Narrowboat

I am back from my week afloat and now have 10GB of photographs (as each is about 80-100KB, that’s quite a fair few), or there about, which considering I took three 4GB cards did at least mean I had worked it out right. I was using the Canon camera I had bought second hand and formatted each card with CHDK, so I could run a time-lapse script. The advantages of this method were I could run it on a power adapter (no battery changing ritual every 90 mins or so), and the script was quite configurable; I set it up to take a shot every 2.5 seconds, which I’d estimated should fit on the three cards, with plenty of room for error and long days (in theory I probably could have gone down a whole second, but I wanted to see how this set-up worked without worrying about cramming the card full so much). The downsides of this system are that cards have to be FAT formatted (which really means 2GB cards, though 4GB work and there are work-around methods to use larger cards) and it’s technical (not really a downside, but there’s a learning curve).
We set off from Stockton Top Marina and spent the first night at Long Itchington, dining out at the Blue Lias pub. From there we followed the GUC into Birmingham, well we didn’t go into the centre, but took the Tame Valley canal across and then went onto the Wolverhampton level to follow that from the Engine Arm to Wolverhampton locks. From there it was on up the Shropshire Union to Norbury, where we ended the week.
The canals were quiet, still early in the season I guess, but the weather was dry though chilly in the morning. More details as I compile the videos.

I’m out afloat for a week going from Stockton Top to Norbury Junction over this next week. I should be heading up Hatton Locks on Mothering Sunday, then taking the GUC route to Birmingham. I won’t be going in the city centre this time, instead I’m going via the Tame Valley Canal and then exiting via Wolverhampton.
My Canon camera now has the timelapse software, via CHDK, on three 4GB cards which should be enough for the whole trip.

I have a laptop with windows Vista on it, and have even bought Windows 7 (well this copy is either going on my laptop or if I decide to build myself a new desktop, then that), but I still have a desktop with windows XP on – wow it almost sounds as if it’s some ancient system that could well appear on Antiques Roadshow in that sentence.  The desktop computer is only 4 years old and is still used, it connects to my printers for one thing. Some of the new tweaks of the Vista/win7 desktop systems are quite nice and I can miss them when I’m on my XP computer. However it does seem a pain to have to go about upgrading that when I will, at some point, replace the whole thing.

So I thought, well surely there will be some way of emulating those elements on XP – after all if there is something amis with a computer that you use that would make a great invention, Google it and you’ll find someone has done the application for you. I do like the Vista menu over the XP version (I already use Rocketdock instead of having icons on my desktop) and found that there are a few alternatives.

I found two – VistaStartMenu and vistart. On my initial search I found VistaStartMenu and installed the freeware version. It is an obvious improvement over the XP menu, and indeed could be seen as a Vista menu with bells on. However, it comes in two versions a freeware and a paid-for pro version. Features such as aerostyle menus were reserved for the pro version, understandable after all they want you to upgrade, but you also had a get Pro option ever visible in the menu to remind you that you have the free version – this made me think, would I be getting “reminders” in the future then? It is okay having two versions, and there probably some of the features in the freeware version that could have been in the pro version (well, this app seems to be also aimed at vista/win7 users too!). The screenshot below looks good, but this is the pro version, without Aero the non-pro free one occupies a lot of screen space.

I remembered that my initial searches had also promoted a freeware app, which must be different to this one, so I went back and found Vistart had been mentioned on a techblog. So I uninstalled the other and put on Vistart. This seems to be more what I was after – a Vista style menu with an aero feel a application search box and not other add-on features I didn’t want. It is also purely freeware, so no worries of any time limitations or upgrade reminders popping up.

This second option seems to be more use for me now. The former may well have lots of features, but if I’m not going to use them, it seems daft (to me) to get it – after all its like bank accounts there are those that require a monthly fee and offer tons of “benefits”, but if you don’t use most of them then you are better off with a free standard account and just pay for those elements you want elsewhere. Okay a sudden diversion, but it seemed a reasonable simile.

If this wetted your appetite there’s an indestructible article about Vista-fying your XP completely.

I’m off out on the boat in mid-March, taking the boat from its base on the GUC to one on Shropshire Union  for 2010 (which means I can then do the Llangollen in August), which means I’ll be going through Birmingham. Well, you could avoid it, but I like the BCN – though I’ve not done all 100+ miles though it is nice to do different routes through rather than the main line each time. Last time I entered the BCN from the Birmingham & Fazely canal and did an unclosed loop encompasing parts of  Tame Valley Canal, Wallsall Canal , Wyrley & Essington Canal, and then onto the Main Line to the City Centre (from the Wolverhampton level I took the Gower Branch route down to the main level). However as my camera fell off its support just before Salford Junction, I don’t have any photo’s .

So this time I’m coming in from the GUC and leaving going up Wolverhampton Locks, which I haven’t got on video. The question is what route? I suppose it depends on how much time I’ve got, last time I spent 4 days cruising and another based at the Black Country Museum. This time its only going to be 2 or 3 days, so I probably won’t want to traverse Wallsall Canal because it was very much overgrown and was very slow going with several trips down the weed hatch! So I could do the Tame Valley again to get on video, I suppose I need to plan a route rather than just toss a virtual coin each time I reach a junction .

In the past tended to leave/enter from the south by the Worcs & Birmingham canal, purely because there’s plenty of mooring on the Stratford-on-Avon Canal from which there’s a short hop to/from the moorings around Gas Street Basin. This time I think I’m going to go the GUC route in, but need to think about where to Moor. IndigoDream has a copy of the BCN moorings on their website from their cruise in July 2008 which makes good reading and plenty of photographs.

In past years I’ve ventured out on my boat over Christmas or New Year, but not being in education sector any more I don’t get the big slack periods to gallivant off. So I’m not afloat until March, unless I grab a free weekend.
The boat is moving bases this year, we’ve managed to get a slot at Norbury and so I’ll be moving it in March. Should be able to capture it to make a nice video. The question is do I get a small inverter for it or use the boats inverter. Does a big fan-cooled inverter use more energy?