, so the less said about that the better.

Really looking forward to Brett Welch talk about marketing for start-ups and Mark Boulton on design and frontend goodness.  I’ve seen Drew McLellan and Elliot Jay Stocks before at Oxford Geek Nights and thought that both talks were great, especially Drew’s ability to use old school childrens programs as a metaphore for current web topics.

I’m not too sure who I’ll know at the event, we will meet up with Ben and Brett from FHOKE at some point and I expect to bump into others that I’ve spent time with at recent barcamps.

It’s been a little while since we decided to go to FOWD and we’ve been chatting about it on and off for a while. Now that it’s tomorrow we’re almost ready.  Rob has managed to arrange accommodation for us in Canary Wharf with a friend, so that’s awesome! (Thanks Sheena)

Looking forward to the FOWD experience.!

Variety is the spice of life, or so I’ve been told.  After building the fencing with my neighbour, the spring weather finally arriving, continuing to develop my ecommerce shop Bytemart, my decision to start a new hobby of 12th scale radio control car racing, attending and speaking at another conference (Barcamp Bournemouth) and the pending bathroom replacement I reckon there’s much more value in doing these things alongside my ‘specialty’ of Freelance Website Designer.

I spend most of my days building websites and consulting on different aspects of the internet for my clients and occasionally contracting as a Frontend Web Developer.  I am rather privileged to find myself in this situation of being able to please myself by adding value to my life on a daily basis.  As an example, I love to cook.  This stimulates my creativity and gives me pleasure not only in the consumption but on the thought that I’ve been able to please others too.

To this end I’ve decided to change my job title to ‘handyman’ I feel that it will allow me to pick and choose what I do each and every day, maybe it will be a talking point when I hand out my business cards to perspective cilents.  The idea being that I’m willing to take on a challenge of any type.  So, if you need a creative handyman then I’m available for hire!  Feel free to get in contact if you’d like a helping hand with your current challenge.

Last year I attended BathCamp which was a superb event. I got a lot from it and hopefully gave a little to the other attendees too with our ‘double act’ talk on Stu’s sfImageTransformPlugin for Symfony.

As with most barcampers (the ones that don’t do public speaking), it’s a struggle to think of a topic for your own talk. At this point in time my main idea is to discuss with a group in an open forum style about freelancing, titled “How do YOU freelance?”.

Hopefully it will be popular enough as I’d like to have a few well established freelancers and a bunch of people thinking about taking the plunge and going freelance to ask questions and discuss answers.

The Wellington Inn

A great finish to the week mainly spend hauled up in the office taking product photographs for the new Bytemart website.

After a cup of tea and some Weetabix I was in a quandary, so I began by tweeting:-
http://twitter.com/andij/status/1008065628

The other night I installed the Ocarina iPhone instrument. It looked like a bit of fun after @ColinMacD sent over this YouTube vid.

This morning I decided to ‘have a go’. Seeing as I have little knowledge of playing an iPhone! I dug out of the back of my mind the easiest tune I can remember playing as a child on my first keyboard.

So, reading the ‘how to play’ and looking at the Ocarina forum I jotted down a rough score and had a practice.

After a little refinement I had a crack at writing the score on the Smule Ocarina Score website, once that was done a quick post to the forum was done so that I could share my simple work.

After that I undertook to record the aforementioned tune. I downloaded Audacity and the Lame MP3 Encoder to enable me to create the necessary recording and give me the ability to edit it too.

I set about using my Skype headset as a microphone and plugging the iPhone into my speakers and sighting the Skype headset nearby to achieve a decent recording level. A bit crude I’d agree but it gave me the desired result. I then began to practice the tune and record at the same time, after a few attempts I ‘nailed it’! Cleaned it up a little using Audacity, saved it as an MP3 entered data into the ID3 tags and WHPAM; a recording of Oh When the Saints go Marching in by Drew Jones.

After a spot of lunch (ham and cheese) I wanted to do something outside, but as I finished the washing up it decided to rain. So that scuppered those plans : (

Bella - Welsh Collie

We’ve been going for a stroll first thing in the morning along the canal and round the back of Pondtail, all in it’s about an hours stroll, so I try and get back home for 8:30 for breakfast so I can start the day at 9:00.

I’ve tried out Google Chrome, Jailbroken my iPhone, rectified the problems I’ve been having with www.nuevassync.com and sifted through my podcasts so I can listen to the ones I have not yet listened to.

I have also fitted the window stay in the little bedroom, hung the mirror in the hall and the hooks on the back of the kitchen door. Have put some ‘junk’ in the loft and had a think about how I’m going to turn the little bedroom into my office. This is going to require a bit of thinking and planning as I can’t afford to spend mega-bucks on furniture but I need some well fitting sturdy surface to work from including a work bench for hardware.

I was happy to see that it went just over £215! I received an instant payment through PayPal then a phone call from the winning bidder asking about the condition of it and ensuring that I’d package it safely. The following day I duly wrapped and posted it using Royal Mail Special Delivery.

A few days later to my supprise I received an email from PayPal informing me that the payment was under investigation! Then the following day I received another email stating that the case was closed and the payment has been returned to the account holder. I therefor have no iPhone and no money in my paypal account!

It feels like someone has stolen my iPhone.

I can’t believe this has happened I was under the impression that eBay and PayPal had processes in place to ensure that this sort of thing does not happen.

I now have to go through the pain of complaining to PayPal and eBay. It’s come at a totally inconvinient time as I’m far too busy trying to start my freelace venture and to top it off I could really do with the cash.