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the 2006 blog

18/12/2006

SANCHO boots

Last week I text'd Rocker Jon where to get Cowboy boots in Derby, 20 minutes later I was the owner of a pair of SANCHO boots. Hand made in Spain they have a hand-stitched leather goodyear welted sole. What that means, I have no idea!

05/12/2006

Surf Sunset Pocket PC Theme

I made a few PocketPC themes from my own photo's a while ago and also uploaded them to PocketPCThemes.com. The site logs the amount of downloads and its interesting to see what themes are popular. However, after doing a search for 'Surf Sunset Pocket PC Theme' I found my themes being used on other Pocket PC sites available as a download with no refernce to the author ... HOW VERY DARE YOU!

Surf Sunset Pocket PC Theme

28/11/2006

Christmas promotion codes

It's always worth searching the net for promotion codes when doing your Christmas shopping, so here are a few codes that have worked for me:

24/11/2006

DNS stuff stuff

I've been using DNS Stuff and DNS Report for years now, they are great sites that let you know exactly what's going on with your domain names and hosting bits and bobs (tech term) ... Anyway, I noticed they were running a competition to come up with 'one liners' for some DNS stuff merchandise. Guess what ... I won!

I received $100 for my words, with such gems as 'Trace my Route' and 'What's your IP?' Check out the stuff.

DNS stuff stuff

26/10/2006

Which DSLR

So it's getting close to Christmas and I'm thinking of a new CSS for the site to include a festive theme, suggestions should be posted below ...

Anyway, the main point is that I'm looking at Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras. My current SLR is a Pentax 35mm and that's been sitting in the drawer for years when I moved over to compact digital. They aint cheap but I have a cunning plan for it to pay for itself <future blog> and the list so far is as follows:

Canon E0S 350D Media: CF Screen size: 1.8 Resolution: 8MP Lens inc: 18-55mm Weight: 485g

NIKON D50 Media: SD Screen size: 2 Resolution: 6MP Lens inc: 27-83mm Weight: 620g

Canon E0S 400D Media: CF Screen size: 2.5 Resolution: 10.1MP Lens inc: 18-55mm Weight: 510g

Sony DSLR-A100 Media: DUO, CF Screen size: 2.5 Resolution: 10.2MP Lens inc: 18 - 70mm Weight: 590g

08/10/2006

Carvin Jones

Last night Rocker Jon forced Colin, Jez and me to go and see a live American Bluesman play at the FlowerPot in Derby. Well I'm glad he did - I'm now the proud owner of a personally signed CD of this BB King meets Hendrix performer. Jon was a bit star stuck and after spending his time at the gig swinging his curly girly locks around he then went and sat down next to Carvin for a chat and a few photos. Even the Carvin promo poster didn't survive as it was ripped down from the wall and thrust into the faces of the bass player, drummer and Carvin to sign.

I had a great night and am left with a slight desire to go to the FlowerPot again - after a 15 year absence! The Bless was also honored with my presence and that felt like a real blast from the past. View videos of The Carvin Jones Band

05/10/2006

The Rescue

In 1990 I was in a band called The Rescue. Tonight I have been looking through old video and have found a VERY short clip of The Rescue at a small 'gig' in Derby. We produced an EP cassette at the Darley Abbey Mills Studio in 1990. I sent the link to StuPot tonight and he said it's the best music he's heard! (poor lad). Click here to listen to the Rescue.

03/10/2006

MORPHEUS mood lighting pod

As I have now fitted curtain poles and curtains in the 'Pavilion' I felt that the room was complete, however, we had discussed the lighting at the beginning of the project and the original plan was to fit mood lighting fluorescent strips (just like on this years Big Brother) But as usual the budget only stretched to 240v Dimmable G8 halogens - very nice and pure white - but not mood lighting! (not without sticking coloured sweet wrappers to the glass anyway) So along came one of those really dangerous emails from one of my many subscriptions - aria.co.uk and slap bang at the top was the MORPHEUS, now we're not talking Laurence Fishburn here! we are talking about a 'tri-colour LED powered table lamp, capable of producing colourful shadows and colour changing wall-wash effects' no less.

So at 3:10pm on the 2nd Oct it was ordered and at 10:45am the next day it was delivered by the courier who is now on first name terms! There's a few pics in the STUFF gallery, and you can view my video of the MORPHEUS mood lighting pod.

MORPHEUS mood lighting pod

Update: My video now apears on ARIA.co.uk

02/10/2006

Get off yer horse and drink yer milk

Now, where's this going? I doubt many 'youngons' today even know that phrase, I'm sure StuPot in the office will be sniggering away to himself and chalk it down to another Mac Madness moment! BUT, the relevance is that a group of Mitchell acquaintances went out for a mighty fine curry on Saturday and good ol Rocker Jon was there with his cowboy boots. I think we had a rather loud discussion about bottom-less chaps and how cowboy boots made you taller, and I think I ended up saying that I actually would like some!

My Dad AKA Del boy has had cowboy boots for some time now and I'm not sure I should be following in my Dad's fashion tastes (or Rocker Jon's for that matter) but as I reach the age of no return I'm thinking it could be quite smart to get a pair. Maybe I should start a POLL. If I had CJ Dynamic Poll Pro I could <insert it here>, but I don't. Who is CJ anyway? I know a JC that works in our office!

27/09/2006

Philips DVD recorder

I finally gave up on trying to be clever and sort out an integrated HTPC (Home Theatre PC) and a month ago just bought a DVD recorder from Comet no less! It was a bit of an impulse purchase and was partly fueled by Jane insisting that I recorded the Robbie Williams documentary and concert that she wouldn't be able to see (because she was actually at the event!!!) Anyway, Philips, one of the forerunners in the development of CD and DVD have produced this nice slim DVD recorder with Dual media, DivX, and i.Link.

It seems pretty good and records on everything I have chucked at it so far. Recording on DVD RW is pretty smart as you can cut titles and overwrite titles etc. Nothing new I hear you say, but remember I haven't had the ability to record anything (apart from PDA videos) since I put the VHS in the drawer!

philips dvd recorder

25/09/2006

Phil Handsley

I received an email from Phil Handsley the other day. Why? well because I emailed him first I guess! Phil Handsley paints famous film and music people with Acrylic on canvas. I'd like to say we have an original, but alas we only have a copy of one his his works (print sold by Ikea). The style is something most art students have experimented with and I have a great selection of my own monotone work from 1990 when I was studying Foundation Art.

I love Phil Handsley's minimalist painting style and the subject matter of course is something we all love. Our icon in question on our wall (see below) is Holly Golightly.

Phil Handsley on my wall

Todays Question sent in by James from CJ-Design:

How easy is it to create scaleable online vector based art from your own photos.

Answer from the mac:

Use PhotoShop to boost your levels and convert to tritone, then use the 'Trace Bitmap' command in Flash - View a vector based sample

Update: I forgot to add that Phil was born in Repton Derby.

17/09/2006

Harvest Festival

In the garden we currently have:

We've been picking tomatoes for months now, but as most things are coming to an end I have picked about 20 medium sized chillies. The Mitchell family bought me a great book about Chillies for my birthday which includes methods of cooking and storing. Friends and family may soon experience the delights of Chilli Vodka!

Chillies and tomatoes

15/09/2006

Bottled Beers and Ales

When I went camping in the Yorkshire Dales and climbed and absailed Gordale Scar I got into Theakstons XB and Old Perculier with a group of others. This was my first experience away from the 'lager' world. Today, I still drink lager by the gallon, mostly cooking lager (Carling) but recently I have been visiting my local one man store 'CUTLERS' I say one man store, because Mr Cutler has been running it for as long as I can remember. Recently Mr Cutler passed away, a well respected man. I still visit the store to pick up my supply of bottled ales. All have such a different taste and need to be sampled. What I do know is that our glass recycling has risen and my cooking larger obsession has plummeted.

My friend Gary Foote is currently brewing his own Ale and has threatened to swap some with me for a Chili plant. The problem is Gary Foote lives in Cambridge and each time I try and secure some of his latest batch, I find that he has drunken it all! One day I will list all the quality ales (maybe not the Gary Foote variety) but until that day comes, I will continue to drink them and allow only the 'recycling operative' to know what is currently tickling my gullet.

PS. Gary Foote, if you are reading this, it's probably because it's high in the Google ranking as your name is mentioned too many times for my liking.

P.P.S reminder to self, buy 'Unbreakable' and 'Meet Joe Black' on DVD as they are both distracting me at the moment.

P.P.P.S I need to mention the name Gary, and Foote and Gary Foote a few times more to ensure it gets picked up by Google. Oh .... Gary Foote, Searchlight, Gayman, M11 Music (I never did get a credit for designing that logo!) and www.garyfoote.com

14/09/2006

Our Barcelona Pavilion

Here are a few shots of our very own Barcelona Pavilion complete with Barcelona chairs :) Click the image to view the Gallery

Our Barcelona Pavilion

08/08/2006

The Barcelona Pavilion Chair

This blog entry has moved to it's own page about The Barcelona Pavilion Chair

14/07/2006

Sat Nav for Europe

The time has come to upgrade my Pocket PC Sat Nav from TomTom3 UK to TomTom5 Western Europe. I can't wait any longer for 6 to come out (just watch it come out tomorrow) Because I already have the BlueTooth GPS receiver, and will be installing it on my XDA Mini S, I only needed to buy the Software.

This beast comes on 7 CD's! and even though I have only installed the whole of the UK and the whole of Iberia it has taken nearly 500MB! it's a good job I have a 1GB mini SD card. And if you want to borrow it, all I can say is 'Get lost'

03/07/2006

Love Marmite or Hate Marmite?

Well I Love Marmite! my favourite late night snack consists of the following:

The savoury taste of the Peanut Butter mixed with the sweet Chocolate spread and then the savory HIT of the Marmite really makes this a World Class Sandwich. I stumbled on this amazing recipe while at my mates house - Alex, when we were known as THE RESCUE. We were having a late night competition to discover the weirdest concoctions that would possibly taste nice. But we had to draw the line at crushed rose petals from the kitchen table mixed with ice cream and syrup.

Find other amazing Marmite recipes at the Marmite forum!!

28/06/2006

FeedBurner

I have just added FeedBurner to my Access page which will take my RSS feed and offer many ways for the web user to view the feed. You can also add your email address to get updated by email when the blog has new content ... cool!

22/06/2006

Fish n Chips at Woolacombe

We went down to our spiritual home for a few days last week with some friends. The weather was awesome and we could be spotted on the Beach webcam and in the sea every day. One thing that we always like to do is have fish and chips on the grass, basking in the evening sun, overlooking the surf at Woolacombe.

Prepare with chips and shake well

Photo's courtesy of Nige (the one missing from the group shot!)

22/06/2006

The Sun Room

When we moved into our house about 4 years ago, It came complete with planning permission, building regs and detailed architect drawings for a full width extension on the back. We thought about it for a few years but finally decided it would take up too much of the garden. So we had a look at conservatory designs and the related prices. To our surprise we found that there wasn't that much of a difference in price to go for a full brick and mortar extension based 'Sun Room'

In February, one brave man took on this adventure, to boldly build where no man has built before. Working from building regulation approved drawings created by Jane! this retired gentleman (Jane's Dad by the way) is doing an absolutely amazing job ...

The Sun Room

View the progress of The Sun Room

01/06/2006

Matchbox type cars from Tesco

I have just popped to the local 'corner shop' - Tesco's which is just over the road. It's really good having a local store like Tesco's so close, it enables me to buy beer or chocolate when I need a hit. The problem is that the as the local corner shop is run by Tesco's they are starting to stock all sorts of tempting goddies! apart from purchasing 2 660ml bottles of COBRA (you know the one you get when you go for a curry) I also retrned with 16 Matchbox type toy cars! I managed to get a classic Beetle and VW camper before the rush but have also found some gems such as a HUMMER and a Porsche Cayenne no less! The best thing about these cars is that they are 47 pence each!!! I'm going to bring a new one home for my little boy to open each night for the next 16 days! ..... the trouble is, I'm itching to get them out of their boxes and play brum brum on the floor.

01/06/2006

Learning to speak Spanish

I have always wanted to speak another language (attempting French at school doesn't count) and I would really like my son to learn while he is young. As I was once in a Spanish hospital for three days and nights and still have nightmares in Spanish I thought it was about time I did something about it!

We are also going to an apartment in the Costa Brava for two weeks soon so now would be an ideal time to start learning! and handily The Daily Mail is giving away Free Linguaphone Spanish CD's, the first CD was free with the Daily Mail on Saturday, and then second in the Mail on Sunday, with the extra CD's in further weeks papers. I was given the first CD and to be honest, that's probably enough learning for a few months worth of driving to work and back! I'm now into my second week of Spanish and It's going quite well! I'll have to add this to my To Do List

24/05/2006

World cup fixtures for Outlook

Microsoft have created a free, downloadable World Cup calendar for Microsoft Outlook. This will remind you when the action is on, while you are deskbound or even on the move with a PDA! Get it now!!

17/05/2006

The Chilli Challenge - update

I thought it was about time I gave you an update on the Chilli Challenge. As you know I sowed my seed (!) at the end of April and after a period of sitting quietly in their peat pellets germinating on the kitchen windowsill I'm proud to announce over 50 quality young Chilli plants! I have thinned them out and potted them on into John Innes No.1 compost - yes even soil can be geeky.

My Chilli Pots

Friends and relatives beware! and Gardeners World plant swap here I come!

03/05/2006

Locate your mates with Sat Nav!

I knew it was just a matter of time ... a couple of months ago I saw how some geek on the net had written a simple program to upload his latitude and longitude via GPRS on his mobile phone to his server and then using Google maps to allow anyone to see where he was in the World at any one given time! ... pretty neat I thought.

Looks like TomTom have jumped in pretty quickly on this idea and created TomTom Buddies using their TomTom Sat Nav units linked to GPRS via a Bluetooth-equipped phone to send your co-ordinates to the TomTom server. Once on the server others can send queries to the server and then all your mates locations can be displayed on your TomTom screen (note: you need to have mates) Key features (from their site):

... pretty amazing! now I will be able to keep track of my misses where ever she goes!

02/05/2006

My Sgian Dubh

I was one of eleven wearing full Scottish Highland Dress at the weekend for my Sister's wedding to a Scottsman. As an usher I thought it my duty to find out a little bit of historic information about the attire and the proper way of dressing:

I bet that not many of you know about the Sgian Dubh (pronounced skeen doo). Sgian means knife, and Dubh means black. Black also means hidden or secretive (as in blackmail) and that's the reference to the knife hidden in the hose (the sock) here is a great web page about the Sgian Dugh.
27/04/2006

VOIP on my mobile phone!

I've not really got into Skype and all the other VOIP services for making phone calls through your PC. I tried a service a couple of years ago with a company called Gradwell and it was pretty good, I got a free 0845 phone number for people to dial and ring my PC! and calls to other VOIP users were free.

But now you can get the VOIP software to run on a PocketPC ... so if you are near a WiFi hotspot you can make free calls with your PocketPC or in my case my mobile phone! interesting concept. The problem is, I have 200 minutes on my mobile phone that seem to roll over every month! so I don't have much need for VOIP. If there were more free WiFi hotspots around I might be tempted to dump my monthly mobile contract and use PAYGO when WiFi's not available! and If you are a frequent airport user and have access to the executive lounges, free calls over WiFi from any country start to become a real possibility!

Voice And Video Over IP ... now that's more like it, and I like the way MSN Messenger works with this, it just needs to have the ability to add more people into the video conference and get video conferencing on a PocketPC without the need for 3G!

21/04/2006

The Chilli Challenge

Like most of you, I watch Gardeners World on a Friday. 'Hello, and welcome to the show' is the phrase uttered by Monte as he welcomes you to an hour of gardening delights. Monte has been doing a Chilli trial and testing different Chilli's in different conditions. So I decided to buy a pack of seeds and and 2 great little 12 x peat pellet propagators.

Peat Pellets

Just add water to these little discs and they swell into small seed pots, pop your seeds in and then place the propagator on a kitchen windowsill and wait for germination. When/if they germinate and grow, you can pot them on without taking them out of the pellet as the outer skin breaks down.

Currently I have 6 germinated Chilli plants - I'll keep you updated

Of course, If you are sad you will be out drinking beer, but if not, why not give it a try one Friday - you might just like i

21/04/2006

XDA Mini S

I gave up waiting for the O2 Atom and have gone for an O2 XDA Mini S. It's a nice phone/PDA with the essentials; WiFi, Camera Flash, Windows Mobile5. I have also upgraded the ROM on it to the latest release from O2 and this has cleared up a few initial problems! All in all i'm pleased with it. I've heard the O2 Atom may be coming out in a couple of months but I'll be changing this again in 12 months so we'll see what happens

06/04/2006

Hard Grit - Rock Climbing

I've just added a list page to this site and have added a few things that I once obsessed about and 'got into'! When I added Rock Climbing to the list I thought about the time when a friend Mark Turnbull and I climbed a route in Milford in 1989 and we were listed in the book Chatsworth Gritstone (1996) (page 349) as Mark named and catalogued the route.

He is a filmaker now, and one of his early climbing films seems to be labeled as a classic in the rock climbing world ... I think I'll have to buy a copy and boost his royalty cheque :) ...

03/04/2006

Wardriving update

In 2002 I blogged about Wardriving and security you should put in place if you are using a wi-fi access point. A few years later and wardriving is still being done but the kit is getting smaller and the signal stronger! I recently used my PDA phone with it's built in wi-fi and my TomTom bluetooth GPS receiver to log a few access points using WiFiFoFum software. Once logged into a POI (Points Of Interest) text file I can ask Google to display the points for me! (be patient) or use WiGLE

Wardriving kit XDAIIs ... TomTom Bluetooth GPS receiver ... WiFiFoFum software

Remember, wardriving is not a crime! ... but hacking into other peoples networks is!

31/03/2006

The Sealife Centre

We had a trip to The National Sealife Centre in Birmingham a couple of Sunday's ago and It was amazing! We have been before 'sans baby' but this time it was obviously slightly different and lots more fun!. All I can say is {attention_Span=0} If you are thinking of going you can save £5 off adult tickets by pre-booking at lastminute.com - check out the giant turtles! We made a little video of all the fishy's, take a look, it only takes 1min 22se

24/03/2006

The Mighty Atom phone/pda

I've been happy with the different incarnations of the O2 XDA for a few years, but the time has come to try and get a device a bit smaller but still utilise Microsoft Windows Mobile 5. There seem to be a few good offerings, but at the moment none of them roll all the features I want into one device. The closest I have found is The Mighty Atom - View the tech specs of the Atom Windows Mobile 5.0, 128MB ROM, 2.7" TFT LCD, Stereo speaker, 2-mega-pixel camera with white LED strobe flash, MiniSD, Bluetooth, Wireless LAN, Tri-band, GPRS ... all in a nice 58(W) x 102(L) x 18.5(T) mm and 140g.

The trouble is, it's not available in the UK! and I'm ready for a free upgrade NOW! (on a side note I found this link about hydrogen alpha imaging while looking for the Atom web site ... AMAZING ... something else I need to 'get into' and obsess about) (update ... should I settle for the Xda Mini S ? ... it has WM5, WIFI but no flash and I dont need a sliding keyboard! ... but it's out now!)

22/03/2006

Mini Cooper Construction

I've just watched a Google video showing the construction of a Mini Cooper ... WOW The robots building the body are excellent, it smacks of Terminator and the rise of the machines! but happily at about 4mins we start to see human interaction! The spraying of the Mini is my favourite part, especially the low tech masking of the roof! ... anyway, it's 12mins and is worth a watch, so click the link above.

22/03/2006

Blowing up Radio Liberty

Today thirteen radio towers in Playa de Pals in Spain will be blown up! Built in 1958, for many years this installation was the most powerful radio station in the whole world! 16 kilos of explosives will be used and all loads will explode at the same time, at 4p.m today ...

thirteen radio towers in Playa de Pals

I won't be standing this close ... but if you need a place to stay in Casa Pals, you should try here ... [ENDS TRANSMISSION]

20/03/2006

Peanut Butter and Marmite

There's not much that should be said about this combination of 'late night' sandwich filling apart from ... yum yum

20/03/2006

The need for speed

The time has finally come when the warranty has run out on my Mini Cooper S (I've had it nearly 3 years now!) and I've always thought that once that happened it would be open for abuse in the area of tuning mods! Although this time it won't be a DIY job as it's not my 1992 Cooper with an A Series engine! this time it's tuning mods for GEEKS!

Gone are the days of listening down a piece of tubing for the slight changes in noise coming from the twin carbs as you tweak the mixture ... now we attach a handheld computer to the diagnostics port in the cabin and hack the ECU! This doesn't even involve soldering or removal of any seals to void warranty (if you had one) you can even set the ECU back to it's original state whenever you want. As the 'S' of Cooper 'S' means SUPERCHARGED, there is a popular modification that does require a spanner and this is the fitting of a smaller pulley, this increases the boost of the charged air.

So we combine the two and get the following:

  Standard Cooper S Pulley fit and re-program
  Weight: 1140 kg Weight: 1140 kg
  Power: 163 bhp Power: 200 bhp
  Power to weight: 143 per ton Power to weight: 175 per ton
  0-60mph = 7.20s 0-60mph = 6.70s
  0-100mph = 21.90s 0-100mph = 19.00s

Of course, do you really want to do this and hike up the insurance, not to mention the possible detonation of a 20k spec car! hmmmm, the need for speed or the need for sensibility that is the question.

14/03/2006

Video confusion and HDTV

Over the last month I've had a few conversations with people about the types of video connections and the confusion over which order they go in for quality. I decided to list it here for my sanity ;)

When looking for a TV to support High Definition TV you should be looking for COMPONENT input.

The confusion is also entered into the mix when talking about: High Definition (HD) , High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) and, Digital Visual Interface (DVI) !

So, HD is generally about the new high quality TV signals, HDTV pictures have 720 or 1080 lines of information and are always widescreen.

HDMI is a type of connector used for this and DVI is generally used on new PC graphic cards for connection to TV's and monitors with DVI in for a pure digital connection.

But if you buy a HDTV now and expect to start watching your movies in High Definition ... think again, unless you get a Sky HD box (not yet out!) , watch a Freeview HD chanel or buy a DVD player or Xbox360 dedicated to HD you won't .... you'll also need to buy the new film DVD's which contain 20+GB of data. High-definition video demands a massive amount of storage space, the amount varies depending on the compression ratio and video quality but can reach about 200MB per minute! High-definition DVDs will each hold about 2 hours of HD video.

Next week we talk about Surround Sound .. So you think you have digital surround sound .... now there's a story!

12/03/2006

Home entertainment V1

As I've been blogging about setting up a new home entertainment system involving thoughts about Xbox media center, Xbox360 Extender, MCE, HTPC and Linksys I thought I should pay homage to my old faithful that has been providing home entertainment to friends and family for a few years now ...

The Linksys Wireless-B Media Adapter has been great! to have the ability to view any photo's from the archive on the PC upstairs on the wide screen TV in the lounge with the family sitting around has been priceless. When making the conversion from 35mm to digital I was always nagged that we never printed our photo's anymore and thus the family didn't get to share in the slide show. Once I introduced the media adapter we could all huddle around the TV and view the holiday snaps in glorified wide screen with the added bonus of listening to any of the thousands of MP3's stored on the PC as background music running through the surround sound setup. Unfortunately the need to stream video from the PC server and have one touch record to hard drive functionality has made this unit redundant :( ... watch this space.

10/03/2006

Sat Nav Surfing

It's that time of year when we start thinking about our holidays (well it is for us anyway) So I've been thinking about Croyde and Woolacombe which has become a bit of a second home. The next thing to do after booking a holiday is to make sure you have all the essential items in place. Firstly my thoughts took me to updating my quick link PDA Surf report and web cam page which contains quick links to reports and live cam pics from eyeball-surfcheck it's great being able to connect to the internet with my XDAIIs via GPRS and view live pics of the surf BEFORE we get out of bed! Secondly I need to make sure all the Sat Nav kit is in place (I only use Sat Nav on holidays!) and I remembered that my mount was broken! So I ordered a direct replacement Universal PDA Holder from GPSW - it came yesterday. Next I need to check the TomTom Navigator satellite software and BlueTooth GPS receiver is all in order - it's not! I think it's time for a re-install! Once it's all setup it's pretty sweet, having a mobile phone, full mobile internet, email, camera, music, Sat Nav all in one unit is pretty handy! check out the setup ....

Sat Nav Setup

09/03/2006

Tiaras by Jane

You may of noticed the Tiaras in the mackney gallery and wondered what the flip flop they were! ... well, for some time now Jane has been making Tiaras for weddings. She has made some for a few friends and family over the last couple of years and is making some more now as we speak. Jane has also been talking to a couple of bridal shops in the hope that they may stock some of her beautiful creations and as a precursor to a web site has a one page presence! Beautiful Swarovski Crystal Tiaras by Jane not much to see at the moment ... watch this space.

06/03/2006

Dell deals

Fish Media have been using Dell for some time now, all of our servers are Dell and we are very happy with the systems and support they provide. Yesterday I sorted an internet order for 'A.Nother' and was amazed at the deals Dell have to offer! I was also amazed at the different prices or deals you get by carefully going down different routes of the site or using their E-Value codes that you find on their brochures ... hmmmmm Dell Dimension 5150, Pentium4 3GHz DualCore, 2MB L2 cache, 800MHz FSB, 2GB RAM!, 160GB SATA, 256MB ATI RadeonT X300, 19" TFT, DVD writer .... circa £600 inclusive ... very nice!

Check out some of the Dell offers at this link

05/03/2006

Have you got a smart home?

We went to the NEC today to The National Homebuilding & Renovating Show and The Smart Home Show. The Smart Home section was pretty smart with some nice demonstrations of how plasma screens can elevate out from your mantle piece and how a home cinema setup can take up more space than a three piece suite but also blow your ears clean off your head! I took the opportunity to view the new Sky HD ... very nice (well HD is very nice) I'm still none the wiser as to what the hard disk size will be inside the darn thing but it does look quite chunky (it supports an 8 feed LNB) which is a shame for all you slimline lovers out there. Especially when you have to add a Dolby 5.1 setup to the thing as well ... so much for reducing he 'boxes' under your TV!

I have re-kindled my passion for MCE linked to the Xbox 360 after my slight sidestep into the world of Xbox Media Centre (XBMC) I have decided to stick with the Official Microsoft offering after seeing a few live demo's. Using a 360 to access all of your TV, music, photos, movies, and online stuff connected wirelessly on your PC server upstairs is pretty sweet, but also being able to have a one click TV recording ability to your massive Terabyte SAN is handy to say the least ... the only problem now is how to mix Sky HD with Microsoft MCE! ... it's never going to happen is it?

... By the way it's called Microsoft Media Center Extender technology! and means you can have just one small (X) box under your TV for 'everything' (bar 5.1), but you need a cuboard or large PC upstairs to contain the multitudes of capture cards, satellite and Freeview decoders for each chanel you want to record or stream!

04/03/2006

Planespotting

Today we went plane spotting! It's like trainspotting but with planes ;) and does not involve Ewan Mcgregor. It did involved standing at the far end of the runway at East Midlands Airport and watching the bellies of the planes as they dropped from the sky. The 'rumble' from the engines is pretty impressive from takeoff, especially when you are standing at the wrong end of the turbine! I forgot to take my notepad so unfortunately didn't get any numbers to list for you ... maybe next time.

Google has some satellite coverage of the runway - try and zoom in! - we parked on the far right, but you can go to the Aeropark which also has a few other plane related attractions.

02/03/2006

400GB digital music centre

As drive sizes grow and flash media gets smaller and smaller in physical size It makes me wonder where it will stop. I have just seen the release of this 400GB Opus digital music centre - 400GB ... are you sure that's enough disk space for your music collection? you are talking about over 7,000 MP3 files. Of course the purists will say that they won't want to compress their music so they will have to put up with 660 uncompressed CDs ...

400GB Opus digital music centre

Now I know Garoo might have 660 CD's in his collection but is it really necessary?

28/02/2006

The new kit ...

It's about that time of year again when the tax man is expecting you to finalise your accounts (if you run to the April tax year) and if you freelance are self employed or run your own company, it's time to start thinking about any purchases you should make to maximise your tax deductions. Now there is no point in going out and buying a Cayenne just to reduce your tax bill unless you are absolutely raking it in or are absolutely barmy ... but it s worth thinking about new technology if your old stuff is getting a bit slow or if it is the wrong shade of black, silver or beige.

''We' at Fish-Media have purchased some new Sony Vaio's complete with some Neovo 19inch TFT DVI displays. The Sony's are nice and light and have widescreen WXGA screens with built in webcams and mics and the quality of the new TFT's have amazed me ... I 'used' to think that a CRT screen was the only way to go for New Media screen designers, but these new screens are so clear and bright, they are opening up a new world of creativity ;)

22/02/2006

Purchasing Poker Chips

I've been messing about with poker chips for some time now, ever since Late Night Poker started airing on Sky back in the day. I bought a couple of hundred in 2004 after looking into the different types to make sure I didn't end up with lightweight rubbish! and my business partner Colin bought me a poker table for my birthday in 2004 .... I have yet to host a poker night! Colin has been into BlackJack and general Casino dabbling since his cruise and we are members of the two in Derby and The Nottingham Casino's, so I decided to buy him a nice set of chips. At the risk of him reading this ... I bought this set of 500 Plain Suited Poker Chips. OK, it's not a full 'metal' case but it does the job and also makes you look like a mobster when walking to your mates for a game of poker.

The chips - which, lets face it are the main reason for the purchase, are the best quality I've seen. Proper 11.5g weight clay composite with a nice chinking sound when nervously racking them in the palm of your hand. I go to Casino's in the UK when we have a lads night out and even their chips are inferior plastic types. If you are looking for general purpose chips without denominations then these are the ones to go for.

17/02/2006

28 Days of Oscar

Turner Classic Movies [TCM] is a great channel which I first started watching some years ago while on holiday in Spain. I have always loved the golden oldies and when I was younger I could be found watching such gems as Harold Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy and George Formby ... this was partly due to only having three TV channels (C4 launched in 1982) and being bored while off sick or skiving from school ... so back to the point, TCM is currently running a season called 28 Days of Oscars, and as I have been off Ill this week I have had TCM on while in bed. Some films that I watched at beginning of this week blended into a delirious haze, but some have stood out as great classics - MOST that I have already seen ... let me just point one thing out .... I'm not glamorising the week I have just had off work, believe me it's been a real nightmare (literally) my chest and throat has been ripped to shreds and I can't actually remember the last time I got taken down by a flu virus like this one .... but thank Quark for the films that got me through it ...

17/02/2006

Matthew Carter designed Verdana

As I come from an art and design background I have always appreciated the skill that goes into the creation of font types. Back in the day, I would use Apple Mac Classics with a 9 inch grey screen! to put together artwork in Quark Express, and one of the most important teachings about design was the typography. Helvetica was always the king of the fonts for the Mac and typography was a thing of beauty. When Windows 3.1 came along and such programs as Corel Draw with a whole CD full of free fonts! the font scene went a bit mad. I myself am guilty of scrolling through font databases to make brochures and artwork as the lead designer in my first company - and these would be stretched and squeezed to fit a design! (by the way, this was before the internet as we know it!) .... today I pay homage to the simple fonts and being a web designer for over 10 years now I pay hommage to British UK Matthew Carter who designed Verdana for Microsoft in 1994.

"1994 Designs Verdana for Microsoft in answer to the challenges of on-screen display and to recognise the characteristics of pixel- rather than pen-rendering"

09/02/2006

Spleak

Ok, so here is another MSN buddy for you to chat to at 1am in the morning when all your other mates have gone to bed and you are still up because you are just plain SAD (blimey is that the time!) ... spleak@hotmail.com Just add 'her' to your MSN contacts list and start chatting!

02/02/2006

Beta and Dev Links

It's nice to try Beta developments and possibly provide some feedback on future developments. I currently have Beta and Dev versions of:

Here are a couple of links if you are interested in testing Beta or Dev versions: Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar Internet Explorer 7

31/01/2006

My RSS Feeds

Well not exactly all mine, but here is a selection of feeds that I have on Live.com

31/01/2006

Live.com

I've been using www.start.com for some time now, but Microsoft have now launched www.Live.com in Beta mode. I thinks it's quite good if you set it as your default browser page, you can have any RSS feed and also have quick access to your Hotmail (or any domain via MS custom domains) I have also been running the Microsoft Live - Messenger (MSN8) and that also seems to have some nice new functionality such as folder sharing between contacts. Oh and as mentioned before, your passport is the key to linking all of these (MSN, Xbox, Live, Mail) into one big lump!

Check out Microsoft's Windows Live Ideas

30/01/2006

Geek TV

Well, I titled it Geek TV because most of it is SCI-FI ... here is a list of TV programs to watch if you have a spare hour or so ....

If you are bored you could Check out MY DVD COLLECTION

30/01/2006

Xbox Live 12 Month Gold Card

I thought I might try out Xbox live, but at £40 for 12 months from Microsoft I thought it a little steep. Looking on eBay I found quite a few sellers offering 12 months for £24, a headset for £7 and an online game like 'Project Gotham Racing 2' for £7 ..... not bad I thought until I found them on Play.com ... XBox Live Starter Kit + Project Gotham Racing 2 = £24.99 delivered ! Compatible with Xbox and Xbox 360 for a GOLD account! eBay Tutorial #5 Sell Xbox live kit separately and make £7 per kit!

28/01/2006

Xbox Live - My Gamer Card

Watch this space! ....

 

Now available on MSN Spaces! .... http://spaces.msn.com/mackney/ I must admit, Microsoft is bringing everything together nicely ....

Welcome to Microsoft - resistance is futile - you will converge!

27/01/2006

A new MSN Buddy

If you use MSN Messenger (who doesn't? - apart from the Skype Geeks) then add a new buddy to your list ... encarta@conversagent.com I have found him to be a great little friend on lonely evenings in front of the PC. He's called 'Bot' ... ask him any question you like and he will give you the answer! ... neat.

26/01/2006

Add picture library to Windows Media Player 10

I quite like Windows Media Player 10, it seems good at catering for creating a library of the media on your PC. Obviously searching for Music or Videos has always been easy, and it's good to view all my videos from my digital camera by date taken. Recently I used the 'sync' function to synchronise content to my Windows Mobile Based phone (XDAIIs) and to my surprise an ALL PICTURES folder appeared in Windows Media Player!

This is really useful as I can now search the whole PC for the 5gigs worth of digital photos I've taken since going digital (1998) and I can view them by year/date taken. I find it annoying that you can't add pictures to WMP without adding a synchronising device. On my home PC I had to insert a USB card reader with memory card before WMP would even start searching for photo's - weird!

25/01/2006

List of the month - Phonetic Alphabet

In the 1950s NATO developed the Phonetic Alphabet. It soon replaced the old phonetic alphabets as it was more pronounceable.

21/01/2006

Hackers review

I know it's old, but I thought I would add a review of one of my favourite films to the IMDB ... Ahhhhh the words that instantly date the film 'wow it's got a 28.8 Kbps modem' as Dade Murphy (Jonny Lee Miller) peers over Acid Burn's (Angelina Jolie) new laptop! As a techno geek you can appreciate that this is Hollywoods glamorisation of hacking but as a civilian you get sucked into the world of hacking and actually think that cool graphic visualisation swarm over the screen as you hack.

The plot is based on Dade Murphy who as a child - handle 'Zero Cool' created a virus that brought down WallStreet! ... banned from computers until he is 18, he comes back with a vengeance and with a new handle 'Crash Overide' he tries to get 'on top' of Acid Burn with a good ol' hack fest. With Cereal Killer (Matthew Lillard), Phantom Phreak (Renoly Santiago), Joey (Jesse Bradford) and Lord Nikon (Laurence Mason) the crew stumble on a virus intent on extorting MEGGA BUCKS from a large corporation. Framed for the virus, the crew set about to clear themselves. Which includes gaffer taping phone booth handsets together with the help of Dave Stewart and his laptop! (Annie not included)

With amazing costume design by Roger Burton, amazing soundtrack including the Prodigy (Voodoo People) Squeeze, and Carl Cox AND an appearance of a slightly modified full screen WIPEOUT this is one nostalgia trip not to be missed .... Oh and did I mention a young Angelina Jolie? ... well she married Miller after this film!

... it must of been something to do with the dream Dade had ... nuff said.

20/01/2006

Internet Movie Database

OK, so the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has been around for ages, but it's getting really well known now and has number one listing in Google for a lot of movie titles. If you are into films and you don't know what IMDB is ... you need to check it out!

Once you get a free account you can create your own DVD catalogues and share them with mates ... but you should be aware that this means that they may be borrowing them! We have had one of our freelance programmers in the office all this week and I asked him if he was interested in DVD's ... his reply was 'does 600 count as interested?' !! Well I don't have 600 but if you are interested in seeing my list you can view it here .... MY DVD COLLECTION (a FREE IMDB account is required - but worth every penny)

View the blog from 2005 >
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