Chris Ford » Everything Else

Peavey Eurosys 3 Pair of Speakers for Sale

Chris — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:25:35 +0000

Pair of BIG speakers for sale, to make so space in my hall. This is there stats.

Power 300w peak, 150w RMS
15″ premium woofer
Dual driver high frequency tweeter
Impedance 8 ohms
Response 65Hz – 18 kHz
Dispersion 60 h x 40 v
SPL: 98 db 1W/1M
2 x 1/4″ Jacks
Convenient carrying handle
Metal stand adapter
Size in mm 640 H x 440 W (295 in rear) x 430 D
Weight 18 Kg

Ideally I’d like to sale these to somebody in or around the Bristol area in the UK as courier prices could be quite high. If your out there and would like to use these for your band, pub, disco or to annoy your neighbours. Please get in touch with me and give me an offer.

General Music S2 Turbo Keyboard for Sale

Chris — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:54:59 +0000

I’m having a clear out of some of my old music stuff so… Is there about out there that would like to buy a GEM s2 Turbo Synth with a flight case? The thing is built like a tank and weights a ton so delivery outside of the UK maybe a problem, ideally I’d like to find a buyer in or around the Bristol area. I realise this maybe a big ask but if your out there, and would like to make me a sensible offer, please get in touch.

Family Tree

Chris — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 21:46:24 +0000

Here’s a link to my family tree which will be useful if you happen to be a distant relative searching the ‘net for family members.

Accidental Open University M255 Revision

Chris — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:33:34 +0000

I’m currently trying to do some revision for my upcoming Open University exam M257 “Putting Java to Work.” To avoid doing this in a doing it sort of way I started making an AtoZ glossary from the various PDF’s to aid my revision attempts. Problem is that half way through completing this I discovered I was using PDF’s for the wrong course, M255 instead of M257. Very annoying! I’ve posted the accidentally half completed M255 course glossary below, as it may help somebody else.

accessor messageAn accessor message is either a getter or a setter message. For example, the messages getPosition( ) and setPosition( ) are accessor messages for the instance variable position held by instances of the Frog class. The getter message getPosition( ) returns the value of the instance variable position, while the setter message setPosition( ) changes the value of position.

accessor message The general term for either a setter or a getter message.

accessor methodA method that implements an accessor message.See getter method and setter method.

argument Extra information supplied with a message. For example, when requesting a Frog object to change its colour to that of another Frog object, it is necessary to provide that other Frog object as an argument. This is seen in the message-send frog1.sameColourAs(frog2). A message can have zero, one or more arguments. There is no argument in the message getColour( ). The message setColour( OUColour.PURPLE) has one argument (namely OUColour.PURPLE) supplying information on which colour is to be chosen. Two arguments (yourAccount and 50) supply information in the message transfer(yourAccount, 50).

assignment statement A statement that tells Java to make a variable reference a particular object or to hold a particular primitive value.

assignment When using objects, assignment is the process which results in the variable on the left-hand side of the assignment operator referencing the object returned by the expression on the right-hand side (this is called assignment using reference semantics). When using values of primitive data types, assignment is the process that results in the variable on the left-hand side containing a copy of the value returned by the right-hand side (this is referred to as assignment using value semantics).

attribute Some property or characteristic of an object,suchas position for Frog objects, or balance for Account objects.

attribute value The current value of an attribute. For example, a Frog object has the attributes colour and position. The attribute colour of a particular object might have the value OUColour.BLUE and the attribute position might have the value 1.

behaviour This term is used to describe the way an object responds to the messages in its protocol.

bytecodeBytecode is the intermediate code produced by the Java compiler.In BlueJ, compilation is done when the Compile button is pressed. This will create a bytecode file, for example Frog.class, from the source code file Frog.java.The bytecode file is portable, because each computer that can run Java programs has a Java Virtual Machine – a program itself – that understands bytecode and converts it into the machine code required for that particular computer.

class A class is a template that serves to describe all instances (objects) of that class. It defines what attributes the objects should have and their protocol – what messages they can respond to.

comment A comment is a piece of text in program code that is ignored when executing the code. In Java multi-line comments are delimited by /* and */. Single line comments are simply preceded by //. A comment can generally be placed anywhere in the code of a class, with the exception of method comments – method comments are placed between /** and */ and must appear immediately before the method header.

compilerA piece of software which first checks that text written in a high-level language is correctly formed. If the check is successful, then the source code is compiled into bytecode.

compound expression An expression built up using other sub-expressions; for example, the following is a compound expression: (3 + 2) * (6 -3)

concatenation The joining of two strings. In Java the string concatenation operator is + (the plus sign). For example, “Milton ” + “Keynes” evaluates to “Milton Keynes”.

constructor A special type of message used to initialise a newly created object.

data hiding This is where an object is treated as a black box, with access to the encapsulated data (the instance variables) being possible only through a limited set of methods, i.e. only an object’s own methods are allowed to access the value of an instance variable (either to change it or return it).

debugging The identification and removal of implementation errors (bugs) from a program.

encapsulation Objects allow you to encapsulate data by incorporating into a single entity (the object) both the data (instance variables) and the behaviour (methods) defined for that data. The concept of encapsulation is very powerful because it allows an efficient division of labour in large software projects. Each team member can work in isolation on one or more classes. The only things that team members need to know about other classes are the names and specifications of the methods.

expression Code that evaluates to a single value. Expressions are formed from variables, operators and messages.

formal argument An identifier used in a method to stand for a value that is passed into the method by a message.

garbage collection The process of destroying objects, which have become unreachable because they are no longer referenced by variables, in order to reclaim their space in memory. In certain programming languages, including Java, this process is automatic.

getter message A message that returns as its message answer the value of one of a receiver’s attributes. See setter message and accessor message.

getter methodAn accessor method whose purpose is to return the value of an instance variable as its message answer.

identifier The name of a variable.

initialisation The state of an object when it is first created depends on its initialisation.

inspector An inspector is a tool used in M255 to look at the internal state of objects in a system. It lists the attributes of an object and displays their current values.

instance An object that belongs to a given class is described as an instance of that class.

instance variable A variable that is common to all the instances of a class but whose value is specific to each instance. Each instance variable either contains a reference to an object or contains a value of some primitive type. For example, Frog objects have the instance variables colour and position. The values of the instance variables of a particular object represent the state of that object.

Instances of the same class have the same attributes, which are initialised in the same way. They have the same instance protocol and respond in the same way to each message.

integrated development environment (IDE)A software tool that supports the construction, compilation and execution of a program. BlueJ is an example of an IDE that supports the development of programs in Java and includes libraries of classes and facilities for debugging and program design.

JavadocA program that comes with Java. The Javadoc program picks up information from specially formatted comments and other parts of the class code such as the constructor and the method headers. These are all used to create an HTML file, which describes the class in a standard way. This description is aimed not at the Java compiler, but at human readers (and possibly the writer of the code at a later date, when he or she might well have forgotten what the methods do).

literal A comprehensible textual representation of a primitive value or object. For example, ‘X’ is a char literal, 4.237 is a double literal and “hello there!” is a String literal.

message A message is a request for an object to do something. The only way to make an object do something is to send it a message. For example, the position of a Frog object changes when it is sent the message left( ) or right( ); to obtain information on the value of a Frog object’s colour attribute, you send it the message getColour( ).

message answer When a message is senttoan object then, depending on what the message is, a message answer may be returned. A message answer is a value or an object; it is not a message. Sometimes a message answer is used, sometimes it is ignored. A message answer may be used subsequently as the receiver or argument of another message. Enquiry messages (getter messages) often return the value of an attribute, as with the message getColour( ), which returns a value such as OUColour.GREEN.

message expression A message-send which evaluates to a value, i.e. the message returns an answer.

message name The name of a message does not include any arguments. For example, the name of the message left( ) is left( ), and the name of the message upBy(6) is upBy( ).

message-send The code that sends a message to an object – for example, frog1.right( ), which consists of the receiver followed by a full stop and then the message.

method body That part of a method enclosed by braces that follows the method header.

method headerA method header consists of an access modifier (e.g. public), a return value (e.g. int or void) and a name (e.g. setPosition) followed by the formal argument names enclosed in parentheses (e.g. (int aNumber)). For example, the method header for a method whose name is setPosition( ) is public void setPosition(int aNumber).

method invocation At run-time, selecting and executing a method when an object receives a message.

method signatureThe name of the method together with the parentheses and the types of any arguments. For example, the signature for the setPosition( ) method in the Frog class is setPosition(int).

method The code that is invoked by the Java Virtual Machine at run-time when an object receives a message.

new An operator used to create an object – used in conjunction with a constructor.

object An object is a software component that has a unique identity and responds to messages. Each object has state and responds to a particular set of messages (its protocol). Thus a Frog object (which has little resemblance to a real-world frog) holds information on its position and colour as values of its attributes position and colour.

object-state diagram An object-state diagram represents an object. It shows the class of the object, its state in terms of attribute values, and its protocol.

parameter A synonym for argument.

polymorphism Any message to which objects of more than one class can respond is said to be polymorphic or to show polymorphism. For example, both Toad and Frog objects respond to the message left( ), but with different behaviours. They also respond to the message green( ), with identical behaviours.

primitive data typeA set of values together with operations that can be performed on them. The primitive data types in Java provide a set of basic building blocks from which all the more complex types of data can be built. There are three categories of primitive data type: numbers, characters and Booleans.

private An access modifier. It tells the Java compiler that the only objects that have access are the object to which it belongs and other objects of the same class.

protocol The set of messages an object can respond to (understands).

pseudo-variable A special undeclared variable, visible within a method or constructor, that cannot be changed by assignment. Java has two such variables – this and super.

public An access modifier. It tells the Java compiler that all objects have access.

receiver The object to which a message is sent.

reference semantics The situation whereby a variable holds the address of an object, rather than a value.A reference type variable on the left-hand side of an assignment statement always ends up referring to the object on the right-hand side (cf. value semantics).

reference type variable A variable declared to reference an object of the declared or compatible type.

sequence diagram A diagram that depicts the interactions between objects, in the form of messages and message answers.

setter message A message that sets the value of one of a receiver’s attributes. See getter message and accessor message.

setter methodAn accessor method whose purpose is to assign a new value to an instance variable. The new value is determined by the single argument of the method.

signature See method signature.

state The values of the attributes of an object constitute its state. The state of an object can vary over time as the values of its attributes change.

statementA statement represents a single instruction for the compiler or interpreter to translate into bytecode. In Java a statement must always end with a semicolon.

subclass A subclass is a new class defined in terms of an existing class (its superclass). Instances of a subclass have all the attributes that instances of the superclass have, but may have additional attributes. The protocol of the subclass includes (has at least all the messages of) the protocol of the superclass, but may define additional messages. For example, HoverFrog is a subclass of Frog. The protocol of HoverFrog objects includes that of Frog objects and has, in addition, the messages upBy( ) and downBy( ) to which Frog objects cannot respond. HoverFrog objects have all the attributes of Frog objects (colour and position) and an additional attribute – height.

superclass If Bisa subclass of A, then A is the superclass of B.

syntax The structure of statements in a given language.

this A pseudo-variable used within a method to reference the receiver of the message that activated the method.

value semantics The situation in which a variable holds a value, of some primitive data type.A value type variable on the left-hand side of an assignment statement always ends up holding a copy of the value on the right-hand side (cf. reference semantics).

value type variable A variable declared to hold a value of the declared or compatible primitive type.

variable A named ‘chunk’ or block of the computer’s memory which can hold either a value of some primitive type or the address (reference) of an object.

variable reference diagram A diagram showing a reference type variable pointing to a representation of an object with the current values of its attributes.

iMac screen problem

Chris — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:10:32 +0000

This is my late 2006 model 17″ iMac with at the time of writing is two and a half years old.

As you can see a vertical pink line has appeared top to bottom on my screen and I can’t get rid of it. After realising that it wasn’t going away my first thought that it was going to be really expensive to fix . My second thought was to google the problem, see if anybody else had the same issue and how much a new screen was going to cost.

It didn’t take long to find that this is quite a big problem and that apple support / genius bars were pretty useless if like me, you didn’t have Applecare, Apples expensive extended warranty program. I found that some owners of iMacs with serial numbers starting with W860… and ending with …U2N were getting some luck and receiving free repairs. Unfortunately my iMac wasn’t in that range of serial numbers.

I called Apple and explained the problem expecting to be told that my repair would cost several hundred pounds. I was ready to politely fight my corner and explain that I though it was a common fault and that I shouldn’t have to pay etc…

However… The guy at Apple was really good to me. He took a few details, made me reboot the mac etc… then put me on hold for about 2 mins. He came back with a reference number and told me that it would be fixed for free at an Apple retail store or approved Apple service centre. There’s an Apple store roughly 3 miles away so I’m taking it there for my free repair this weekend.

I’ll update if I have any problems.

Fix: CPU is unworkable or has been changed.

Chris — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:17:44 +0000

Today I fixed a friends computer that was suddenly displaying the message “CPU is unworkable or has been changed” at boot time and performing very slowly. After running one of my diagnostic tools I found that the CPU, an AMD athon 2800+ was running at a speed of 1.25Ghz. The processor should normally run at just over 2.00Ghz.

The solution was to enter the BIOS and reset the front side bus number. Which for some reason was suddenly 100 with a multiplier of 12.5 (100 X 12.5 = 12500). When I changed the FSB to 166 it starting working as normal again (166 X 12.5 = 2075).

Other people called Chris Ford

Chris — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:04:06 +0000

There are a lot of Chris Fords in the world that aren’t me. Here’s a list of a few of them.

Christopher Joseph Ford (born January 11, 1949 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA) is a former professional basketball player and head coach.

Christopher Paul Ford is an American martial artist and film actor known for his role as Dennis in The Karate Kid, Part III.

Dr Chris Ford, Reader in Quantum Electronics at the Semiconductor Physics Group, Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge.

Chris Ford, Singer song writer and owner of www.chrisford.co.uk

People called Chris Ford on social networks, as of 30th of Jan 2009…

MySpace – 118 profiles

Facebook – 38 profiles

Friendster – 34 profiles

ZoomInfo – 25 profiles

Spaces – 21 profiles

Linkedin – 13 profiles

Hi5 – 10 profiles

Yahoo – 9 profiles

Bebo – 3 profiles

IMDB – 2 profiles

Red Dwarf is coming back to earth

Chris — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:47:31 +0000

The TV series Red Dwarf is coming back with a couple of specials written by Doug Naylor. One will be called ‘Last Human’ in which Lister is set to get back to earth after being away for more than 6 million years. Doug Naylor in 1995 wrote a Red Dwarf novel called Last Human in which Dave Lister and Kristine Kochanski get back to an earth like planet. I expect it to have similar themes if the budget stretches to the filming of gestalt entities and domed cybernetic prison lakes with no gravity…

The below is taken from www.digitalspy.co.uk:

The Red Dwarf crew will be returning to Earth when the cult sci-fi show returns to TV later this year. Red Dwarf: Return To Earth will reportedly see last human Dave Lister (Craig Charles) achieve his life-long goal of touching down on his home planet. The two-part special, which has been commissioned by digital channel Dave, will reunite original cast members Charles, Danny John-Jules, Chris Barrie and Robert Llewellyn one decade after the iconic comedy ended. Speaking to The Sun, Barrie confirmed the plot, saying: “Yes, Lister’s dream is about to come true. But like everything in Red Dwarf, nothing is straightforward.” Written and directed by Red Dwarf creator Doug Naylor, the special episodes will kick off a special Easter weekend of Red Dwarf on Dave. Return To Earth will be followed by Red Dwarf: Unplugged, which has been described as a “no holds barred” episode with no sets, no effects and no autocue. The weekend will close with Red Dwarf: The Making Of Back To Earth, which will give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the new production. The programme ran from 1988 until 1999, winning numerous awards including an international Emmy. It has sold more than seven million DVDs and videos across the world and at its peak, pulled in eight million viewers.

Internet Lessons

Chris — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:37:51 +0000

This is a list of websites and some tips for simple use of the internet that I made to use when I give my Gran her first internet lesson. This may be useful for someone else teaching a grandparent that lives in the UK about the internet.

Lesson 1. Google.

Google is your friend.

Google is currently the best internet search site. You can get to Google by browsing to at www.google.co.uk or www.google.com
To find information on a subject type keywords or a question into the box then click Google search. Google will then look at over a 1 trillion websites that it knows about and give you a list of websites that it thinks have the answer.
www.google.co.uk/maps Google can show maps and satellite pictures for the whole planet it can also be used to find directions and search for businesses near a location.
www.google.co.uk/newsGoogle collects the news from all over the internet you can also search for a news story.
Google can be used as a calculator and measurement converter. For example if you search for (2 metres in feet) Google itself tells you 2 meters = 6.56167979 feet.
Google can be used to find the weather. Just search for (weather bristol uk) and it will show a 4 day forecast with links to other websites.

Lesson 2. Shopping.

Millions of shops online but these are some good ones.

www.amazon.co.uk - Sells nearly everything expect food. Cheap with good customer service. Also lets other people sells second hand items at discount prices through there site. Adds on a delivery charge if total is less than around £15.
www.argos.co.uk - Lets you stock check and reserve items to get later in store. Can also get items home delivered for a price.
www.play.com – Sells CD’s, DVD’s, books and gadgets.
www.marksandspencer.com- Sells same items as the store and can return items by post or in-store.
www.tesco.com – Get your food shopping delivered.
www.ebay.co.uk – Auction website, you can find great bargains here but be wary of sending large amounts of money to strangers.
www.lastminute.com – For cheap holidays, hotels, theatre tickets, flights etc..

Lesson 3. Other websites

www.bbc.co.uk – Has news, recipes, gardening tips, health advice, program information, recorded radio shows for the last week.
www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders - Her favourite program.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer – Watch or listen the last 7 days of BBC TV and Radio.
www.wikipedia.org– Online free encyclopedia with nearly 3 million entries.
www.thisisbristol.co.uk – Read the evening post newspaper without buying it.
www.direct.gov.uk – The governments main website. Here you can get a new passport, Renew car tax, find out about benefits etc…
www.nhs.uk – For looking up names of illnesses, what to do if…
www.yell.co.uk– Yellow pages on the internet.
www.facebook.com– Social networking site. (Might be to involved for my Gran, worth showing her though.)
www.flickr.com – Photo sharing website.
www.yahoo.com– Another internet search engine.
www.youtube.com – View video clips.
www.southglos.gov.uk – Local councils website. Pay council tax, rubbish collection details, swimming time tables, order / renew library books.
www.tvguide.co.uk– tv guide
www.last.fm– Custom made radio station. Give it the name of an artist. Matt monroe for example and last.fm will play music by matt monroe and similar artists until you tell it to stop.
www.imdb.com – Internet movie database, find out what films people have been in.
www.howstuffworks.com - Self explanatory.
www.westerncounties.org.uk/aircraft_activity/ – A list of what the local police helicopter has been doing for the last 7 days.

A short history of nearly everything

Chris — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:08:54 +0000

I love this book. A short history of nearly everything, isn’t really about everything but a history of science told in away that makes it really interesting to the reader. The author wrote this book because during a plane flight he looked down at the sea and wondered why the sea was salty and why he didn’t know the answer. In fact, it dawned on him that “I didn’t know the first thing about the only planet I was ever going to live on”. The questions multiplied: What is a quark? How can anybody know how much the Earth weighs? How can astrophysicists (or whoever) claim to describe what happened in the first gazillionth of a nanosecond after the Big Bang? Why can’t earthquakes be predicted? What makes evolution more plausible than any other theory? In the end, all these boiled down to a single question–how do scientists do science? To this subject Bryson devoted three years of his life, reading books and journals and pestering the people who know (or at least argue about it); and we non-scientists should be pretty grateful to him for passing his findings on to us.