Becky has the coronavirus. She has somehow managed to avoid catching it for 4 years, but she has been feeling rough for a couple of days and so did a test this morning. We've cancelled our plans for New Year's Eve.

devnull

I'm covering support today and it looks like there might be a drive failure on one of our SQL servers. Almost entirely sure that I cannot fix this remotely.

dayjob

Queued for Brussels sprouts at 7am this morning. Other members of the queue were in good spirits and everyone was excited to get their hands on some tiny little cabbages. This is what Christmas is all about.

devnull

The Steam winter sale has started. How many games will I buy and not play this year? The only game I'm actually interested in is Starfield - I watched Becky play it on the Xbox and it looks like fun! Also, I'm a big fan of the Bethesda games and have logged many hours with Skyrim and Fallout, so I think I'll enjoy it a lot.

games steam

My team at work was awarded some cash for being awesome, so we spent the money wisely and invested in a Street Fighter 2 Capcom Legacy Championship Edition Cabinet for the office.

Arcade1Up Street Fighter 2 Capcom Legacy Championship Edition Cabinet

dayjob games

Running Fedora 39 on my Razer Blade 15 and it's almost silent with very little fan noise. Running Windows 11 on the same machine and it sounds like a Boeing 747 on takeoff. WTF is that about?

fedora linux windows

Updated the "suggested" Intel driver and now Bluetooth isn't working at all. Sometimes I wonder if I'm a little harsh with my hatred of Windows, then shit like this happens and it reminds me that my feelings are somewhat justified.

Windows Device Manager showing broken Bluetooth.

intel windows

Excited to see an Intel Bluetooth driver update for my Razer Blade 15. The Bluetooth on this device has generally been pretty poor with dropped connections etc. Anyhow, super dissappointed when I bothered to read the release notes. Seems like a total waste of a PDF file, not sure why they even bother.

Screenshot of Intel's Release Notes showing a not very helpful note.

intel windows

Looking at an AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT as a replacement for my NVIDIA GTX 1660 Super. I hear AMD cards are better supported under Linux, but I've only ever had NVIDIA cards, so I've got no clue myself. Any AMD users out there want to testify?

amd gpu linux nvidia

Christmas at Lincoln’s recycling centre. There is something a little haunting about this scene. Maybe it has something to do with the state of the planet and how much waste Christmas generates? Anyhow, ho ho ho.

Christmas at the Lincoln recycling centre.

devnull

I attended a murder mystery evening tonight with Becky. The event was held on an old steam train at Loughborough heritage railway and involved a 3 course meal and trying to solve a bunch of puzzles to get clues to the identity of the murderer. The meal was nice and the actors were very funny. It was a good night out.

Detective Inspector Archie Balls and company standing on the train station platform.

devnull

Reading about the Dropbox AI shenanigans makes me wonder about my files in Microsoft's OneDrive, especially given their recent AI fervour. I use the Insync Linux client on Debian to sync files with my OneDrive account and it works really well, but maybe it is time to consider some alternatives.

ai dropbox insync microsoft onedrive

Philip Newborough and a donkey enjoying a beer.

About

My name is and I’m a full stack web developer living and working in Lincoln, England. This website (philipnewborough.co.uk) serves as my personal homepage. When I’m not working with tech, I love to ride bicycles with my wife and friends.