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So the postman finally turned up at about 11:30 which meant I could go shower and shop. In retrospect I should have shopped then showered as I would have missed the [thankfully light] rain and I was rather warm when I got back. Anyway, I decided to do a sausage casserole for lunch as I haven’t had one for ages and proceeded to make waaaay too much mash Not sure I’ll be having any dinner tonight.

I also applied for a job today. Should find out pretty soon if they want to interview me as it’s at my old place and they’re fast tracking my application. Was in two minds over applying as it’s a job I can do and looks interesting, but would mean no big payout

Yesterday, during a particularly relaxing piece of lounging around just before heading to Tai Chi I had the crazy idea that perhaps I didn’t need to find a new job. You see, I write applications for investment banks. These applications then go on to allow them to make oodles of money. They, in turn pay me oodles of money (until they go and loose it all on some stupid scheme and fire everyone, but that’s beside the point). Why not cut out the middle man and write applications for myself. In short, why not become an Algo Trader at home?

In theory the whole scheme is disgustingly simple. You take live, realtime market data, run it through a set of algorithms and have the program buy and sell trades for you. Provided the algorithm is sound you make money. Of course the devil is in the detail. How do I get a real time market feed that I can access programatically rather than using someone else’s software? How much does it cost? Do any brokers provide direct access to their trading systems?

I know it can be done in theory, hell, I’ve written large chunks of an Interest Rate Swap electronic trading platform before I just need to find out what it’s like in practice. Anyway, today I’m doing some research into it and hopefully I’ll have some books on the subject arriving tomorrow.

I’ve spent rather a lot of money today, however, some of it was for my camera repair and the rest of it was on a good desk. If I’m going to be spending weeks or months at home working on my own projects and brushing up my skills so I can remain employable I need to have somewhere to work. The current desk I have is hopeless and I invariably end up giving up and working at the dining room table just so I don’t kill my back. Since I’m going to need hard drives, printers and the big monitor dining room table is somewhat out. So, proper desk with adjustable legs on it’s way next week. Coupled with the really nice chair I already have, the 30″ monitor and the fact I’ll be using a Mac and it means that going back into an office is going to be a big step down

I caught sight of myself in the train window this morning while it pulled in and thought ‘hmm, I wonder if I should go blond’. I’m not talking bleached blond here, just a couple of shades lighter so I end up looking something like blokey from Apocalyptica (guy on the left). Anyway, I mulled it over and thought what the hell, why not. So I got out my card for Toni and Guy and was just about to call them when I saw how much it’s going to cost. What with a haircut and all we’re looking well over a ton, possibly a ton fifty and given my current state of poorness* and the need to pay for camera repairs I think I’ll wait until I’m less poor. Of course, feel free to tell my what a wonderfully good/bad idea it is in the mean time.

*poorness is a relative term. Poor for me is when I worry about spending over £100 on something. That said, I am owed some £700 from various places which would help pay for it. Must get onto the electric people and ask them if they can’t give me the £250 I’m in credit (after only a year!). Someone remind me tomorrow. Oh, and if anyone reads this tonight remind me I need to take in some more teabags into work. Text or comment will work (I’ll get an email from a comment and I check email when I wake up).

Last night I dropped my iPhone. It’s been dropped before, but this was onto a tiled floor. Initial inspection showed nothing was wrong so I thought nothing of it… until today.

Today I noticed I wasn’t getting any bleeps or clicks from my phone when the headphones weren’t in, plus it was also do some weirdness of starting to play songs when I plugged the headphones in. Closer inspections showed that the iPhone thought the headphones were plugged in even when they weren’t. Normally this is a simple fix. Plug the headphones in again, then remove them. This didn’t work. So I tried a reboot. This didn’t work. Perhaps a full restore, but I was at work so that would have to wait. To check the speaker I tried ringing the phone (the ringer rings through the speaker and the headphones). It goes to voice mail. Check phone, has signal. Try again. Voice mail. Start to wonder if this has something to do with the phone being dropped. I start thinking of a life before the iPhone. I can’t recall much, just some memory of a dark time. Decided there was no life before iPhone and rumors that there was are being spread by naysayers and non believers. Try phoning office phone from iPhone. That works. Call number back. Phone rings. So, just no sounds when headphones not plugged in. I can live with that.

Get home, offer up a prayer to Google. I am told:

• Plug in and unplug headphones. Done that.
• Restart phone. Done that.
• Try resetting all settings. Oooh, don’t want to do that, would rather do a full restore.
• Do full restore. Right, looks like the way forward.
• Clean out headphone socket. Now there’s something I’ve not tried.

The instructions say ‘cut the fat bit off a q-tip and use that to clean inside the headphone jack’. It also says that the Apple stores use compressed air to clean them. I’ve got Johnson’s cotton bud thingies so I try cutting the fat bit off… and the end falls off (newfangled plastic ones). I cut the other end off carefully. Won’t fit. trim a bit more. Falls off. So I’m left with a small plastic tube… I know, lets try blowing through the tube into the headphone socket. You know what, it only worked

So the iPhone appears to be alive again, I can sleep easy and all is good with the world. Actually, all it not good with the world, but that’s another issue.

What better way to spend a Saturday than walk up to the noodle bar, have lunch, wonder round the castle grounds and Colchester, buy GTA IV, go to the pub, stay there for 4 hours, eat Nandos, come back, drool over CBT and then break out the glowsticks and glow bracelets (one of my friends asked if I could bring her some so I brought… lots :D) and turn the pub into an emporium of glow Even Cat joined in and was wearing a glow bracelet

We also discovered CBT (who, apparently, I need to ask out - we’re working on that) loves glow sticks so I may have spent… er… a lot of money couriering in some glow bracelets for her for next week… and some glow pendents… and some glow necklaces… and some little glow sticks… Look, I have a soft spot for her, leave me alone

Lazy day today, play some GTA IV, possibly go to the Gym, see Iron Man, go to friends for dinner, sleep the sleep of the dead.

Early night tonight (for a Friday) as I’ve got a day long Tai Chi thing in the morning. Little miffed as it turns out the club I wanted to check out tonight hadn’t actually been canceled, but I figured Tai Chi was better for me than going clubbing all night, plus I’m absolutely shattered, I can always club next month and this is not a regular thing for the Tai Chi so if it’s good and I miss out I’ll be really miffed .

Anyway, the good news is my Camera which got borked a while ago isn’t going to cost as much to fix as I thought it was. It was the shutter that went, but it’s only 60 something quid (plus 180 quid labour and VAT, but I knew about that bit) not the $700 (which lets face it, is going to be £700 the way electronics work) which my mate was telling me a new mirror box can cost. Hopefully have it back in a week so I can start taking photos again

Right, theme for Sedition next month is “Fantasies and Fables”. As per previous months I’m getting a tshirt printed specially. So we’re going for:

“There is no happily ever after” [front]
“See?” [back]

However, I am opening up the floor to suggestions. Let’s hear your ideas and, if I like it, your text could be going to sedition on a shiny new tshirt

The shutter mechanism on my hideously expensive camera has started making horrible grinding noises and my camera has (probably very wisely) ceased working. Bit of an arse half way into a photography holiday. My spare [camera] body is hideously old and in Colchester so I’m going to have to downgrade this tons plain old holiday. Pain in the arse really as there are 4 more lots of beasties I wanted to photograph, plus it’s going to put my camera out of action for a couple of weeks and cost me a couple of hundred quid to get the shutter mechanism replaced.

Still, when you consider the load that gets placed on the shutter it’s hardly surprising they only last for a couple of hundred thousand actuations.

OK, so the v-moda vibe duo headphones for the iPhone (at £65ish) look the business, sound great and die after about a month with serious use (I know, I’ve killed 3 pairs already). The mic also sucks a bit, but most inline mics do. Anyway, they can’t turn round the warranty requests fast enough for me to have a working pair at all times and I’ll be buggered if I’m giving them any more of my money.

Lets try Apples in ear offerings. Cheapish (£25), fit the iPhone but lack the mic and button to skip tracks, don’t fit my ears properly (although ironically enough when I replaced the sleeves with ones from the v-moda headphones they fitted a treat, and every time the naff white cable hits or rubs your clothes you hear it in the headphones.

So, next step, Shure do these lovely little adapters that convert bog standard headphones into headphones with a mic that fit the iPhone nicely.  Given I had a set of in ear headphones that could be removed from their lead and plugged into this one and given the adapter costs about £20odd I though I would give it a go. Works a treat, although the mic is a tad on the large side.  Problem was my headphones were £9.99 ones and they lacked the bass response of the v-moda headphones.

Sod it, throw another £70 at Shure and order the SE110’s. The sound is pretty much as good as the v-moda ones although they’re not quite as bassy.  Ordered through the Apple store they should be with me in a few days once they’ve done their grand tour.

Meanwhile I go for a wonder over to a shop that does ipody things near work to go look at an iPod shuffle (wanted to compare it side by side to the iPhone, it’s a bit thinner and wider, but otherwise pretty much the same) and discovered that they had Shure SE310’s priced as Shure SE210’s (they also had SE310’s priced as SE310’s).  Thats £99 instead of £165. I decided to chance it, took the mispriced ones to the till and, when I was told it was £165, turned the box over to show the £99 price tag. I also explained there was more than one set priced at this price. I think the guy must have thought they were 210’s as he said something about them needing the price changed while he changed the amount required to £99. I paid, grabbed my purchase and legged it just as the manager was explaining to the sales assistant that the 210’s weren’t on display so how could they be priced up as 310’s.

When my 110’s arrive I’ll send them straight back. I now have a storming set of headphones that sound better than anything I’ve ever heard before (with the exception of a £20,000 Linn stereo in an acoustically perfect room). Problem is I can now hear when a song has been ripped at lower (or even medium) bit rates. I wonder what the SE530’s sound like. They’ve got 3 speakers per ear and cost £350. Somehow I don’t think I’ll be finding out any time soon.