Free Microsoft Points

And other diversions from Amazon. Recently, after getting a shiny 250gb Xbox 360 I've been attempting to find ways to collect Microsoft points without having to buy cards or from the dashboard.

The easiest way I have found is through Points2Shop (this link takes you via my referral, It would help me a great deal if you signed up from this as I would get bonus points. Why not sign up through me and then get your friends to use your referral link?), Points2shop operates by having you take surveys, watch videos and complete offers all in order to earn points. These points can be redeemed with Amazon allowing you to buy books etc... including Xbox game cards preloaded with points.

At the minute due to level restrictions (I'm currently 'New', you will have to be 'Bronze' level or above in order to order an email of the Microsoft points code) I need to verify a home address, This is done by ordering a shipped item. Currently I'm waiting on delivery of two books and once there dispatched I should be able to continue with ordering as much MS Points as I need.

To give you and idea of how much points etc.. things cost, MS Points are 1800 for 800ms, 1950 for 1200ms and 2900 for 2100ms, roughly, it can fluctuate. So far I have earned close to the 1800 point mark after only having it for a few days.

The best way I have found to make points is by downloading the app (25pts right there) and then using flurry from the app to download further apps, these mostly require you to install and open the app and can range from 3pts to 50pts. The other method I like to use is completing reoccurring tasks, these mainly take the form of checking questions and answers, seeing that they are spelled correctly etc... these are mostly worth around $0.13 which can be exchange into 13pts.

You can complete surveys which can earn you around the 100pt mark, however i found that i was disqualified from most of these (around 70% of the time) due to my profile not matching what they needed.

Overall it is money for free and its hard to moan about that. If your considering joining please use my referral link. Thank you.

Paper Geek #2

I was reading some old MAKE magazines yesterday and stumbled across a bit of paper craft, more specifically an nice little origami trick to make and envelope. Now if only I had a pen pal to send one too.

Step 1,

These are nice and easy to make all you need is a piece of A4 paper, start with the paper in portrait and fold it horizontally in half, fig. 1

fig. 1

Step 2,

Fold the bottom right and top left corner into the middle, fig. 2

fig. 2

Step 3,

Fold in each of the remaining straight edges so that they line up with inside folds, fig. 3

fig. 3

Step 4,

Fold in the bottom left and top right corners diagonally to create a rectangle, fig. 4

fig. 4

Final step,

Now tuck the edges into the flaps, fig. 5, and there you have your very own handmade origami envelope. Now go forth and correspond.

fig. 5

 

Sega Master System Dock

A while ago I posted this, a iPhone Dock made using a classic NES controller. I thought damn Stephen you need to gets you one of those, so today I've had been trying to put together my very own classic controller docking station. The main deviation from the linked guide is simply the choice of what pad to use, I was always a SEGA kid and since my old Master System gave up the ghost I have kept it around not really wanting to throw it away, this gave me the perfect opportunity to stop it collecting dust and re-purpose part of it.

What you need is a few basic tools such as, a small screw driver, Knife and a small hacksaw. In addition you'll need a iPhone USB lead and a Control Pad.

fig, 1

First unscrew the small screws on the back of the control pad, usually four or five, and remove the contents. Keep the screws safely to one side we will be needing them later, they are small so you don't want to lose them.

fig, 2

Cut the wires connecting the flex to the two chip boards, keep these boards safe as they will need to go back into the unit in order for the buttons to still press in and out. Clean out the top half of the unit and cut a hole with a knife, once you have an opening big enough you can remove the hacksaw blade pass it through the hole in the controller, re attache the blade and cut the plastic to shape. Knives and saws are sharp, so please be careful with this step. Once the hole is wide enough you can thread the lead through (fig, 3).

fig, 3

Now in order for the pad to look ultra cool we want the flex to fit through the hole in the pad originally meant for the lead that plugs into the console. This is fiddly but realistically quite easy to achieve, there should be a screw peg on the inside of the case, the flex will be able to snake around this and run through the half circle at the back (fig, 4).

fig, 4

Once this is in place you can insert the buttons and chips, make sure everything fits nicely and screw the back of the pad back into place. Congratulations you now have one awesome iPhone dock.

Finished dock from the front,

and from the back.

And with an iPod plugged in and charging, had to use my phone for the pics.

Touch my Gameboy

So if you had a nice new tablet what would be the first thing you do?

Obviously it's to install a Gameboy colour emulator and play Pokemon yellow.

I used an app called John GBC Lite, available from Google Play.

Paper Geek

Boredom in the office and access to the internet leads to terrible things, terrible but creative. Today I came across this, a paper iPod dock, which i thought was pretty cool indeed. I rustled up a quick version, however paper doesn't really work quite as well as card should. Very collapsible.

Template for the paper dock, A PDF is available Here

 This got me looking for other alternative paper docks, the German website DATENSTRUDEL offers this take on a paper dock. I really like this version, though it requires a digital clock app to get the full on effect, no free PDF's for this either.

I found a few, different lo-tech variations on the docking theme, including this rather cool Lego creation and an ingenious new use for the iPhone box itself,

But the master and king of all DIY iPhone docks has to be without doubt this, a classic NES controller upcycled into a docking station, instructions can be found here, It really genuinely doesn't look to complex to create and it almost looks like it was made with this in mind. This is one project that I think I'm going to have a serious go at re-creating.

Also worth mentioning because in the future I really want to have a crack at it is this bad boy,

Yeah that's totally a Gameboy external hardrive, how to do this unbelivable act you ask? Go here.

Ego

you can only take being told to politely fuck off so many times....

Selective editing

Some times it can be rather difficult to edit words, especially when faced with awkward or contradictory restraints. For example, if i'm writing a short paragraph why would the two only rules be that I need two short sentences and three hundred words? Yeah 150 word sentences that's some real nice editing....

Also getting increasingly frustrated over not knowing where my print screen button is, my keyboard is in English layout but the keys are faced with the Spanish layout. Took two years to figure out how to do ~.

Lust

I want this perhaps a little too much....

Quarter exceeded

On Friday I became twenty five, doesn't sound to bad but lets think of it like this, I'm now a quarter of a century old. Yeah, it's super. 

Anyway, to celebrate I spent the day in Birmingham, and odd choice to some I know but having spent a few years universing at Wolverhampton it was a nice little slice of nostalgia. Birmingham, for all its bad press is actually a really nice city, sort of like a Manchester in the Midlands. You have the obvious tourist spots like the Bullring (its good, not quite as good shopping wise as say, the Arndale but I will say that Birmingham's Selfridges is far, far better than Manchester's. It's also home to my new favourite and most awesome shop in the entire cosmos, Pedlars.) and the Sea Life Centre (what more do you need other than sharks and otters).

The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is always worth a visit, and it's currently showcasing a glimpse of the fairly recent Safford Saxon hoard. Unfortionatly there really wasn't much Saxon treasure to see, but the craftmanship that would of gone into each of the individual pieces was incredible.

Another place I made sure to visit was the IKON gallery, set in a refurbished church up in Brindley place, it is a fantastic building and i was perhaps an awful lot more interested in the building its self rather than its exhibits. On I did like was this piece.

It captured the moment that a lamppost falls and collides with an awning, not pictured is the explosion of paving slabs surrounding the base of the post. iPhone cameras are only so wide.

Due to the rain we didn't stray to far from the centre, which meant missing out on the excellent custard factory and the vintage market on Digbeth Road. And then we left for home, the end.

This is a Turtle

Pix'n Love Rush

I am very enamoured with an iOS game at the minute. It's called pix'n rush and it is simply the most addictive thing since gamefreak invited you to catch them all.
The game offers you four different modes of play, several awesome plinky plonk tunes and graphics and a whole lot of pixels. Though it must be said I only really play the 'rainbow rush', a neat little timed game. You have one minute to collect as many pick ups as possible running back and two across a stage, suns during day and moons during night, the nice little mechanic being that when you hit a stage wall the day switches to night. You gain extra time and points by picking up the symbols, every ten or so netting you five more seconds. It is absolute zen bliss. Frankly there's no other reason to own an iPhone over than to play this game.

It's made by pastagames and is in the app store now. And it's free.

Victoria Park

The thing about Widnes is that for all the miserable and hideous excuses for humanity there is certain gems to be had and the big one for me has to be in the buildings. Widnes has scores (well ok five or six) of listed buildings from 900 year old churches to classic sandstone public buildings. Some of the areas of Widnes are lovely too, Widnes is essentially a conurbation on a tiny scale, several villages all being enveloped into a sizable town. Appleton, Farnworth and Cronton all have there green areas. Cronton having Pex Hill and Appleton having Victoria Park.

And its on Victoria Park that i want to focus, When i was a kid the park was my home away from home, be back from school then straight out to play a game very loosely based on football (all with enough time left over to be a geek, amazing). Its actually a very good park, its a fair size, has tennis and basketball courts and a skatepark. It also for some reason now has a climbing rock (is the council begging for some cocky little shit to fall off inebriated on blue WKD and try to sue for negligence). Now the council and a team of volunteers are putting a lot of effort into introducing wildlife. We have a pond, which already has geese, swans, moor hens and ducks (and duckings) and a nature trial though the wooded area.

welcome and also hi, i'm treebeard

a batcave, but where does the mobile go?

a carved rabbit

woody woodpecker!, i'll just go shall i?

Oh the options,

After struggling to find journalist work after my contract not being renewed at the Scottie Press I have what may prove to be salvation. However this lies at the other end of 20,000 leagues, no wait I mean words, to be honest it’s not the amount of words that I find daunting, its what to write about. When faced with something as impossibly open like this I tend to become just a little indecisive and lost. Twenty thousand may seem like an awful lot but I have written essays half that size in little under a day. 

Easy, but what do I focus on? Spoilers, it may be for a German magazine so politics and unemployment, two subjects I can rave on are out the window, anyway I will hopefully soon come to me in a flash of inspiration, that or I’ll fail badly and cry.

A day in Liverpool

We saw lots, Matisse, the big Henry the eighth (I am, I am) and also a Banksy, I've liked his work for a while but never been a huge fanboy.
Anyway here's 'Cardinal sin'.

Cafe

As I have been tearing though my garden of late, getting everything ready for a nice summer. Well judging by the march weather we've been having this is probably our summer now.

In my garden i have an old coffee table, not sure why I bought it, its not the prettiest item. Now the dilemma is this, its a little too large to fit in a wheelie bin. Throws a spanner into the whole clear out plan really. After ripping its legs of and cutting it down I was feeling pretty triumphant.

It still Does not fit.

It's now the only thing left in my garden that's not growing or sitting related. But while watching 'Le Salvager' the other week I was hit with twin bolts of inspiration. Not only would I re purpose the table, a drew an idea for a sign from a 'cafe' in the opening credits. Because the table lacks legs, it is essentially just a big wooden sign, so i drew up a stencil and opened some rather fetching paint.

the stencil in situ

red equals class

Stay tuned as I'll be adding to it here and there over the weeks to come

Panoramic III

Panoramic II

Ebay

I do love Ebay,
the rush you get for winning is like spitting in Gods Face.

Honey mustard gammon

When you want a good sandwich, you need a good filling And nothing makes a good sandwich like ham.
Making your own ham is delicious and actually pretty cheap. Consider how much you spend on a packet of cheap smart price ham, chances are you won't be getting better than one pound per one hundred grams. Now the bit of gammon in the picture cost five pounds and weighs 1.2 kilos. For the same weight of packaged ham your looking at twelve pounds.

To cook the gammon it's three easy steps,
First, stud the ham with cloves and boil with peppercorns and onion in salted water for around two hours.
Second, make a simple glaze of honey, and mustard, remove the skin and rub the glaze all over.
Third, roast the gammon for half an hour in a hot oven.

Ta da! Carve thickly and enjoy (if you let it cool it's a little easier to carve).

Panoramic

Lunch in the garden

With a little sun, nothing like eating outside