Mackworth library now open after 50 year wait.

The new Mackworth Library, funded by the Big Lottery, opened on Thursday 25th March 2010 at 3pm. It was opened by Paul Pegg, chairman of Mackworth Estate Community Association.
At the opening there was a song from Reigate School Choir, and a free commemorative mug for the first six people to join the library.

When Mackworth Estate was planned out in the 1950s, it showed a library on Knightsbridge Recreation Ground but its only now that such a library has been built.

Here is a photograph I took of the newly opened library.

The library is located at the end of the shopping arcade on Prince Charles Avenue on the corner with Mornington Crescent. (see my map lower down this post).

Mackworth library is the second of three new libraries to be opened as part of a £2.7m project in the city. Last year Allenton Library opened and later this year a new one is scheduled to open in Chellaston which open its doors on June 10.

Having visited Mackworth Library on Saturday Morning I think this is going to be very popular with the local residents. The building is a modern looking structure and is very light inside.

On Saturday there were two people from Derby Museum showing some exhibits to people, It was great to be able to have someone talk to you in great details about the exhibits and even handle them. Exhibits such as Hornbooks, Lotus Shoes, Silk Worms, Arrowheads, Victorian Glass Bean purse.

Update Jan 2012 Opening Hours


Mackworth Library Opening times
Monday: 10am to 1.30pm
Tuesday: 12noon to 7pm
Wednesday: closed
Thursday: 12noon to 7pm
Friday: 10am to 1.30pm
Saturday: 10am to 4pm
Sunday: closed

Mackworth Library has all the usual things you would expect from your library as well as Internet Access, MP3 Audiobooks, Museum exhibits, Newspapers and magazines and DVD hire.

Here is a map showing the exact location of the Library :


View Mackworth Library, Derby, Derbyshire. in a larger map


Mackworth Estate Community Association website:
http://www.mackworthestate.co.uk/

Derby's famous peregrine falcons have laid their first egg of 2010

Our very own famous peregrine falcons have laid their first egg of the year and it has been watched live on the webcams which point at their nesting area on the top of Derby Cathedral.

There is a video on YouTube of the moment the egg was laid which you can watch here:



Remember you can watch the Falcons life live at any time any where in the world by viewing the webcam.
See the Derby Peregrine Falcon webcam on my Derby webcams page.

New Video : Lets go to Ikea very Quickly. Chaddesden to Giltbrook.

I have a new HD driving video. the first one for 2010, this is a speeded up driving video from Chaddesden, Derby to Ikea at Giltbrook Retail Park, Nottinghamshire travelling via Spondon, Ockbrook and Ilkeston.

Here is my video, It is best watched in 720p mode and fullscreen (as long as you have a high spec PC and broadband connection) :



Points of Interest:

0:00 Starting on Nottingham Road in Chaddesden Derby.
0:25 Derby Road, Spondon (A6005).
1:02 Left up Willowcroft Road (A6096)
1:22 Right onto Sitwell Street
1:27 The White Swan pub @ Spondon.
1:30 Moor Street
1:37 Dale Road
1:57 Ockbrook, Derbyshire.
2:18 Ladywood Road
3:00 Kirk Hallam, Derbyshire.
3:25 Little Hallam Hill
3:38 Stanton Road
3:41 Lower Stanton Road
4:05 Chalons Way (A6007)
4:21 Right onto Station Road
4:38 Coronation Road
4:46 Shilo Way
5:17 Gin Close Way
5:28 The B6010
5:34 Ikea Way
5:39 Giltbrook Retail Park, Nottinghamshire.
END

Music Credits :
Soundprank
Licensed under Creative Commons

I have created an interactive route map for the journey so you can see which roads I took. :
Simply drag the viewarea around to follow the route.


View Lets go to Ikea very quickly, Driving Route. in a larger map

Hope you enjoy.
Andy

Secret Millionaire helps out three very deserving carers in Derby, Watch the show now.

On Monday 8th March 2010 Channel 4 showed the latest program in the current series of Secret Millionaire, In this program Wealthy entrepreneur Paul Ragan decided to come to Derby to help three carers, Paul cared for his mother, who suffered from schizophrenia, from the age of five until 10.
The people he helped were Lewis Mighty, Maria Hanson and Sophie Walker.

On the day he left Derby he handed over £50,000 to the Lewis Mighty Fund, £10,000 to Maria Hanson, who runs the charity MeandDee and £5,000 to the Walker family.

If you missed this show and would love to see it then you have a few choices :
Update (April 2012) : Its now on YouTube in full  HERE.
1) If you have Cable TV then you can use the "On demand" service.
2) If you live in the UK then you can watch the whole program on the Channel 4 OD website by visiting here: The Secret Millonaire in Derby.
Simly click the Play button and watch the brief (10-20 second) adverts and then it will play the program, you can even watch it fullscreen like a TV. You have until Wednesday 8th April to view the program online.
3) If you live outside the UK then I dare say you can download it from UKnova, TheBox or TBP.

Some locations (Google Street View) featured in this episode of Secret millionaire..
The flat where Paul Stayed in Wilmorton

Citynet where Paul surfed for Derby Carers

Shop where Paul looked for Stewing Steak.

Portland Hotel where Paul had a drink.

Bubbles Launderette.

The Car wash event at Ticknall.

The Kingsway Pub, Mackworth.

If YOU would like to help out the three people featured then find out more information using the following websites :

The Lewis Mighty Fund
http://www.lewismightyfund.org.uk/

Lewis Mighty Fund on Facebook

Me&Dee, Who raise funds to offer treats to create special moments and memories where time is precious.
http://www.meanddee.co.uk/

Huntington's Disease Association - UK registered charity
http://www.hda.org.uk/


Andy

Lara Croft Way, Derby Inner Ring Road opening soon. With Map location.

UPDATE : Lara Croft way opens 11th May 2010.

This is a photograph I took two hours ago of the soon to open Lara Croft Way which forms part of the final section of Derby inner ring road.

Once its actually open I will post one of driving videos around the new inner ring road. I made a video around the inner ring road before this final section was finished back in July 2009. Watch my driving video here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nuZ1WGP07U

I have created a detailed map below showing the exact route of the final section of Derby Inner Ring Road with the Lara Croft Way section of it clearly marked.

View Derby inner ring road - Lara Croft Way and Mercian Way. in a larger map

An important choice to make: your browser, New update from Microsoft KB976002 is not very user friendly

Today a new Windows Update has been installed (KB976002)  which after booting up your PC will show a screen with the title..

"An important choice to make: your browser".
The window has a title of "Information Regarding Web Browsers".

It has an OK button to click on, if you click that then it shows the screen I have pasted in here, it also shows this if you click on the close button.
It shows a random selection of 9 choices of browsers.
Below each one are two buttons labelled "Install" and "Tell me more".
Apparently this update is something to do with Microsoft having to make people aware that they do have a choice as regards which web browser they wish to use, so the “Web browser choice screen” has been added to Internet Explorer users in Europe, its required by the European Commission.
This windows update is being rolled out in March 2010. So if you have not seen this yet then you will very soon (unless you have turned off Windows updates).

I think this browser choice screen is very badly thought out because there is NO option to click "I am happy to stay with my current browser choice, Ignore and don't remind of this again".
On my PC I have the latest versions IE8, Firefox, Opera and Chrome already installed yet as you can see the screen that shows does not say "Already installed" below those browsers.
Surely this is a fundamental error in the layout of this screen as its not very obvious what you need to do to ignore this Browser Choice screen.

If you click on the "Select Later" button then this just hides the Browser Choice window until you reboot next time.

On my Windows 7 machine, when you reboot after this update has installed you will notice that the shortcut to IE on your Quick launch taskbar has gone! I bet lots of people are going to google "My Internet Explorer icon has vanished on Windows 7" after this windows update has gone on.
You will notice as well as the IE8 icon vanishing from your quick launch bar that you now have a new icon on the desktop called "Browser Choice", if you run that then you will get the browser choice window.
I guess the idea of this is to force you to choose IE over other available browsers.

On my XP SP3 machines , when you reboot after this update has been installed it actually runs the Browser choice window without any interaction.

So what do you need to do?
Windows XP:
Well if you are happy with what you already use and want to keep things as they were simply click OK on the first screen then close the second screen. Now delete the Browser Choice icon from your desktop.
Reboot and thats it back to normal. It won't bother asking you ever again.

Windows 7:
Well if you are happy with what you already use and want to keep things as they were simply click OK on the first screen.
If you want to keep Internet Explorer goto the task bar and right click on Internet explorer and select "Pin to Task bar" then close the second screen. Now delete the Browser Choice icon from your desktop.
Reboot and thats it back to normal.
I do not have Vista any more so not sure how that behaves, perhaps someone can post a comment to say if its the same as Windows 7.

Hope this helps those people out there who are not sure.

The screen that shows when you click the OK button on the first screen takes you to this page :
http://www.browserchoice.eu/BrowserChoice/browserchoice_en.htm

For information about this Windows update :
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=976002

There is also a shorcut icon on the desktop which runs :
C:\WINDOWS\system32\browserchoice.exe

If you goto Start - Run and type msconfig and then click on the startup tab you can see its set to run browserchoice every time your computer starts up.


One thing I also don't understand is the selection of browsers its has to offer, Everyone I'm sure will know all of the popular ones such as Firefox, Opera, Safari and Chrome but also listed are several browsers that I have never heard of, also some that have not been updated for ages such as Maxthon which seems to have been abandoned back in 2008.
As a web designer I have kept en eye on what browsers are popular as things change over the years. There is an upto date table month by month which shows which browsers are popular. See this here :
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
As you can see people KNOW they have a choice of web browser with Firefox being a clear winner these days.
People that only use Internet Explorer are most likely people that don't even know that there are different browsers available, so to suddenly offer a bewilldering range of browsers to these people is going to cause trouble.

I dare say in the days to follow this update will cause lots of chaos with PC users not knowing what to do.

Andy