Music - Solitude - Choong Family; Wretch 32 - Gully Flossing;

Grime is gonna take over. It's been hitting the mainstream a bit more lately.I'm sure you all been hearing some Wiley, Dizee etc. I got into Grime by chance about 2007 so quite recently but I got opinions. I had heard some tunes on Choice Fm and Kiss 100. Then there was Channel U.
These introduced me to the likes of Akala, Kano, Asher D, Chimpmunk (more recently) and the Choong Family with their brilliant Solitude with its solid lyrics and beats.It's sounding a bit more commercialised and some people are hating this.
The way I see it if you want grime to take off, to become popular enough for all the hot artists, spitters, producers (Rude Kid has some sick beats) out there to get noticed by more people you got to get a bit more of a "pop" "commercialised" sound. Still you got to do it right, there have been so many trys and failures. Keep all the grime attitude but don't get too cheesy on us (Tinchy Stryder - Stryderman comes to mind although his other stuff has been pretty good.) but I'm quite liking what Chimpmunk is doing, I think his new one Beast is in the right direction but risks alienating propa grime fans a bit.


Solitude from the Choong Fam is the first song here. I am still waiting for their new album if it ever gets released which judging from their MySpace might never happen although I think they have all the right ingredients to hit a bit more mainstream.



I got a bit tired of all the underground RnB and slowjams as well as the mainstream RnB I'd been listening to on the online radio stations etc lately (Hot 108, Choice FM etc).
So I opted for a change, which lead me to GrimeRadio.co.uk. And also Rinse FM.I have not had a chance to have a proper listen yet but Gully Flossing by Wretch 32 definitely caught my attention. Wretch 32 is definitely worth a listen and as I'm quite new to the grime scene I didn't realise that Wretch was fairly successful with 3 albums and loads of mix tapes under his belt. Linked up from imeem.

Gully Flossing (feat. Bigz, Danny B, Calibar, Heady, Friscoe, Scorcher & Romain) - Wretch 32

Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen - My Thoughts/Review

Now don't get me wrong, I have read plenty of romance books, from my mum's condensed Reader's Digest set of Romance type books to some Mills and Boon. So the fact that I am a guy does not reflect on the fact I have spent nearly a month on this book.
I read the first two chapters of Pride and Prejudice and gave up.
The writing reminded me of the literature novels from school I don't think anybody remembers them fondly although they are great classics and I even liked some such as To kill a Mockingbird. But I still hated them while studying them.
So I gave up and read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy instead. And I put Pride and Prejudice back further by pretending I had more important things to do.
By and By I found it was a great cure for my habit of staying up late reading. Pride and Prejudice set me off to sleep straight away.
About PG150 however, I realised that I had raced through the last two chapters in my usual manner. I finished the rest of the book within 3 nights of a couple of hours reading and I loved it.

I think that the problem was that Jane Austen does not compare at all to modern writing.
Most books I read would grip me within the first few chapters. The storyline would be unbroken and continuous or if it does break off, the break would be part of the main storyline or prove just as interesting.
In Pride and Prejudice, at the start anyway, the moment I became interested in the how the story was developing, it would come to some sort of abrupt end. Jane falls ill (which I found very much exaggerated) and maybe something could happen seeing the fuss that was going on (over a cold or something) but no it's just a long bit of tedious reading over her simple demise.

Jane falls in love with Mr Bingley who promptly moves away. End.

The first half of this book goes nowhere and is relatively a very long precursor (well far longer than modern literature) for a book this size.
The style of writing got on my nerves.
I hated the double, triple and maybe even quadruple negatives.

That all change however as I mentioned around Pg150. I had gotten used to the style of writing. It was still tedious as you have to read everything to actually understand the text and those double and triple negatives were still annoying but by this time I was working my way through them purposefully so that I didn't misunderstand some parts and get the story upside down.

From the time when Elizabeth meets Mr Darcy at his estate, through Lydia's folly to the ending, the book was captivating. Here was the storyline. The meat of the book.

The style of writing in the end does draw you in and now after finishing the book, I can come to appreciate it. Narrated from Elizabeth's point of view, it does sink you into her prejudices, I was convinced Mr Darcy was a proud, disagreeable man. I was convinced that Mr Wickham was good and handsome and all the wrong that had been done to him.
And the moment Elizabeth starts to change her mind over Mr Darcy I did too, at the same pace.

You could feel the character's emotions. An insight in her thoughts.It was the character's thoughts rearranged and narrated to this effect. It was how the mind would express itself if it had the words, the tone. And it was effective if tedious. Even the double and triple negatives were effective as they made sure you had to read everything.

As a conclusion, I would say I can now understand why Pride and Prejudice is so loved (the amount of movies based on it and no I have never seen any of them). I can understand why it would be used as literature in schools. Don't let the start put you off, you'll get drawn in in the end.

I loved it. (Note I am in keeping with the mindset and did not merely like it).

Pictures - Reyan egged, Black River Gorges, Amsterdam, Torremolinos.

Four pictures this time.
First up we have two pictures from Mauritius.
The first is of Reyan egged. Taken in August 2004 on his birthday by me using an APS.
The picture of Reyan above is also one of my all time favourite pictures. The timing was perfect and pure luck.
Next we have a view from the Black River Gorges, Riviere Noir. Taken by me using APS.The gorges in Mauritius is one of my favourite places. The views are spectacular.
The walk is very enjoyable and you have the bonus of goyaves de chine (Wild Guava) as well as framboise (in this case the name given to all smallwild fruits especially berries) all along the way. You will also hopefully see local Pink Pigeon, Mauritian Kestrel or the Paille-en-queue but the first is quite a rare sight.
If you do feel tired and hot at the end of the hike I would definetly recommend a dip in the river at the bottom (just make sure it has not been raining heavily recently).

The two following pictures are from holidays with the guys. The guys are a great bunch. My good friends from high school.

The above picture is from our wee trip to Amsterdam, right after the end of high school (2004). Left to Right - Me, Glennie, Calvin, Zak, Derek.Good times.
The picture below is from Torremolinos, Spain (2007). Front Centre - Dogg. Left to right - Derek, Glennie, Calvin, Me.
I don't really see the guys much anymore. Hell I could not even manage to go out for Dogg's Birthday in November (sorry Dogg). But I do remember all the fun we've had...

Disable Security Certificate Windows Mobile (WM) WiFi - How to/Guide

I recently purchase a new Windows Mobile (WM) smartphone. The BenQ E72 (WM6 Standard) is not the greatest but this is not what this post is about (although a full review will be forthcoming).

My main gripe was that I could not use the WiFi at the university I study at (The University of Dundee, Scotland).
I have previously had an XDA Orbit with WM6 Pro which used to work with the WiFi and then stopped and I did not have time to pursue this.
With my new smartphone I gave it another go. No luck again.
But Steve managed to get the WiFi hooked up in the Harris building on campus. But I could not get it to work thereafter...anywhere else and neither could he.

Now, the University uses WPA2 Enterprise (which requires user name and password as well as a security certificate by default) and requires you to modify the EAP Type EAP-TTLS/MSCHAPv2 and untick the Validate the Security certificate box when setting up your laptop etc to connect to the WiFi.

If you tried to do this on your Windows Mobile based device, you hit a wall. There are no options in the WiFi for WM setup to modify these settings.
But no mater you are going to try and connect anyway.(I drained my measely battery several times doing this).
More problems - you keep getting error messages.
Well like any number of people usually I just ignore the errors and try to get out (not always the best thing especially when they use inverse statements to catch you out).
But lately with using Linux as my main OS, I have been paying attention to errors as they give you a big clue to a solution.
This one was simple. WM kept trying to validate a security certificate which it could not do.
And also notice that the instructions from the University unticks this option.

This brings us to the solution: disable the security certificate checking.
As for the PEAP type, this can also be changed but was not necessary in this case so I will not go into it. I assume that the network sets the PEAP type by itself as long as this option is selected.
(I will admit here that I did not come to the solution immediately, I actually spent time searching if other people were having similar problems and their solution).

The method involves a registry hack. I am quite sure this will work for WM5, 6 and possibly PPC 2003. Not too sure about WM6.1 as I don't have a device with this but it should.. (PS only tested with WM6)
Now don't be scared of modifying the registry. If you have created a backup first and not scared to lose some data if you brick your device. (If you do brick the device the easiest step to restore is to do a Hard Reset).

1. Download a registry editor for your WM device. In this case we use CeRegEditor. Download and install.
2. Hook up your device to a PC through ActiveSync.
3. Open up CeRegEditor and you will be presented with the screen below:
4. Click connection and connect or press F1. This will connect up to the device and the registry classes will appear to the left as below:
5. You then need to navigate to [\HKLM\Comm\EAP\Extension\25\].
6. Click the + next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then + next to Comm, then + next to EAP, then Extension then double click on the 25 folder.
7. You should see the following:
8. Now its a simple matter of adding the appropriate registry entry to disable the validation of the certificate. You will notice that this entry is already present at the bottom in the above picture.
9. To add the entry inside the 25 folder click Add DWORD value... shown below:
10. When you are presented with the window add the following: in the Value name field add "ValidateServerCert" without the quotation marks. In the Value data field add 0 (zero), as long as decimal is selected. (If you choose hexadecimal you will have to input 8 zeroes.) This should look like below:
11. Click OK to accept the dword entry and this will appear inside folder 25 (or the registry key) as shown in the picture from step 8.
12. Now click File --> Save from the menu bar to save the registry.
13. Then Connection --> Exit to exit the program.
    
14. All done.

You can now disconnect your device from the PC and restart/ soft-reset the device..

And finally go through your WiFi set up process as usual and put in your user name and password as required.

The settings that worked for me at the University of Dundee:

1. First set up screen - Network Name: UoD_WiFi ; Network Type: Internet. Nothing else checked (ticked).
2. Second set up screen - Authentication : WPA2 ; Data Encryption : AES. Tick "The Key is automatically provided".
3. Final set up screen - Tick use IEEE 802.1x network access control. EAP Type - PEAP. (I am not too sure why the 802.1x access control is ticked as I am sure this can be unticked but the WiFi connection to the University is working this way so I left it alone.
4. Select Finish and select the UoD_WiFi connection and connect.
5. You will be asked for user name and password. Use your normal ones and that's it you should be able to connect.

For other users you might need to do other things such as make the connection to be only EAPMSCHAPv2 etc. The registry values below might be helpful. I do not know what all the values do so use at your own risk.

EAPMSCHAPv2 Only - "EAPMSCHAPv2Only"=dword:00000001
"InteractiveUIPath"="eaptls.dll"
"Path"="eaptls.dll"
"ConfigUIPath"="eaptls.dll"
"InvokePasswordDialog"=dword:00000001
"InvokeUserNameDialog"=dword:00000001
"FriendlyName"="PEAP"

Resources:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=283380
http://mobilitytoday.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10412

Disclaimer

1.