Open Wide....

Went to the dentist today. I had to fill in a new form. Apparently my dental practice has spent up all the money that the Health Service gave them last year, and is now running on empty until April. This means that yours truly has now had his teeth privatised. I had to sign up to say that I would pay for my treatment.

There were three prices on the piece of paper, fifteen quid, forty three quid and one hundred and ninety quid. "Don't worry about those" said the nurse airily. "We'll decide which one to use later". 

There is only one thing that scares me more than someone poking around in my mouth with bent metal and drills, and that is having to pay around half the price of a PS/3 for the privilege.

Anyhoo, apparently my teeth are OK at the moment so it was the lowest price for me today. My teeth are a pretty horrible colour but apparently quite hard wearing. And I'm going to brush them very carefully from now on...

Go See Hot Fuzz

Hang on a minute. Let's see if I can find the right font. Ah. There it is.

Go See Hot Fuzz

Go now. Go quickly. You'll thank me. It is brilliant. Best film I've seen this year. Better than Bond (and that is saying something). Funny. Clever. Well made. True to itself.

The film is about a hot shot London copper banished to the sticks for being too efficient. But once he gets out there he finds something very nasty in the woodshed, and the church, and the florists. Gory, scary and funny in turn, it reminds you just how good Simon Pegg is. I'm going to buy the DVD as soon as it comes out. And in the meantime I'm going to re-watch all my Spaced episodes again.

Cheesy Wotsit Challenge

I've been giving the first XNA lectures to students this week. This is actually a world first; the first time ever that XNA has been used to teach C# to first year students in Hull by a tall bloke who needs a haircut.

Anyhoo, it has gone pretty well. I had a few minutes spare at the end of the lecture so I showed the students "Hot Salad Death With Cheese". I've given them the source of the code and offered a bag of Walkers crisps as a prize for the person who produces the best game based on it. If you fancy a go you can pull the files down from here.

Normal Service

For the last couple of weeks the car has been displaying "Service Required" and showing me a little green picture of a spanner. I figured it was trying to tell me something. I checked in the handbook and apparently it needs servicing. So today I took it to my favourite garage and turned them loose on it. I've got it back and the car seems just the same, although the message has gone and I am a couple of hundred pounds poorer.

Questions abound. What would happen if I'd ignored the message?Would the spanner turn red?  If I kept ignoring it, would the text change to "Service Me Now or Die" and the airbag go off? Would the engine management system eventually start making the car run badly and force my hand? Would the GPS, if I had one, tell me that all roads lead to the garage? Did the service just involve turning the message off?

It begins..

I've started a Playstation 3 sinking fund (wonder why it is called a sinking fund?). Anyhoo, item one is here. Next up is my tasteless clock (a timepiece since you asked - nothing to do with my face).