roysworld: the world according to roy

20 December 2005

Use this application to convert movies from your camcorder into flipbooks. Pretty cool I reckon, just need a linux version; GIMP plugin anyone?

11 November 2005

According to Magic News David Copperfield is "going to impregnate a woman on stage with magic". When Penn Jillette heard this his fantastically bitchy response was "Isn't it sad that's the only way he can think of?". Read the full Penn and Teller interview here

02 November 2005

After Sunday nights final Live show with Derek Acorah, the new series of Most Haunted started last night with new medium Gordon Smith. Now I've heard of him before, he was followed around on the BBC documentary "Mediums: Talking to the Dead" and he has a good reputation in the spiritualist arena. As you know, I don't believe in any of this psychic medium stuff, but he was certainly the most convincing in the documentary. He refers to himself as the 'Psychic Barber' as he began speaking to the dead whilst working at a hairdressers (and I don't just mean the old ladies wanting a blue rinse). In this first episode him and David Wells got on like a house on fire; mincing around some haunted house in Exeter. They were backing each other up rather than competing and reminded me of of an overweight psychic Colin and Justin. Both Gordon and David ended up in some sort of a trance whilst being possessed by a ghost with a long drawn out spooky face (who said Derek has left). Nothing on Bad Psychics about Gordon as yet, but my guess is it's only a matter of time now that his profile has been raised. Move over Derek, there's a new guy in town. If you're interested, Gordon has written a couple of books: Spirit Messenger and The Unbelievable Truth.

30 October 2005

Here are the kids jack-o-lantern's.First Billy's (called Pointee) And Annies (sorry about the blurred image) Happy Halloween!

30 September 2005

I don't know whether to blame myself or her mother.

30 September 2005

Derren Brown has produced an alternative version of his website. It is visually stunning, and in places quite disturbing. It is a pretty interesting way to present a website, and goes against everything usability guys go on and on about. Navigation is particularly unclear, but this gives the whole site an almost game-like quality. Loads of spooky sounds and subliminal images keep popping up all over the place. I really like it. Now go and check it out - NOTE gratuitous use of Flash.

28 September 2005

I've just stumbled across a cool bit of technology called semacodes. A semacode is basically an optical barcode that represents an URL, this allows any semacode reader to scan the card and therefore link to the relevant website. The smart guys at semacode.org have created readers for a number of camera enabled mobile phones, allowing you to take a snap of a semacode and then bring up info from a website. Now here's a smart use of this. Over at semapedia.org they have a goal to connect the internet with the real World by linking together semacodes with wikipedia allowing your cellphone to be a smart travel guide. They need your help to tag the World.Oh and by the way, here's what http://roysworld.co.uk looks like as a semacode, maybe I should get a tshirt printed?

20 September 2005

Derek Acorah's Ghost Town van spotted in Shrewsbury.

15 September 2005

Annie has decided to name her feet. She has called the left one Shi-Shi and the right one Norman. When putting on shoes she asks whether the shoe should go on Shi-Shi or Norman, and I have to say goodnight to them at bedtime. Bonkers.

07 September 2005

So it's official, Derek Acorah is to leave Most Haunted to work on his new series Ghost Towns. I can't say I'm totally surprised. If anyone read the Heat magazine interview with Derek and Yvette Fielding it was pretty obvious that they no longer get on at all, and she wasn't going to leave. I guess this is the end of an era, the show will never be the same again, I just wonder if Derek saw it all coming?

26 August 2005

...is HUNAN at 51 Pimlico Road, SW1W 8NE. Nothing more to say, just thought I'd share it with you.

12 August 2005

I recently bought a Garmin GPS device because I have this great plan to geotag all the photo's I take so that I know where I took them. Up until a couple of days ago though, my use of it had been limited to knowing where I am when cycling and I used it to collect a broken dishwasher (and that's another story).

Then I discovered Geocaching.

I've a feeling that this is going to be a very addictive hobby. Basically it's a high tech treasure hunt. People create a cache, normally an old ammo can or tupperware box, and fill it with a log book, pencil and usually some low value trinkets. They then hide it somewhere cunning, note down the GPS coordinates of it's location, and post them up to geocaching.com. The sport is to discover these caches, write your name in the log book, register your visit on geocaching.com, and then (if you want) swap items out of the box for other things of equal or greater value. Whilst doing this, you need to ensure that 'normal' people (or muggles in geocacher parlance) don't see what you are doing.

Last Wednesday we headed off to find our first geocache. We had great fun doing it, and Billy was really excited at the prospect of discovering hidden treasure. We found the cache in about half an hour - it was an army surplus ammo tin hidden under mossy logs. Inside were all sorts of bits and bobs. We signed, swapped a few items, and concealed the cache for the next seeker and all had a bloody good time.

I would seriously recommend this to anyone who like to walk in the country and has kids. It normally takes a bit of convincing to get out into a boggy field , but he couldn't get his wellies on quick enough when I told him we were going to hunt out hidden treasure. Beg, borrow or steal a GPS device and try it out - you will love it.

05 July 2005

Today Billy is six years old. We had a brilliant morning opening his presents and he then had to go to school. So far the things that made the most impact were a magic set, an anatomy figure (you know with lungs that drop out) and some spiderman stuff.

Last Saturday he had a joint birthday party with the twins James and Steven. We hired out a local pavillion and a childrens entertainer called Esther. She got all the kids dancing, and they had a brilliant time doing the hokey-cokey. He got loads of presents from his friends, went to bed late, and thoroughly enjoyed himself. Annie got chicken pox (but enjoyed the party anyway).

Billy's Favourite Things:
Spiderman, Star Wars, Badminton, Water-Pistols, Duck-Dodgers, Riding on his taggie, Doctor Who.

Interesting Recent Events:
Live8 (on party day), Scientists fired some stuff at a comet (Deep Impact), ID Cards still being discussed, G8 Protests happening.

01 July 2005

According to World Screen News, LivingTv has commissioned two new Derek Acorah hosted shows: "Derek Acorah's Ghost Towns" and "The Quest for Guy Fawkes". Here's what they say about them:

The 8x1-hour Derek Acorah's Ghost Towns will feature psychic Acorah and two co-presenters traveling to towns across the U.K. in their Ghost Truck to investigate paranormal activity.rnThe two-hour special The Quest for Guy Fawkes marks the 400th anniversary of the November 5, 1604 Gunpowder Plot to blow up London's House of Parliament. Acorah, through investigation, mediumship and reconstructions, will attempt to get into the minds of Guy Fawkes and his cohorts to deeper understand their motivations and personalities

29 June 2005

People have been sightseeing on Google Maps and spotted a UFO.



Oh it's just a weather balloon I hear you say. Don't they always say that?
AD26

29 June 2005

Google has just released Google Earth. It is a downloadable application that allows you to fly around the earth looking at places and stuff. It's fantastic, especially in areas where they have the full satellite photos. Hook up to a GPS device and plot where you are in the World! This is seriously brilliant stuff. They need a linux version though...

Some more screenshots:

29 June 2005

Brendan Dawes has modded a usb stick (a nice small usb stick) into an old Atari cart to make a rather fetching massive memory stick. I kinda like it:



Oh and he's also created a hub out of a joystick...

20 June 2005

Saturday nights Dr Who was brilliant;Billy and I sat open mouthed at the whole episode. OK, it did have faults. Frankly the whole Bad Wolf thing was a bit of a let down, and 'Exorcist Rose' exterminating the Daleks was a bit of a cop out too, but the regeneration more than made up for it. I also like the bit when the Dalek appeared at the window, we couldn't hear him, but his lights 'mouthed' exterminate. Brilliant.

I assumed that a lot of the detail went over Billy's head, until I heard him talking through the fence to Ben next door: "Oh, and the TARDIS is a living thing as well as a spaceship, and Rose is Bad Wolf because she looked into the TARDIS. Wolf backwards is Flow, so it's Bad Flow as well as Bad Wolf." Blimey, five year olds really are information sponges.

Roll on the next series.

17 June 2005

Billy and I have been hooked on the new series of Doctor Who. I can't wait to see the last episode tomorrow night. The mystery of 'Badwolf' has been interesting; I have, however, found a picture of the Rose/Dalek DNA combination - so look if you dare.

14 June 2005

I like ginger ale, and now I know how to make it. Roll on the weekend...