The Writings of Tom Haines

New Blog Started - Cartmco & MMC Ltd's Gadgets 'N' Technology Journal

2006-12-14T12:34:00.000Z

Hi everybody, you might guess that I don't update this very often, well I have started another blog for our business that I hope will get updated allot more often.

For now I'm gonna abandon this ship!!!

See you at: Cartmco & Media Main. Co.'s Gadg'N'Tech Journal (Web Blog)

2006-10-04T08:02:00.000Z

I've recently got back from Holidaying in Lindos, Rhodes. Myself and friends have been staying in one of the villas I created a promotional website for, which can be viewed here.

Before I left I started a several auctions accross the board to promoted my on-line shop - www.cartmco.com we now have over 4,000 items that are generating much interest everything from Garage/Workshop & Industrial Tools & Equipment to Audio, Visual and Computing Items

All this of course is geniuine and is not a promotional stunt, I am a website designer and would love feedback on improvments to my sites, as for me at the moment I have recently moved house, I've recently moved out of the city into the picturesque English countryside, should add a bit more inspiration for my blog.

2005-07-07T22:26:00.000Z

Mark of Respect in the US on Times Square

What a Day!

2005-07-07T21:19:00.000Z

Well today started off like any other but the terrible attacks on our capital, London were a shocked us all, especially after last weeks Live 8 concert and London winning the Olymics in 2012 (not that I was that interested in that... after all they had to find something to do with the Millenium Dome!). But still the attacks could have been allot worse if it had'nt been for precautions put in place to tackle terrorist attacks and for the calm nature in which most people acted. I also think that judging by the way the attacks we're carried out around London and the number of fatalties (still quite a number, but possibly could have been more) that all didn't go as smooth (or chaotic) as the terroists expected - which is kinda good, I mean no dis-repect by this comment just trying to look on the bright side of things, after all I work in London quite often and could have been so easily caught up in such tragic events, especially as I was due to go with my sister to the Queen concert in Hyde park tommorrow - but thats now been cancelled!

Anyway I did get to see The War of the World tonight and was amazed how good the film actually is (it's not even cheesy!).
Some scenes are almost accurate to the book (if the book was based in 2005 instead of 1899 of course). The martian tripods are amazing and very unearthly, their communication noise they make is more Accurate to how HG Wells discribed it rather than Jeff Wayne. I just feel that the way in which the tripod moves in the film, the black smoke, the heat ray - the way it evaoprates people and the handling machine's is just how H G Well imagined it. Also Tom Cruise is excellent in this film - it's probably the best film he's done. It's definetly Sci-Fi-Horror genre and much better than cheesy Independence Day!

Keep Watching the Skies, You Guys!

GreenDay Rocks!

2005-06-20T23:28:00.000Z

I have to say it because its true! Coldplay are overrated. Lets face it Chris Martin marrying Gwenth Paltrow was a very good PR stunt for a bunch of Muse wannabes.

They were beaten by the Crazy Frog in the UK chart a few weeks back.... shows how over hypered and inaccurate the UK charts are to even consider placing the latest Coldplay track at No 2 and then to place the Crazy frog over it just makes the whole chart idea seem laughable.

Anyway I went to a very good concert last weekend, yep you guessed it 'GreenDay' and they rocked! Only thing was they didn't get around to playing 'When I come Around', but they did managed Basket case, which was great as well as a very extended version of Minority. Great I just wish I could have ended up with Billie Joe's guitar like that 16 old did! (imagine that on eBay!). I did also love their polictal views on President Bush - nice one!

Smaller story I was offered a ticket to see U2 in Manchester City football ground last Wednesday. I grungingly parted with £50!!!!! for that, however it was worth the experience, supporting acts were Idlewilde and Athelete both of which seemed to do a good job. U2 (or Bono and The Edge and lets not forget the drummer and bassist, so you too) were good but their usual-inflated-ego-selfs (Bono started boring me to death with his stupid acting and Live 8 promotion between acts - he kept saying 'we are all equal' - Okay Bono your so equal get off stage then!).
Anyway at least I can say I was there... and 'Sunday, Bloddy, Sunday' is their best song by me.

Anyways I upload some pics from my Phone soon, cheers for now!

You can't take away a King Size Mars Bar!!!!

2005-05-16T15:45:00.000Z

Star Wars face masks have annoyingly been appearing in Toilets all over the place (note the picture was taken quite fast - I didn't want to look like a weirdo in the bog!)

Okay today for me was stuck-in trying to produce an ecommerce website, I did managed to get out and on to site today, I did the regular backup and updates and then came back (well actually I then got stuck on the M32 for half and hour!).
Quite a busy weekend too! I seem to be working more and more days of the weekend recently in order to stay on top of my work load!!

Any way after hearing about that Glazer fellow buying Manchester United (their own fault for turning a football team into a PLC - what do you expect, of course billionaire investors are goinging to want to take over, after all at least the yanks can now confirm they own "MAN-CHEST-TER United".

I came home and turned on the bbc website - I was devistated to find out that Tony Bean's evil imperial forces (which includes the Sun and Mirror empire and the BBC) have got rid of the king size mars bar (why?).
Not just happy with being UK president, Mr Bean's got his eyes on something else now 'a dictatorship'... and just when we've almost achieved a hung parliment... he starts to take over the house of lords.

So whats next....

So far the imperial labour forces have banned (in a vain attempt to cut down the cost of the NHS):

Mickey D's Supersize (So people have to buy 2 big macs now - makes sense)
King Size choclate bars (of course we were all eating 30 of these a day!)
Happy Hour!!!!(great one ban Happy Hour - but open the pubs all night, this way people have to pay more money and get even more drunk!)
Royal Mail trains (great one Mr Bean more traffic on the roads!!)

and etc...

So heres my prediction of the next 'banning' laws pushed through by the imperial forces:

1. Burger King Triples (I did manage to see that stupid 'Super-size me' film what a complete load of irresponsible rubbish!) The Idea: now with both Mickey D and BK slaughtered by the Media you start charging extra VAT on the products.

2. The Drinking Alcohol in Pubs (you can purchase and smell the beer but you can't consume it - the idea: firstly you can explain that alcohol has been the problem with why the NHS is so badly run and funded, then two months down the line you can blame the public for why so many pubs have closed down ands so put up taxes).

3. Reduce the size of any chocolate bar to the 'mini bar' size (this way the manufacturers can make more profit.. and so pay more taxes).

4. Close down the post office, run an even-less effcient website for people (not taking into consideration older people and those without computers or the web) sack all the Post Office staff and force them to work in call centers.
Jam-pack the roads with Royal Mail vans (this way when the media start complaining about the roads, you can blame ordinary people for the mess you've caused and charge them taxes on using their cars!).

Phew...

HHGTTG - My Verdict!

2005-05-11T22:40:00.000Z

"The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy has this to say on bad reviews - forget them!"

I have just been to see the Hitch Hikers film, I've got to say it is worth seeing.
Ok so the begining story is a little fast paced for those with no knowledge of Hitch hikers to under-stand what is going on. However the plot is there and although some jokes have been changed (yes the 42 joke and deep thought has been ruined a little) new jokes including the improbability drive have been welcomed in the new film (it even kinda gives a situation in which you can derive how ford called himself Ford Prefect).
Jokes that weren't in the TV series, that were in the Radio series are also supplied, you even catch glimpses of the Original Marvin - though the new is great!

The real American infulence is a kind of love story, and some explainations are missing - though the book does give you almost as many references as were in the original (what were the critics on about!)

Best of all is the Beginning "so Long and Thanks for all the Fish" song

The film is also open ended for 'The Resturant at the End of the Universe' (next movie perhaps? - Lets hope so!)

Tom's 2005 Music Fest! Stop No 1

2005-05-06T23:47:00.000Z

Kates idea to franchise Barrys dad's pub!! maybe shes spending too much time at work??!!

Tonight I begain the first of my live music tours (yes I'm listening not performing..... believe me you wouldn't want me to perform!) by going to see the 'Australian Pink Floyd Show' in my very own city of Bristol.

I just love the way the Bristol council use the excuse of building the Bristol Arena to cover the crumbiling ruins that is the Colston Hall. Basically the sound in that place is so crap that unless the band brings it's own sound team and equipment, the whole place sounds like it's the inside of a tea cup! I saw a picture of the hall in one of my Grandad's old books of Bristol - it looks exactly the same. Anyway we went for beer at half time (its a required task during any concert - alcohol makes music sound better or makes you relax you enough to fall asleep through any boring concert - though in the Colston Hall that could be quite hard - they've stolen the seats from a 'slient movie' theatre). In order to get beer we were herded like sheep (kinda ironic of the final song before the break) into what basically is the old original Colston Hall threate sounded by scaffolding to 'stop parts falling off' (its been like this now for 4 years) in the middle of the room they have a temporary beer-tent-thingy (or perminant beer tent - thats also been there for 4 years) and so when you enter this room to buy beer, there are no queues - just everyman for himself (I was amazed at the orgnisation in the Cardiff Arena, all you need is a couple of people organising a queue, they did this at Cardiff and I managed to actually get in a record 5 pints (most I've ever had in a concert) - in the Colston Hall you'll lucky to get one! Then you have to neck it becuase '-the-band-is-about-to-go-on-and-the-guy on-the-door-tells-you-that-no-beer-is-to-be-brought-into-the-theatre' - what alload of poo!
Anyway the band where the usual first class performance, and even if you're not a Pink Floyd fan, the visual display is entertaining, I actually recorded some video clips (just a few really cool guitar rifts) I have since manged to download them to my computer (using my bluetooth adapter) and convert them from *.3gp to *.avi using
a 3GP convertor produced by a company called MKSOFT.

Lastly...... Thanks Aaron for the post, you'll right as usual I should go and see the HHGTTG film (beside I like the way they've kept the radio original music that was also created by Douglas Adams).

Anyway next stop is Milton Keynes for Green day (I See you raise an eyebrow) - but that ain't until next month. I'll post something before then! (I Hope!)

Belgium man... Belgum!

2005-05-04T23:04:00.000Z

I was quite excited at the prospect of a new hitch hikers film... but the reviews are quite bad. Admittley some fans of the books and radio series quite like it but refer to it as 'Hollywoodised' apparently even the book has less time on screen (probably to make way for Sam Rockwell who according to American reviews is the only thing that keep the film going..... of course Martin Freeman being British should have been cast as a 'bad guy').
Its quite possible (judging by 'Rottentomatoes.com' - basically gives a bad review to most good films) that the bad reviews have been put around by people (who probably know nothing about the original radio series) who have gone to watch this film either expecting it to be a serious SCIFI (like the people who expect Dr Who to be taken seriously) or those expecting it the be a comedy to resemble the Scary Movie trilogy (slap stick humour with no real intelligence).

Should I stay... or should I go see it.... the decision is mine.

Anyway got myself I new phone last week, a Samsung SGH-D500 (refered on the advert as 'the business man's phone' - it amazing how many non business people have bought it since!). It got all the little luxturies - Camera, MP3 player, Bluetooth and IRDA technologies, etc - it's also allot smaller and more usable than my previous Panasonic GD70 (that has lasted me nearly 2 years). It even came with a micro speaker that plugs in the side so you can hear MP3's better!! (oh joy! technology for technology sake!).

I also spent the bank holiday putting down a woodern floor in my hall to match that in my front room and dining room. Next I'm going to buy a spanking new Kitchen so I can buy one of those huge American fridges with an ice cube dispenser on the front (I'm actually buying it for the ice cube dispenser and nothing else!).

I also made an attempt at cutting my grass in the garden with an old flymo I found in the shed (the previous owner had obviously run over the cable with the mower at somepoint and stuck the wires back together with tape) anyway deciding this was too dangerous my neighbour made a suggestion 'Why don't you use mine?'
Sounded like a good idea at first.... but now I seem to own it (it seems he been trying to get rid of it, probably had it in the trade it for 6 months then decides "I'll fob it off an that young kiddie nextdoor!"). Anyway it's actually quite a good mower - quite new as well and it seems to have made certain parts of my garden 'habitable' - next thing 'where to I build the hot tub and pool room??'

Team America is Real!!

2005-04-25T14:45:00.000Z

Whilst looking at the BBC website today, I read on article on the damage and looting of Iraqi museums.... when you get towards the end of the article you discover what the Americans have done to ancient Babylon and other relics..... very Team America!

View the page at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4461755.stm

"I'll Kill those Cockroaches!!"

2005-04-22T23:03:00.000Z

Cool, I 've just found out, Scarface the game is being released at the end of this year and all the original cast are reuniting to do the voices - lets hope they don't plan a remake (remember the Italian Job!!???!!)

Look at it here: http://www.gamers.com

"You wanna a job Ernie?"

I Can't believe that I've lost a week!

2005-04-22T11:09:00.000Z

The past two weeks have been so busy... and there does not seem to be an end to the work load! However we did manage to get a pretty nice looking mini server unit in which the server and KVM unit have been mounted. I have added an old 'BT' router to the unit which means we now have a seperate network in the roof independently of the corporate. I have named the unit 'Barney' as it effectively works as a 24-7 providing information via information sites to corporate users, so effectively it's a 'mechnical engineer!'

Pete the engineer has just been up trying to freak me out by telling me ghost stories about the roof plant room where I am writing this at the moment. Aparently people get wierd vibes up here but it seems to happen after much of the machine has shut down at 12:00 am, personally I think they just get too used to all the noise up here, mind you it could all be a wind up on Pete by one of the other engineers, afterall he spends the most time up here after hours!

I also managed to see a preview of the forth coming Dr Who episode with the Daleks, it was pretty funny seeing how they we're going to make the Daleks effective, though the most funny part was when the Dalek propelled himself up the stairs via a thruster underneath it's very 50s chassis.

Going to the Mall now anyway to buy 'Casino' and get a Starbucks coffee along the way!

Its Frrrrrr.....day again!!!

2005-04-15T21:41:00.000Z

Wow, what a film! I started watching Donnie Brasco, thursday night on C4, but had to turn off ( due to being up early for work!). So I walk in to HMV today and.. surprise, surprise there it is on offer at the front of the store (I believe there is a conspiracy with TV networks and the release on DVDs... it's true... almost everytime a film I haven't seen for ages is shown on terrestrial or cable tv, it appears on dvd is week after).

Donnie Brasco, to me is a mix of God father pt 2 meets Goodfellas meets Once upon a time in America (with a slight touch of 'the untouchables'). A movie that upholds my opinon of why Al Pacino is a great actor (believe me I used to think Al Pacino was a pretty poor actor after watching films like 'Heat and seeing De Niro in 'Ronin'). The film takes place in a time period between Carlito's way and Scarface (or for godfather fans - between Godfather part 2 and God Father Part 3) about an undercover FBI agent who manages to gain confidence of a Lefty Ruggiero (a hit for one of the Mafia Families) and vouches for him in the mob. A Recommended film ,filmed using almost techniques as we're used in the Godfather (including the camera quality). Put it to a vote now, I'd say Al Pacino out ranks Robert De Niro on a movie of this genre anyday! (But thats my opinion)

I can now see where most of the ideas come from in GTA3 - Vice City, I can also see that the character - tommy vercetti - come from ( an obivous mix between Tony Montana, Henry Hill and Donnie Brasco) Wonder what will be in the next GTA?

Today at work, in reception they were doing a promotion on Star War Episode 3, you know they were actually ask employees if they wanted to dress up! (yes I know!)
The aim was that you dresseds dath vader, a storm trooper or a Jedi and you got your photo taken... well any way I have since managed to nab some Inflatable light sabers (even if I do hate Starwars!) wooooheey!

101 Uses for an old Compaq Proliant!

2005-04-13T18:17:00.000Z

No 1 - A pretty trendly looking coffee table! Just making fun of an old server I have re-conditioned to host a technical support website for company users. The machine speed is adaquate & I have managed to obtain several 9.1 gb ultra wide SCSI drives which should provide all that is required for a website with linked database. They were handing out inflatable light sabers yesterday (celebrating the new star wars movie - lets hope it's better than - Star Wars: Episode 2: Send in the Clowns ), I was trying to get hold of two for up in my office, would have been fun. Anyway I think the lead in the roof is starting to get to me, I'll keep you updated......

The eve of war

2005-04-10T20:41:00.000Z

Well, sort of in a way the weekened has been eventful....
I have purchased a Belkin 80211 g Portable USB NIC which I am still finding a little tricky to configure, but I'm now sure it is my router that needs reseting, as I can view now all machines on the network.

Today (Sunday) I have setup properly, and mounted speakers of my old Sony Stereo system in my back bedroom. This combined with my other equipment (TV, DVD Video Combo, and Philips Cable TV Sender) means I now have a A V system to watch movies upstairs. Could be useful... if you know what I mean ;)

Also something of interest, I have been following the new Steven Speliberg version of 'War of the Worlds' and have discovered that a small UK production company called Pendragon, have produced another version more accurate to the HG Wells book.

Cheese Alert!: What I have seen from the site is a very bad trailer, all the actors seem to be all overacting (Yes even worse then Neighbours acting), the computer graphics are very amturish and settings seem like they were all filmed in someone's garden, but hey what do you expect from such a low budget? At least they had the guts to take on Hollywood!

View it here at: http://www.pendragonpictures.com

Tom in his Magician's Workshop!

2005-04-06T21:40:00.000Z

Tom looking like a moron at the end of another hard day!

Yes behind you will see the interior of my well decorated, comfortable, and spacious office - in case you didn't notice (oh the sarcasm) it's a plant room! My work computer sits in a plant room! Thankfully somebody remembered to add a door that very kindly opens on to the building ventaltion fans for when ever I need fresh air (or bird flu!). Well lat least there isn't any asbestos (I hope!) and I quite often hit my head on the sloping roof panels (which is why I looked constantly concussed (see the photo above). The floor below has a coffee & Snack machine - so at least I can survive (even with the blackouts!). This photo mistakenly was taken at 5:55pm on a Wednesday afternoon and if you look closely you will notice that I am performing a highly dangerous magic trick - protruding from my mouth isn't in fact my tongue - its my heart! - bring on Ripley's believe it or not!

2005-04-05T08:11:00.000Z

Me outside of Cheers, Boston, MA, USA

This picture was taken in 2003 as I merliy made my down those famous steps to a place 'where everybody knows your name' or as the bar man joked 'where everybody knows your name, so long as you aren't British!!'.
The reason for this picture being uploaded is so I can use it on my profile... and by the way this was before the Samuel Adams!

Hi everbody!

2005-04-05T07:05:00.000Z

Yes this is my web blog! I get the impression that Aaron will cringe when he reads any comments from here (by the way Aaron check out my comment about Kate's photo (he he) on your blog). Anyway at least I can now keep people-with-nothing-better-to-do up to date with my antics from sunny Bristol, England or wherever I may have been posted (Darlington, Plyouth, London, etc.)

Enjoy!