Dom Barnes’s Blog

I sometimes buy scratchcards. Not often but occasionally and I rarely win. The odds of winning are about 1 in 4.29 and I seem to win less than that. So here is what I propose.

I will take 10 pounds sterling (£10 GBP) and purchase 10 of one type of scratchcard, from one vendor, from a single batch, so they are all sequentially generated. I will scratch the panels off and see what I win. From those winnings, I will purchase more scratchcards of the same variety. I will continue to do this until one of the following situations occur:

1) I win the jackpot
2) I win £100 total
3) I go broke
or 4) after doing this for 6 rounds, I seem to be getting nowhere.

Now what is the point? Well I can sell this as a real life maths experiment, to test the probability of winning against real life. Now theory says that in those first 10, I should win 2 times. Now I could only win £1 on each, meaning I then purchase 2 more cards, and with a probability of 1:4.29 and ony having 2 cards, my odds are low, so it is likely that I will reach outcome 3 soon. But then again, I could luck out and hit 3 or more cards, perhaps with higher winning prizes. Truth is, I could hit the big time (well average of £6k on most scratchcards) within that first batch. Its even possible I will reach outcome 2 fairly quickly.

Either way, it would satisfy my curiosity, and at a cost of £10, why not. And to defeat those who may say this is merely to feed some gambling habit, if I win the jackpot, I will donate between £500-1000 to a range of 5 charities chosen by me, and disclosed here, or if I win a smaller amount (outcome 2) I will donate 20% to a single charity, again disclosed here. Now bare in mind that outcome 2 might take me over £100. I mean if I have unscratched cards, I might as well carry on.

I will try and do this next week and report back with my findings. 

I like linux. Its a fun platform to try out, and you can’t beat the price. It will run happily on low spec machines, and cos its a *nix OS, you can use it for a file server, web server, lots of stuff easily. But this is about one thing specifically.

I’m still running my MythTV box, only now its in a different room, and its mainly just a backend system for me. I record stuff to watch later on my main laptop. But before I could use it, it needed to be on my network. So that means wireless. I bought a Wifi PCI card on eBay and got it today. I was a little unsure about the setup cos I didn’t know whether I needed to install some more software or drivers, so was prepared a little to haul it near the router to wire it in. So I installed the card, and booted up. After logging in, I moved the mouse to the Network icon in the menu bar, expecting to have to at least select the other ethernet connection. But much to my surprise, it gave me a list of available Wifi networks. I plugged in my key and voila! Connected.

Now compare this to the XP installation. Its all the same up to the boot. Then the New Hardware wizard kicks in, and there is a requirement to install software and drivers, choose whos configuration setup to use, and probably a reboot.

Now I thought XP was meant to support a lot of hardware, yet I seem to find that when it comes to Wifi hardware, you almost always have additional drivers and software to install, and yet Linux, which is often stated as being a little behind the curve, as there is no one being paid to work on it, handled my new hardware with no problems at all.

So I’m quite happy now, on my network, enjoying the internet and updating software to my hearts content, while I record TV. Thanks Linux

Meet Flargle. He’s my brand new Moshi Monster. Moshi Monsters is a new social networking website, thats really more about making cool monsters and playing games. So what is he like? Well his favourite food is Mr Tea, he likes the colour Cyan, R&B music, and dislikes lemurs. And he’s only 1 years old.

So far we’ve played some cool games, and been shopping. How do you like his windows? He’s also got some more fun stuff at home. Why not pop over and visit him for a bit. You can even be his friend so he has some company when I’m at work.

If you can find one, pick up a beta code from a few lucky people online, or go to Firebox.com and pickup a MoPod for your own special invite code. Moshi Monsters should be open to the public in a few weeks hopefully, so keep checking back.

Special Thanks to Michael at Mind Candy for hooking me up with a beta code, and congrats on the lovely website!

Update: I have a few beta codes thanks to Michael to give out. If you’re interested, leave me a comment. Working on first come, first served.

Well Its been about a week since my last MythTV update. So far, I’ve got it working and have done some recording. Here’s what happened.

I had Ubuntu beta 8.06 installed and installed MythTV, along with the plugins and themes, which I did from the command line. I went through the backend setup and configured for my TV card.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hello

Just a copy post here to let you all know that my band, the Douglas Furs, have got some gigs coming up. We haven’t played in a few months and have one or two new songs to play for the crowds.

Full details can be found via MySpace, Upcoming.org, Virb, and below.

• 11th April - Varsity, Wolverhampton. 7pm, £4 entry
• 1st May - Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath. 7pm, £4 entry
• 29th May - Bar Academy, Birmingham. 7pm, £4 entry
• 27th June - Jug of Ale, Moseley. 7pm, £4 entry.

Come along if you can, and bring some friends. We might be giving out some free CD’s too if you fancy it!