Picked up a NAD 3020B for £20!

So a few months back, when I had the Quad 306 I kept my eye on eBay for a NAD, I missed my last one and I a massive fan of NAD. Managed to find one for £30 Buy it now, I think that the guy didn’t know what he...

NAD 90 Restoration – Recapping and cleaning.

So, this amplifier was gifted to me recently and I was instantly excited. I’m a fan a huge fan of NAD amps, and this one is an absolute stunner. I was instantly excited as it was already in a ‘working’ order and was ready to go.  As always the first thing I...

Film it Yourself

This project was presented to me as multiple photoshop files to be converted into a website from the companies graphic designer. There was no need at the time for the use of a CMS, however there was a short deadline of two days, which was deliverable due to the simplistic structure of the code....

Java – Custom shortener with GUI

This task was something different to before, It required the implementation of a GUI which up-until this point i’d only used Python for GUIs. The task itself was focused on replacing words in sentences with abbreviations loaded from a text file worked into a command line application then implemented into the GUI itself. We...

Restoration of Panasonic SU-2700 Amplifier (also known as Technics SU Z1)

This beautiful little amp was bought off eBay a while ago now, I instantly took to it. It looks great, and surprisingly sounds great too! I’ve never had any experience with any Panasonic / Technics amplifiers in the past, but I’m impressed with this one, offering upto and over 100w per channel...

Col du Tourmalet

So, during the motorbike touring I did in 2012 I stumbled across an amazing road. However little did I know at the time, it’s legendary in the world of cycling. It’s the highest road in the central Pyrenees with its claim to fame mostly owed to the Tour de France. This would have explained...

Winter bike training….

I’ve recently started road cycling, at the moment just as a tool to commute, but I feel it’s time to step it up! I’ve just stopped smoking, and want to feel that I should be pushing myself athletically to counter-act the hours sat behind a computer.. So I went and...

Phew, got a new Quad 306 to replace my NAD just in-time!

Managed to buy this sweet amp a day before I came back to Cardiff. I was apprehensive at first, since I’ve heard that this amp “Is just for old men”… I’m not sure if it’s because the previous owner put new 10,000 umf capacitors (from 4800 umf)in or the amp naturally sounds...

Good-bye old friend: My NAD (3240 PE) amplifier died today!

Unfortunately, my beloved amp blew a channel today. Right before going back to halls, and my new speakers arriving, In a panic I decided that I could try to repair the amp, with no components. Surgery went well, removed one transistor it worked flawlessly, replaced it and finished my testing....

Congratulations are in order. Microsoft, you’ve earned yourself a cake!

I love this, the ‘friendly’ rivalry between IE and Mozilla over their browsers, it’s worth a read, just for the laughs! Internet Explorer 10 Cake from Mozilla

PHP Syntax Check, One of those tools a beginner shouldn’t be without.

After many, many hours of frustration working on PHP, it’s hard sometimes to figure out why your code just won’t work! This is when I stumbled across this helpful little tool: PHP Syntax Tool . This little app checks your code for you, lets you know which line the soonest syntax...

Day Fourteen – A Day Trip To a Campsite (Cara)

Alarm goes off at 7.30. Alarm put on sleep. Alarm goes off at 7.35. Not quite sure what happened. Both look at watch. Shit. 11.00… The late start left us in a dazed hurry to pack up – for what we thought was going to be a 2night stay at...

Day Thirteen – Undissapointing French castles

We finally decided to take advantage our free entry to Peyrepetouse, the pictures say it all really! Was super windy near the top, so much so that the falconry show in the castle lost a few birds, which we watched fight the wind to try to get back to their...

Day Eleven – We left France

After deciding that we should leave the Duilhac area for a change, we thought about killing two birds with one stone; Andorra and the Pyrenees in one sightseeing day. The road to Andorra was amazing, perfectly long corners,  well crafted hairpins and the views of Alpine ski resorts in summer...

Day Ten – Bloody Tourists (Cara)

Both woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, though perhaps more so myself, poor max… Who quickly escaped my rath by popping down to the local shop to stock up on a couple more baguettes. On returning we decided to sit outside on the patio, enjoy...