March, 2007
Apple iRack
March 30, 2007
Apple seem to be leaders in design with most people playing catch-up these days, now they are launching a series of new products including the iRack!
Check out the video below at which they are unveiled – comedy with a message!
Continue reading »Upscaling DVD Players
March 29, 2007
After buying my first High Definition TV (in the form of the very good Samsung LE32R74BDX) a few weeks back and have started enjoying the improved pictures that High Definition (HD) provides in the form of Xbox 360 gaming and videos played from my HTPC (Home Theatre PC).
I’m currently holding off on buying Sky HD due to the costs involved for a somewhat limited number of channels that are currently available, plus I’m finding I’m watching less actual TV these days, so the value for money of this ‘home entertainment investment’ really isn’t there for me. However, if the price of the Sky boxes fall further and/or the additional subscription costs dropped, I could be tempted though! 
Xbox 360 Elite!
March 28, 2007
Following my post on a possible new Xbox 360 model – it was only speculation at the time, it could have turned out to be a big hoax for April Fools, but Microsoft have now officially unveilled it and rather nice it looks too!
Channel 10 have a very interesting interview with Albert Penello from Microsoft who answers some important questions that were being asked all over the Internet about the Xbox 360 Elite. For instance:
- The console and accessories are black in colour,
- A 120GB hard disk,
- It has a HDMI connection port, an included HDMI cable,
- A standard DVD drive (no built-in Hi-Def drive),
- It won’t be a limited edition model.
Heroes or Zeroes?
March 27, 2007
I’ve just recently started watching a new TV show called ‘Heroes‘, which I’d describe as being a cross between Lost and X-Men. It’s a show about normal people developing super powers such as telepathy, seeing the future, healing and being able to fly and what they do with them. What would you do if you had super-powers? Would you save the world? Or use them to your own advantage?
I recommend you take a look at Heroes and give it a few episodes, there’s some great moments in just the early episodes!
Continue reading »Sluggish Firefox
March 27, 2007
One of the best things about Firefox in my opinion is all the different “extensions” you can install into it to add additional functionality. However, over the past month or so I’ve been experiencing a very frustrating time using Firefox – the whole program seemed to be running on a general go-slow.
I’d have problems with just simple things like typing something and then waiting a few seconds for it to catch up with me. Add into that, regular freezing and very slow scrolling through my tabs, it’s really been annoying the hell out of me.
I’d reduced some of the large number of extensions I had installed, but to no avail. I’d been looking at potential background processes which could be sucking up resources and choosing to un-install some, however this didn’t resolve matters neither.
Continue reading »Flash Earth World Map
March 26, 2007
Do you want a flash world map? Well there’s quite a few different mapping tools now available on the Internet including Google Maps, Microsoft’s Live Search etc.
However, I’ve found that these different tools can be using vastly different aerial images. For instance, the area I live in, on Google Maps (and Earth) is a very low resolution image where you cannot even make out where towns are, let alone your own house! Whereas using a flash world map such as Flash Earth, you can quickly switch between the different mapping engines to see which has the best quality images for you – in my case it was Live Search and I can get detailed images of my house and local area.
Continue reading »Lost Island Maps!
March 26, 2007
Do you want to see a Lost island map? If you’re one of the many of us who are still hooked by the Lost TV show that charts the adventure of the survivors of lost Oceanic Flight 815 – then a bunch of lost island maps relating to the island itself and the incidents which have occurred may be of interest to you!
Continue reading »Commodore Gaming PC
March 24, 2007
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the the forthcoming return of Commodore computers, since then the new Commodore-branded PCs were recently unveiled, so I thought I’d best do a follow-up piece.
The new PCs will certainly look different from the old Commodore computers, with the cases having various optional high quality customisable artwork or ‘skins’, however the good old C= logo remains intact on them. Examples of this artwork can be seen at Kotaku.
Continue reading »IPTV – TV On The Internet Is Coming!
March 23, 2007
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) is one way of having TV on Internet. The TV programming is delivered over broadband to your computer or TV. This could normally be done using a separate box connected to your TV for instance, however later this year there will be another option – high definition TV on Internet is streamed through your cheap Xbox 360!
There’s a couple of very informative videos over at GameDrift and Gizmodo that help to demonstrate the power of this IPTV system.
Distributed Computing Software Downloads
March 22, 2007
Folding@home is a distributed computing software system that means you can put your idle computer to good use by means of distributed computing project which is similar to one of the first projects of this type; SETI@home. Distributed computing software uses the spare computing cycles of your home computer by sending it a small chunk of work to process, which alone isn’t a great amount, but when thousands of other computers are also contributing to a project in this manner, all that combined processing power equals a huge supercomputer which can process highly complex data.
In this case, distributed computing software centres around simulating the folding of proteins in the human brain – which when they fold incorrectly cause diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes. Folding@home hopes to help in the medical research of finding cures to these diseases and you can help this research by downloading and running the Folding@home software.
Continue reading »Catherine Tate Meets Tony Blair Video
March 21, 2007
Catherine Tate meets Tony Blair for Comic Relief 2007. – “Am I Bovvered?”
For anyone who missed what I think is one of the best moments of Comic Relief ever, Catherine Tate sketches are usually very funny, but this is brilliant – take a look at the video below.
Continue reading »What Is The Point Of Twitter?
March 21, 2007
I’ve never looked into Twitter before, but have had a quick read up now and my interpretation of it seems to indicate it’s pretty pointless! It’s basically a service whereby you can continuously update people as to what you’re doing at any moment in time. Now to me, if I’m doing something, I’d rather get on and do it giving it my full attention, rather than always having a thought in my mind to be letting other people know I’m doing it.
I’m not someone who’s that bothered what other people are up to unless I have a reason to be, in which case I’d be aware by other means what I’d need to know.
Continue reading »Black Xbox 360 Elite On Its Way?
March 20, 2007
Following rumours that have been flying round the Internet for the past month or two now about a possible new Xbox 360 model, according to Kotaku it’s true – they are reporting that a gaming magazine is unveiling the updated Xbox 360 in their April issue. Apparantly it’s not an April Fool – or at least we’re hoping not – it sure wouldn’t go down well with the gaming community now!
This model has been code-named the “Zephyr” will be priced around $479 and will include these specifications:
- It’s black in colour!
- 120GB Hard Drive – a lot bigger than the current 20GBs, but if the idea is that this will help their IPTV project (TV on Internet), I’d have preferred one around the 200-250GB range for storing Hi-Def TV and movies, surely it wouldn’t added that much more to the cost?
- HDMI port and cable for connection to your Hi-Def TV.
- DVD drive like the original models, so you’ll still need to get the external HD-DVD drive if you want Hi-Def movies – I wonder if they’ll release that in black too, otherwise you’re stuck with a real mis-match there, even I know that and I know nothing about contrasting colours!
XLeague.tv – A UK Televised Gaming League?
March 19, 2007
I came across this website today which sounds pretty interesting as a gaming concept, which I’ve only heard about in the Far East until now – “Televised E-Sports”.
XLeague.tv is UK-based and will launch online next month (April 2007) for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PCs offering an organised online league for next-gen gaming, which will not only offer prizes, but progression to televised tournament games which will be shown on the XLeague TV channel, that is due to launch on Sky in May 2007.
Continue reading »
How To Calibrate LCD Monitor / TV
March 19, 2007
Calibrating my LCD TV/Monitor was what was on my mind last night when I was browsing through my photos using Google’s free Picasa photo software. Whilst playing around with the brightness and colour correction settings of the photos, it struck me that it was pointless changing photos when I’d never actually properly done a LCD TV/Monitor calibration or configured my Viewsonic VX912 LCD monitor since I bought it about 18 months ago.
While this thought was fresh in my mind, I did a Google Search (now located to the right of this article for your convenience!) and found it was actually quite difficult finding something to help me calibrate and properly configure my LCD monitor – I thought that they’d be plenty of LCD TV/monitor calibration tests for LCD monitors by now as you find plenty on DVDs for your LCD TVs (more on this later), however most results I found were for professional paid LCD TV/monitor calibration services – certainly not what I needed in terms of calibrating the LCD monitor of my home computer.
Continue reading »Trump: Bush is the Worst President in History
March 18, 2007
Donald Trump knows his stuff when it comes to business and can certainly train up an Apprentice – by the sounds of it he could train up a President too!
He sure has a good grasp of President Bush and in my opinion it’s quite refreshing to hear someone so high profile really telling like it is to this extent – mind you being a billionaire probably gives you the confidence to do that!
Continue reading »The Internet Is For…World Of Warcraft? (Video)
March 17, 2007
Would you like to see why the Internet was made for World of Warcraft? Well here you go, you can have a World of Warcraft song about it at any rate! World of Warcraft players are a creative bunch aren’t they?
There’s some 8 million people now playing the World of Warcraft massively multiplayer online game – I think it’s fairly safe to say this online gaming thing is becoming more mainstream – there’s even a WoW South Park episode that has been made and you can watch in full!
Continue reading »How To Stop Viruses, Spyware and Adware
March 16, 2007
I often get people asking about how to stop them getting viruses, spyware, adware (aka being able to actually use their pc again) and other junk being installed onto your PC, so I’m outlining a list of some useful information here that should help before you even need to run an adware remover.
1. First of all, be very careful about you actually install onto your PC in terms of programs. For instance, I would recommend you NEVER install any of those Peer-to-Peer (P2P) programs such as Kazaa, WinMX etc. that you can download music and other stuff off – they always contain loads of hidden spyware that will get installed onto your PC – if you want to go down the P2P route, I’d suggest using BitTorrent programs such as uTorrent.
Continue reading »How To Find Amazon Filler Items
March 16, 2007
Amazon.co.uk
I often end up buying some Amazon filler items consumables such as writable CDs and DVDs or printer cartridges just to get the free delivery while in safe knowledge that I’ll use them eventually, but in the meantime I can start to have quite a backlog stacking up.
Continue reading »Who Is ‘The Stig’?
March 15, 2007
Who is “The Stig”? That is the question! Top Gear is one of the best shows currently on TV, they’ve had two “tamed racing drivers” called the Stig during the course of the show to test the cars on the track*.
First there was the original Stig who was suited up all in black, then he was killed off on the show (for talking about his secret identity in a book) by driving off an aircraft carrier.
His replacement was the White Stig who we don’t know much about, we’ve only ever heard from the celebrity guests as describing him as being a great guy!
However, in this interview for a Dutch TV show, for the first time ever, the Stig actually speaks giving away a bit of his actual personality – he seems pretty confident of himself!
Continue reading »