tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9684974744297786932024-03-14T00:29:32.952+00:00Luffer's blogA blog about me, my life and things that interest me.Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-40677636443519070482016-04-14T18:43:00.001+01:002016-04-14T19:06:08.168+01:00VR is real, and it's in my hands! The HTC Vive first impressions...Ever since I had my first taste of VR back in the early 1990s, I have
wanted to get my own headset! That's over 20 years of waiting and about 3
since the real possibility of VR in the home became realised with the
Oculus Rift Kickstarter.<br />
<br />
I've had both the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift on pre-order since
literally the first few minutes of them starting. Today the wait finally
ended and DHL dropped off a surprisingly large box. I hadn't actually
expected to get the HTC Vive first, they started their pre-orders a lot
later than Oculus did. But "component shortages" means my Rift won't
arrive until early June now!<br />
<br />
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<br />
Anyway, once I'd carefully lifted the lid, I discovered all sorts of cables and five... yes FIVE mains plugs!<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7drrJ_NfwZmjLkGznPPDm6zqTZIcRNzxMld_CHnYshUOTJASHcMimUutir6-NWGNF72X_Sixmon9bZ02tt7uGvWO0iACuNazuuHJENcvU7AM8WD3r0PCRZIWn8mo1DzyejwKx5vj46io/s1600/IMG_20160414_143141.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7drrJ_NfwZmjLkGznPPDm6zqTZIcRNzxMld_CHnYshUOTJASHcMimUutir6-NWGNF72X_Sixmon9bZ02tt7uGvWO0iACuNazuuHJENcvU7AM8WD3r0PCRZIWn8mo1DzyejwKx5vj46io/s640/IMG_20160414_143141.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So much stuff to make VR work!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEpzlax3Ni_533ghqU3DAXJ0htus9lAEl9IT-VR6PM6jH90t7tO2NsF39v9Ai3mPxw32VNepyetlq_35iOVyQXSBnNIoNO1TgZcPKjlewQI5R09YuX5ZAT-giasffNaHYmCN2hJYDrDOA/s1600/IMG_20160414_144620.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEpzlax3Ni_533ghqU3DAXJ0htus9lAEl9IT-VR6PM6jH90t7tO2NsF39v9Ai3mPxw32VNepyetlq_35iOVyQXSBnNIoNO1TgZcPKjlewQI5R09YuX5ZAT-giasffNaHYmCN2hJYDrDOA/s400/IMG_20160414_144620.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apparently you need FIVE power leads for this thing!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Fortunately it turns out that two of them are to charge the wireless
controllers and I probably won't need them as I can just use any USB
port. There's another two to power the "lighthouse" tracking sensors and
the final one powers the headset itself.<br />
<br />
It still needs three mains plugs to actually use the thing which does
feel a little unnecessary. I'd prefer it if the Lighthouses had a built
in battery and optional mains leads.<br />
<br />
Actually setting the thing up was (for me) a massive pain in the arse! I
don't really have the space for everything in the only room in the
house I can set it up... I have an area about 3ft x 3ft in front of the
PC and that's where the office chair lives. So I have to move that out of
the way before I can even begin, and then I can only stand in one spot
and try not to move my arms too far or risk hitting my monitors or
shelves and cupboards!<br />
<br />
I had to drill and screw one of the lighthouses to the wall, the other
is perched on a shelf, though that will probably be permanently fixed as
well in the next few days.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3SuOoxYi5lSjP8H3bFVtZX8UWhyphenhyphenjZtXGOiDvYL3UDHH2RjIRtQ5rZ5-D_q0EKBuqaG7YmO-MpcsdIrkAk8aqH3peOdwno9PVc7xjBJ_A0OIoy69qNJBA0eCnQl5EdP7wx_5qGVNrESxc/s1600/IMG_20160414_163252.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3SuOoxYi5lSjP8H3bFVtZX8UWhyphenhyphenjZtXGOiDvYL3UDHH2RjIRtQ5rZ5-D_q0EKBuqaG7YmO-MpcsdIrkAk8aqH3peOdwno9PVc7xjBJ_A0OIoy69qNJBA0eCnQl5EdP7wx_5qGVNrESxc/s640/IMG_20160414_163252.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Lighthouse with its associated ugly power cable!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
With all the physical stuff set-up, I installed the HTC Vive set-up
software and plugged in the USB lead from the breakout box to the PC...
and then the next problem cropped up!<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinkwWa9n9Z7j6nIeLjvtEqQCeNk4j6igZ92viwYxJOBxbUX9WDszZbJWEeOibOFsX0Eb4vTZvpTs5PLAemtE_K2UoFXd1cUMEhnL5-o-na0qLt5gN57cqXxNdwAZmVXtSCcEQCgKk2ioE/s1600/IMG_20160414_173338.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinkwWa9n9Z7j6nIeLjvtEqQCeNk4j6igZ92viwYxJOBxbUX9WDszZbJWEeOibOFsX0Eb4vTZvpTs5PLAemtE_K2UoFXd1cUMEhnL5-o-na0qLt5gN57cqXxNdwAZmVXtSCcEQCgKk2ioE/s320/IMG_20160414_173338.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plugging the breakout box into the PC caused an issue.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As soon as I plugged it in, it ran thought the "device set-up" routine
and then made the dreaded "doo-duhh" noise which indicates the thing you
just plugged in isn't recognised. A message popped up on my desktop
saying "Not enough USB controller resources"... This was despite me
plugging it into a USB 3.0 port with nothing else on that header. I had
to unplug all my other USB devices including my USB racing wheel,
pedals, webcam, HDD until it eventually decided to work.<br />
<br />
My next problem was getting the two hand controllers to sync, when I
first set it up, only one controller was active. But after figuring out
how to re-sync them, both were recognised!<br />
<br />
So that was it... everything set up and ready to go. I ran through the
first calibration tutorial and was immediately struck my the sense of
scale. The space you stand in is HUUUGE, and it really does feel like
you're there. The controllers are tracked so precisely, you can throw
them up and instictivley catch them... it's mind blowing.<br />
<br />
Blowing up balloons and batting them away with the contoller is such simple yet addictive fun. I even found myself trying to blow them with my mouth... that's how convincingly it fools your brain! You actually think that the balloons are right there in front of you.<br />
<br />
After that I entered "The Lab" and tried a couple of the demos, this was when the real limitation of my space became apparent. In order to reach out and pick things up, I have to be right on top of them or my hand hits something in the room, such as the desk. Trying to open drawers in the virtual world is difficult too because when I pull them, I have to open them through my body.<br />
<br />
The other awkward thing is if you can't get something because a real life object is in the way, you have to move yourself in the game, because if you don't it's still going to be in the same unreachable location. It takes some getting used to... I really strongly recommend you find a good playing area if you possibly can.<br />
<br />
All of that aside though, from what I've experienced so far, it's just
phenomenal! I don't notice the Field of View once I'm involved in
something, I don't notice the "screen door" effect unless I really look
for it... the only thing you need to do is learn to look with your head.
If you use your eyes to look to your peripheral vision, things get
blurry. The lenses have a small area where they are in focus, and
outside of that it gets hard to make out details. It's not a big deal,
but I found myself having to line stuff up in the middle of my vision so
I could read things.<br />
<br />
I do wear glasses, and they do work with the Vive, but I find I've only used them once to test it. My sight isn't that bad, I have a slight Astigmatism but I can use the headset fine without my glasses on.<br />
<br />
Anyway, I've not experienced anywhere near enough stuff yet, so I'm going back to the Virtual World... I might report back later to answer any questions, but I can't guarantee it!Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-38126231206203303942014-12-31T14:41:00.002+00:002014-12-31T20:19:35.321+00:00PC Build - It's done!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It took a while, partly due to me going away before Christmas, partly due to me having to return the graphics card, partly due to me getting a cold and feeling crap and partly because I'm lazy. But the new gaming rig is built and is up and running!<br />
<br />
It's that beastly looking thing to the left there....<br />
<br />
There's not a great deal to say about it really, I had the issue with the damaged Radeon R9 295 X2, but Overclockers.co.uk changed that without any problems.<br />
<br />
Building it was a bit of a challenge, I've not built a PC for many, many years and while things haven't changed a huge amount, they've changed just enough that I had to do some research.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk7U4oF4O0l4YNCk7vNmczAeAc9pcg82IHCCWrFErdjjR3dEF4IS6SEzlEYlsPk_YHvomVqQIWPBY9cKlJedSTLBtFjVx-w3ZCPfeRJ6e6d7xy7B396E6KDUwbi_MF2rm64GhvQ5q0CHc/s1600/IMG_20141212_132313.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk7U4oF4O0l4YNCk7vNmczAeAc9pcg82IHCCWrFErdjjR3dEF4IS6SEzlEYlsPk_YHvomVqQIWPBY9cKlJedSTLBtFjVx-w3ZCPfeRJ6e6d7xy7B396E6KDUwbi_MF2rm64GhvQ5q0CHc/s1600/IMG_20141212_132313.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I assembled the main components outside of the case</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The main thing was my graphics card being water cooled. I had to install a radiator and fan for that. It was one of the things I screwed up too! I built the system outside the case, installed the CPU, added the RAM and attached the heatsink/fan. That was a real hassle, and another thing I messed up.<br />
<br />
Take a look at this picture, can you spot the mistake?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYt0q8imvpVJwHbfD-GWv1YX4cWCda3mobeB3jYpS8355LKPqMrKN5YCtVTCpDLRHvCw85s6zHs5rj_A25bVCE7j666hZEGVfLSnD4iCp-HGDBSJ79nzjxoV350oybEM0gQcEVDQ-thsI/s1600/IMG_20141212_160426.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYt0q8imvpVJwHbfD-GWv1YX4cWCda3mobeB3jYpS8355LKPqMrKN5YCtVTCpDLRHvCw85s6zHs5rj_A25bVCE7j666hZEGVfLSnD4iCp-HGDBSJ79nzjxoV350oybEM0gQcEVDQ-thsI/s1600/IMG_20141212_160426.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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If you are observant, you'll notice that the cooler is upside down! This means it's pulling air in from the left and blowing it out to the right. This is wrong, the air is pulled in from the front of the case and exhausted out the back.<br />
<br />
It was frustrating as I didn't notice this until after I had put the motherboard in the case and had it all cabled up! So, as a result, I had to disassemble the entire PC and essentially start again. Not to be defeated, I did that, not that I really had any choice in the matter. Then I unpacked the graphics card as that was the last thing to install and discovered the damage to the radiator. See my other post about that here: <a href="http://lufferov.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/damaged-msi-radeon-r9-295-x2.html">Damaged MSI Radeon R9-295 X2</a><br />
<br />
It was at this point that I went away for a week so the build went on hold until I got home. When I got back the replacment card had arrived so I was able to complete the build. But I was hit by another snag, with the large CPU heatsink/fan, I wasn't able to install the radiator of the watercooling unit into the case, it wouldn't fit! So I had to once again, remove the motherboard to install the radiator first, and then reattach everything. Here's a picture of the radiator installed, space is tight with that massive Cooler Master V8.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR51SQXatNGVzNEZg3ly3mX1Vhm3ySyhDIsXf-bPKMTxuENfYR802c5_-xrjLWKSwtRL_g5l27jk8ZP3vzh7ipPwgBWyh7XeHyrKZAayhpP9xtMZGciGQEi6ohJZzpeSESDM-SZNm3eRo/s1600/IMG_20141224_142733.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR51SQXatNGVzNEZg3ly3mX1Vhm3ySyhDIsXf-bPKMTxuENfYR802c5_-xrjLWKSwtRL_g5l27jk8ZP3vzh7ipPwgBWyh7XeHyrKZAayhpP9xtMZGciGQEi6ohJZzpeSESDM-SZNm3eRo/s1600/IMG_20141224_142733.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's a tight fit for that radiator!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The above picture also illustrates the air flow I've gone for. Out of sight at the bottom on the front of the case are two 140mm AF intake fans pulling air in. Then at the top of the case there is a 120mm SP fan above the radiator on the right pulling air through the fins and out the top of the case. Next to that is another 140mm AF fan blowing air in, down onto the heatsink. The heatsink fans blow from right to left and exhaust though the rear of the case where the final 120mm AF fan pushes hot air out. The overall air flow hopefully looks something like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7t4i1UEkBH3gMLG0-3ZOSypUFkjFGNVcdlD8JYGdrdRayr8PDsYHBLm0WSPvzbumhcFHNftgcGZjJA8ugjKStzk4YNuVLbOqcPpjhtKGNdlAVzR1tx6UH7304KRmBv0dcM-Js1e-nedo/s1600/PC-Cooling.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7t4i1UEkBH3gMLG0-3ZOSypUFkjFGNVcdlD8JYGdrdRayr8PDsYHBLm0WSPvzbumhcFHNftgcGZjJA8ugjKStzk4YNuVLbOqcPpjhtKGNdlAVzR1tx6UH7304KRmBv0dcM-Js1e-nedo/s1600/PC-Cooling.gif" height="366" width="400" /></a></div>
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The theory behind this is that I have cool air coming in from the front bottom and travelling up through the case to the top rear. The exception to this is the radiator for the R9 295 X2 which vents out the top of the case, but as this is an enclosed system I'm hoping that it won't have any effect on the rest of the case's airflow. With three fans blowing air in and only two out I should have positive air pressure in the case which apparently helps to reduce dust in the case. This will be helped by the fact that all the fan locations have dust filters too thanks to the Cooler Master Cosmos case.<br />
<br />
With the system fully built and running, here are a few pictures, you can click them to enlarge:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuMrpZehBknSqQWoPwT9gHr5SypiH8HsrJhxuH0nwb6qTRwO_CbWXO5_eDoAKfC17tmFMJZoc_mKxicOdCtrjgYVpuEQKOF7p4Nu6WdilvJFiC7kjTcwKIwmoWsYogxecUla0GXd2BhNY/s1600/IMG_20141231_115746.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuMrpZehBknSqQWoPwT9gHr5SypiH8HsrJhxuH0nwb6qTRwO_CbWXO5_eDoAKfC17tmFMJZoc_mKxicOdCtrjgYVpuEQKOF7p4Nu6WdilvJFiC7kjTcwKIwmoWsYogxecUla0GXd2BhNY/s1600/IMG_20141231_115746.jpg" height="200" width="170" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFOGy1LvjOKixiQVdAplGEULRGONKmYjND40cZfvrmr7N-HX4RcH_FWc51nLVjV78L21lOufubNYNoRhl2FHT9I_qPr6P1A7PKO8Q6k74OhSWCU7IthIfEVLM_x7Xmqo092ZjPtZlLPDU/s1600/IMG_20141231_115929.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFOGy1LvjOKixiQVdAplGEULRGONKmYjND40cZfvrmr7N-HX4RcH_FWc51nLVjV78L21lOufubNYNoRhl2FHT9I_qPr6P1A7PKO8Q6k74OhSWCU7IthIfEVLM_x7Xmqo092ZjPtZlLPDU/s1600/IMG_20141231_115929.jpg" height="200" width="178" /></a></div>
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So there it is, my gaming rig for the next few years! It's quite a monster, I'm very happy with the performance. The one thing I might change though is the CPU cooler, it's really big, takes up a lot of space and when it's running at full speed is fairly noisy. I might swap it out for an all in one water cooling sytem such at the <a href="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-015-CS" target="_blank">Corsair H100i</a>, but that's something I'll do in the summer if I think I need to. For now the system works well. Here's a couple of screenshots showing the performance:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKfGRPTIubK4aLFi8m79coUByhLa4We-Bz9p0uWG63zfCuL4nM8ms0h5OY_zrooG_FEmjxKNvpzBKnYL-8-RaHV-rliczT_UGh5PZjKA3Ty_7vBJabAq_oU8sCYGqbweagsBOKjHLsk20/s1600/IMG_20141227_130007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKfGRPTIubK4aLFi8m79coUByhLa4We-Bz9p0uWG63zfCuL4nM8ms0h5OY_zrooG_FEmjxKNvpzBKnYL-8-RaHV-rliczT_UGh5PZjKA3Ty_7vBJabAq_oU8sCYGqbweagsBOKjHLsk20/s1600/IMG_20141227_130007.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tomb Raider, average of 143.6 FPS</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Above is Tomb Raider, I had all the settings maxed out and I was running in my Eyefinity triple screen setup. That's at a resolution of 6034x1200!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIFRXtkI-k66wOQKj_q6LYnf_7wjGMUcBIVcUvk6LLfgoetUwKi0TAP5hyphenhyphenEDVYQfqSIuRMHG5mXqIliX7xDAz_BG9mLV3VoCRALsZHrV2fMWhsAqHbC5ULF39oi0SHDP1uxW-JAqscOi4/s1600/IMG_20141229_164557.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIFRXtkI-k66wOQKj_q6LYnf_7wjGMUcBIVcUvk6LLfgoetUwKi0TAP5hyphenhyphenEDVYQfqSIuRMHG5mXqIliX7xDAz_BG9mLV3VoCRALsZHrV2fMWhsAqHbC5ULF39oi0SHDP1uxW-JAqscOi4/s1600/IMG_20141229_164557.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">iRacing, hitting 580FPS with all settings at max</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Another game, this time iRacing, I've got my three screens going here as well and everything is turned up to the highest settings. It's a slightly older game with less demanding requirments, but even so, hitting 580FPS is just crazy!<br />
<br />
Putting it through some benchmark tests yielded the following results from Unigine Valley:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4AMiPbBpb0Hs3QcL8uTayNLxzp8bhTKXjj8Kq3cFoSibW0q7GBGE5JSWxLWGYFwyEJSI8_y3Q1BxPvpyC8Tw78BXCkgBK4SF4H1TapnqMTRhmRY-pPxdknrpQ33C4Lg9vYqyvmMiUnYg/s1600/Valley-1920x1080.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4AMiPbBpb0Hs3QcL8uTayNLxzp8bhTKXjj8Kq3cFoSibW0q7GBGE5JSWxLWGYFwyEJSI8_y3Q1BxPvpyC8Tw78BXCkgBK4SF4H1TapnqMTRhmRY-pPxdknrpQ33C4Lg9vYqyvmMiUnYg/s1600/Valley-1920x1080.gif" height="297" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Valley Benchmark @ 1920 x 1080</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSGuet69M1ApyjwaNKV7iIKanymc2SSU14wO4G3bbnpbPUEzVAE0QPLOC8ixBXouaDwO6mCKj_Z2wjzlKFx_Z4NOZseIKqkB9B_9Z76h5mVOFKBgr_Xv8dmD3ueHmcy154A0RbZf9m_Uk/s1600/Valley-6034x1170.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSGuet69M1ApyjwaNKV7iIKanymc2SSU14wO4G3bbnpbPUEzVAE0QPLOC8ixBXouaDwO6mCKj_Z2wjzlKFx_Z4NOZseIKqkB9B_9Z76h5mVOFKBgr_Xv8dmD3ueHmcy154A0RbZf9m_Uk/s1600/Valley-6034x1170.gif" height="316" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.6666669845581px;">Valley Benchmark @ 6034 x 1170 (Eyefinity)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
On a single display at 1920x1080 it is topping out at 185.5FPS and averaging 123FPS. In my huge triple screen setup it struggles a bit more but still holds an average almost 70FPS and hits an impressive 141.3FPS at its fastest point.<br />
<br />
I also ran it through the more demanding Heaven benchmark too, the results are still just as impressive, though it did fall just below 60FPS in the Eyefinity test. All I can say is I'll have to buy another one and run it in a QuadFire setup!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir1tDs147SQQKFMK3nolQOLRYbQR4OtkWmqku07b15VzFBOJTAXeirxbIAn6TU6Smgzwi1F-rE-nAudPFuD8ZgVQO2QNg453P0Gdj-Y901Z8rBvJTq2yb9wGMWThHprS4rzSNkKifR9i4/s1600/Heaven-1920x1080.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir1tDs147SQQKFMK3nolQOLRYbQR4OtkWmqku07b15VzFBOJTAXeirxbIAn6TU6Smgzwi1F-rE-nAudPFuD8ZgVQO2QNg453P0Gdj-Y901Z8rBvJTq2yb9wGMWThHprS4rzSNkKifR9i4/s1600/Heaven-1920x1080.gif" height="293" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.6666669845581px;">Heaven Benchmark @ 1920 x 1080</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTD0RkomTZnwZYvYzhfHODzz-rdY9UNNFULRu3fvVlWeWx48MZKDop-9DI7SXzGf-I75HBHFKweExF1jODvLsXimbH1LyuyNBp4tYQqczOl2_JJqLbV1OV_FM2t2bBq36b4A168uTUS-o/s1600/Heaven-6034x1170.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTD0RkomTZnwZYvYzhfHODzz-rdY9UNNFULRu3fvVlWeWx48MZKDop-9DI7SXzGf-I75HBHFKweExF1jODvLsXimbH1LyuyNBp4tYQqczOl2_JJqLbV1OV_FM2t2bBq36b4A168uTUS-o/s1600/Heaven-6034x1170.gif" height="316" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.6666669845581px;">Valley Benchmark @ 6034 x 1170 (Eyefinity)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There's not really anything else I can say about it, I'm happy to answer questions if you have any. Just leave them in the comments below. To finish with here's a picture of my triple screens running the Heaven benchmark, just because I can :-)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp2YnSSNufR0tZADn9lmLLZxf_RRlbME60_p2JrNa_qi4_mEaTY5Mo7Y_d2g17L0dTYVG5NJMluCO53M6ASOA2Xq3AVlNKBFxUzXSgJbr3fMWF2evbrUDGmFFrp0d35AJDb7DCW-Z-3tU/s1600/IMG_20141231_181940.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp2YnSSNufR0tZADn9lmLLZxf_RRlbME60_p2JrNa_qi4_mEaTY5Mo7Y_d2g17L0dTYVG5NJMluCO53M6ASOA2Xq3AVlNKBFxUzXSgJbr3fMWF2evbrUDGmFFrp0d35AJDb7DCW-Z-3tU/s1600/IMG_20141231_181940.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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Oh, also it's the 31st December, so HAPPY NEW YEAR!Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-51831373374962823772014-12-13T12:24:00.002+00:002014-12-13T12:27:24.446+00:00Damaged MSI Radeon R9 295 X2This is a post for the support department at Overclockers showing the damage to the <a href="https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-252-MS" title="View more details for MSI Radeon R9 295 X2 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card">MSI Radeon R9 295 X2 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card</a> I purchased. The box is in perfect condition so it looks like this happened at the manufacturing stage.<br />
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Clearly with a liquid cooled solution I would be foolish to install this in a PC case as the radiator could very easily leak if I powered it up.<br />
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Here are the photos:<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3QsH4npOXRJWt4y3bV6ilmk-y8W9KRR82xQ4YWLtFFa4EpYIuLcIHmwrd0xpbe-Izw-6WjzyQVVyw4sCCE6D4mPkOxQpcAqEpUy-Qqs1ADtlCbxJXqkCbkqOUGl3R3GolaUg_Np79cMU/s1600/IMG_20141213_114722.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3QsH4npOXRJWt4y3bV6ilmk-y8W9KRR82xQ4YWLtFFa4EpYIuLcIHmwrd0xpbe-Izw-6WjzyQVVyw4sCCE6D4mPkOxQpcAqEpUy-Qqs1ADtlCbxJXqkCbkqOUGl3R3GolaUg_Np79cMU/s1600/IMG_20141213_114722.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can see the fins are bent in several locations.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4UPjKgF_jPtG-XtFnBVtrjj3YUz9AZD4l8ndKNGNwazxFFqMp66a6j5MUsmkU6kUqZBO6cK5-4cuvp72uixBskHv-gT00tb-LvYu39EBbP6I9PfwI8Sta8q-O5NVmnR09WDtMJGZ3WTw/s1600/IMG_20141213_114730.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4UPjKgF_jPtG-XtFnBVtrjj3YUz9AZD4l8ndKNGNwazxFFqMp66a6j5MUsmkU6kUqZBO6cK5-4cuvp72uixBskHv-gT00tb-LvYu39EBbP6I9PfwI8Sta8q-O5NVmnR09WDtMJGZ3WTw/s1600/IMG_20141213_114730.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close up of the most damaged area, but also notice the fins to the left also show signs of damage.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbWh9KZ6Gs5Xb6O6vHfid35Txzw46EzKHq-FNwpGIGa40Me_RYVz14jENM9u0-anH2WTb4zhsD6AihpeZTSmPwicuTSF_XesJhBhP4qwAhQUEDCSMM9dvH7KIEXvOFv0lmAlHBYxQWe-U/s1600/IMG_20141213_114750.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbWh9KZ6Gs5Xb6O6vHfid35Txzw46EzKHq-FNwpGIGa40Me_RYVz14jENM9u0-anH2WTb4zhsD6AihpeZTSmPwicuTSF_XesJhBhP4qwAhQUEDCSMM9dvH7KIEXvOFv0lmAlHBYxQWe-U/s1600/IMG_20141213_114750.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here someone has (badly) tried to cover up the damage to the radiator casing with black paint or a permanent marker.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-32138645518975807142014-12-10T16:10:00.000+00:002014-12-10T16:10:15.611+00:00Time for a new PC<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkX3RRAaflEfcp6_DCJStS-8XthDiIsAPruL2bo0wkGSjia0ZApwUpLutXThMi5xaRjQVWOEU6ZJg6YgE9URjsJGzMEnhkH-RhGpE49sWA1ztTvaILwrCm3sCjyXA4wu5FB-LLNf6I96k/s1600/BU-007-GI_93205_350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkX3RRAaflEfcp6_DCJStS-8XthDiIsAPruL2bo0wkGSjia0ZApwUpLutXThMi5xaRjQVWOEU6ZJg6YgE9URjsJGzMEnhkH-RhGpE49sWA1ztTvaILwrCm3sCjyXA4wu5FB-LLNf6I96k/s1600/BU-007-GI_93205_350.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
My PC died yesterday, I was happily playing a game of iRacing trying to get my D license before the end of the season this week. When I quit out I had some weird messages about my backup software being unable to connect to my D:\ drive (which is my data drive, my C:\ is an SSD that runs the OS).<br />
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When I opened Explorer the D:\ was indeed missing... "odd" I thought, "that's never happened before". I'd only just used the D:\ drive to save a couple of pictures before I started playing iRacing, so I knew it had connected on boot up.<br />
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I thought I'd try a quick reboot to see if something weird had occurred in the drivers. When the PC booted into Windows I instantly got a BSOD with a KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED error message. Oh.....<br />
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My only option was another reboot, but this resulted in another BSOD and another KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED error. Mild panic began to set in, I know my backups will be okay, I have three separate copies stored elsewhere as well as the data on the disc itself. But fixing PCs is no fun!<br />
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Eventually Windows figured out there was a problem and offered to fix it... unsurprisingly it failed. So then I had the option of rolling back to an earlier restore point, so I did. I had one from just a week ago.<br />
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Sadly that didn't work either, and neither did any of the previous restore points going back six months. The next option is to try a "refresh" which keeps your files but re-installs Windows... but I was scuppered because you need the Windows install disc.<br />
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There are ways around all this, I could probably have re-installed Windows if I'd persevered long enough. but I'd been seeing the early signs of hardware failure for a while and I'd sort of ignored them. Random crashes, display glitches etc... When the PC died it made me remember a lot of things and they all made me come to the conclusion that I needed to update my system.<br />
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When I bought my current system I didn't have my three screens, I also did almost all my gaming on my XBox 360. But since I got an Eyefinity setup and the "next-gen" of consoles have been released that's all changed. I don't have an XBox One or a PS4 and every game I've played in the last 6-12 months has been on the PC.<br />
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I decided I needed a computer that could handle anything I wanted to throw at it, so I went about choosing components for a new build. Something I've not done for 10 years or more... The last two PCs I purchased were off the shelf offerings from Dell.<br />
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I figured I could get a lot more for my money by doing it myself, so without further ado please let me present you with the components I've purchased for my gaming rig 2015:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px;">- Case: </span><a href="https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-337-CM" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" title="View more details for Cooler Master Cosmos SE Mid Tower Case">Cooler Master Cosmos SE Mid Tower Case</a><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px;">- Power Supply: </span><a href="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-006-SF" style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">SuperFlower Leadex Platinum 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Platinum" Power Supply - Black</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px;">- Motherboard: </span><a href="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-491-GI" style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 7 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard</a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px;">- CPU: </span><a href="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-539-IN" style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Intel Core i7-4790K 4.00GHz (Devil's Canyon) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail</a><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px;">- Cooler:</span> <a href="https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-066-CM" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" title="View more details for Cooler Master V8 GTS High Performance CPU Cooler">Cooler Master V8 GTS High Performance CPU Cooler</a><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px;">- Memory: </span><a href="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-182-KS" style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit - Black/Red (HX24C11BRK2/16-OC)</a><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px;">- Graphics:</span> <a href="https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-252-MS" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" title="View more details for MSI Radeon R9 295 X2 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card">MSI Radeon R9 295 X2 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card</a><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px;">- Primary Storage: </span><a href="https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-171-SA" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" title="View more details for Samsung 1TB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE1T0BW)">Samsung 1TB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s</a><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px;">- Data Storage: </span><a href="https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-281-SE" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.3333330154419px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" title="View more details for Seagate Barracuda 4TB 5900RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST4000DM000) HDD">Seagate Barracuda 4TB 5900RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache</a><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 11.3333330154419px;">The price tag associated with all this is rather scary coming in at, wait for it...... £1987.85!!!!!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 11.3333330154419px;">Yeah.....</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 11.3333330154419px;">So that's Christmas for everyone else cancelled then! It will all be delivered tomorrow by DPD, so I just have to remember how to build a PC now!</span></span>Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-15856035264144120862013-08-04T02:53:00.000+01:002013-08-04T03:14:59.181+01:00EODS The Tempest<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidr6h-IVKrhMMGoeMhTYrs91fudvFn6mNwAGVE8Qg43DFrPlXEKqLnGVx8vYZEdJZ0hGvmzWPzmSFwjJdgBEgS15wUJAgDogknF6TgsZdRDfADe0Dvr5rWrKHMU4RyTVDBGJPrnBVNlJM/s1600/1078807_10201681719027654_1118544826_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidr6h-IVKrhMMGoeMhTYrs91fudvFn6mNwAGVE8Qg43DFrPlXEKqLnGVx8vYZEdJZ0hGvmzWPzmSFwjJdgBEgS15wUJAgDogknF6TgsZdRDfADe0Dvr5rWrKHMU4RyTVDBGJPrnBVNlJM/s400/1078807_10201681719027654_1118544826_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Last night I went to see EODS's production of The Tempest, in my job I see a lot of shows on an almost daily basis. I've never blogged about one before, but this is different. It's different because it blew me away!<br />
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Shakespeare's plays are always difficult to do well and if they aren't done extremely well then it is all too easy for the actors to lose their audience. It's simply a fact that the language he uses along with the similes and metaphors are not easily understood by today's audiences. A Shakespeare play is certainly not something you should attempt to watch if you have no prior knowledge of it, you'll likely get lost quite quickly.<br />
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That said, the quality of all the performances were truly outstanding. EODS is an amateur dramatics group, words that are sure to bring most professionals out in a cold sweat :-) However in this production there wasn't a single performer who didn't deserve their role. This is even more impressive when you learn that the lead Mike Barber (Prospero) only took on the part the week before due to the original actor having to pull out at the last minute. The fact he learnt his lines is astonishing, that he did so and put on such a strong performance is a testament to his abilities. Mike wasn't alone in taking over at short notice though, director Gareth Brighton had to step into the role of Stephano when James Bell was taken ill. Both he and Nick Carn as Trinculo played a great double act together with Nick ending up coming off worse having to take two full submersions in the pool.<br />
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Finally David Fricker as Ariel was also a fairly late addition to the cast, but his interpretation of the character was fantastic. He was very spritely in his movements and mannerisms, even when the action wasn't focused on him he remained very ethereal.<br />
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For a production beset with problems during the rehearsal period it certainly didn't show in the performances!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A stunning setting with superb staging, above<br />
Nick Carn as Trinculo and David Fricker as Ariel</td></tr>
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This year the choice of play really couldn't have suited the location any better. Taking place at Holywell's Italian Gardens the backdrop of the sea is the ideal setting for a play based on an island! The stunning view was aided by the natural sound effects of the waves lapping against the shore with the birds and other natural wildlife all playing their part to add to the atmosphere.<br />
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The innate beauty of the surroundings was enhanced by the fabulous staging built primarily by Ashley Jones. The central pond flanked by two catwalks and a bridge gave the actors a great set on which to work. It also had some nice hidden features that made for some memorable moments, most notably Ariel appearing from the opposite side of the arena after hiding in a wooden trunk. No doubt the input of legendary magician Paul Daniels as the magic advisor for the production played its part here. Also Calibans first entrance through the smoke from a trap door in the catwalk was simple yet tremendously effective. Mr Daniels input was evident in other small touches too and it all added to help flesh out the characters. It would have been all too easy to let the temptation of the magic overpower the show, but all the effects used felt right and were played well.<br />
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With the production starting before sunset you don't really notice the lighting until you come back from the interval. By then the moon is shining down and Douglas Morgan's design is able to take over from the sun, it's a difficult space to light with the limited resources available but he managed to do a superb job. There are general washes to make sure everything is lit well, but also numerous additions to highlight certain actors at key points. The lighting is subtle but crucial to the overall experience.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoc_RJsoEO04Qrpy01LXxaOuRjsDUrtt6T6-kSgdyMfwVtEAHNnS7McpQDv6hxZU02yh_4z3B09K2eQmvBTE5hF-PB56PsZAVit1ve4xOmZAuHx81vim-M_NFcoXNugFyooPSUImnbVe8/s1600/964105_10201687236485587_205767293_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoc_RJsoEO04Qrpy01LXxaOuRjsDUrtt6T6-kSgdyMfwVtEAHNnS7McpQDv6hxZU02yh_4z3B09K2eQmvBTE5hF-PB56PsZAVit1ve4xOmZAuHx81vim-M_NFcoXNugFyooPSUImnbVe8/s320/964105_10201687236485587_205767293_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The full company</td></tr>
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Sound is used at several points, and if there was a weak link, then this is where it lies. Although the spot effects for magical moments and storms were all good and worked well within the action, the quality of the PA was poor. It's a shame as so much more could have been made of the sound but it seems the equipment was holding them back. While being picky, the only other area that could have been improved was the set dressing. Rocks were represented with some painted ground row flats, it would have made a huge difference if they had been able to source some real rocks. Finally, the pond lining could have been disguised a bit, the blue plastic did stand out a little. But these are small things that in no way detracted from the piece as a whole.<br />
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The night I was there it was a complete sell out, and the reputation they have built over the years is well deserved. Unfortunately by the time this is posted the run will have ended, but you should never the less try to see one of their future productions!<br />
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Photos: Copyright Paul Spink, used with permission.Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-88522519394624110392013-08-01T19:26:00.002+01:002013-08-01T22:17:31.089+01:00Triple monitors, calibration & Eyefinity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg398e_400acT-bbERLA0uVa5wC5nAQsYOBDrCfL0vT37MNZ1KxdgeP5XN48AYrP-9LHgYeQMZydfdC32mQold1fItYQFGlWVy-Um7ZSjULMZqBBzHOqIXua4cokB-O9ZL8qM81ozc61bQ/s1600/dellu2410_large2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg398e_400acT-bbERLA0uVa5wC5nAQsYOBDrCfL0vT37MNZ1KxdgeP5XN48AYrP-9LHgYeQMZydfdC32mQold1fItYQFGlWVy-Um7ZSjULMZqBBzHOqIXua4cokB-O9ZL8qM81ozc61bQ/s320/dellu2410_large2.jpg" width="308" /></a>Just over a year ago I splashed out and purchased two matching Dell U2410 IPS monitors. While normally such a high end display would cost in the region of £500 a piece, I was lucky enough to pick up a couple of "reconditioned" displays. I've always been slightly wary of such bargains in the past, however these came with a 12 month warranty and the IPS panels were guaranteed to be 100% perfect, no bright or dead pixels. The only thing the description said was there <i>may be</i> some superficial marks or scratches to the casing.<br />
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Well, to be honest, I didn't really care about the casing, I don't look at that anyway! Besides, if they arrived and I wasn't satisfied with their condition, there would be nothing to stop me sending them back for a refund.<br />
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They had three available and I was able to buy two of them for a total of £600 including VAT and delivery. That's almost half price!<br />
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I'd been using two monitors for a good few years already, but they had always been different sizes and resolutions, not to mention wildly different brightness / contrast and colours. This was simply because the monitors were so wildly different there was no way of getting them to even closely match.<br />
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So anyway, the new monitors were delivered the next day by courier, excellent service. I eagerly tore the tape back to inspect the quality of my goods. I wanted to see how bad these marks were! It was obvious that they had been opened before, the boxes were missing original packaging and only one box had a manual. The thing is though, who actually needs a manual for a monitor?<br />
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Once I'd assembled the panels on their stands, I was able to take a good look. To my complete surprise, no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't actually see anything wrong with them. Not a scratch to be found, these were to all intents and purposes brand new displays! WIN.<br />
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Having got them all connected things were so much better than before. As promised the panels were flawless. No dead pixels or anything to indicate they were anything other than brand new. However I wasn't entirely happy, no matter what I tried I couldn't get the colours to match across the two monitors. They were close sure, but being side by side it was still noticeable.<br />
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I lived with it for a few days and then I decided that spending so much on matching displays was a bit pointless if they didn't actually match. So I started looking into calibration. To cut a long story short I ended up buying a Spyder 3 Elite on eBay for quite a lot less than its price new.<br />
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<a href="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/08/01/196.jpg"><img align="left" border="0" height="200" src="http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/08/01/s_196.jpg" style="margin: 5px;" width="200" /></a>This is a pretty cool bit of hardware, and it looks smart too. What it does is calibrate your display/s. This is important if you are into photography or any sort of graphics work and need to know that the colours you're using in your image editor such as Photoshop will match the colour of the final printed work. While this was of some interest to me, I had really bought it for its matching feature. This would enable me to calibrate one monitor, and then use the device on the other display to make sure everything matched.<br />
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Doing this was surprisingly easy, you just put the device which has a sucker on it on the monitor and run the wizard. Then save the profile and repeat the process for the second display. Once you are done you get a before & after comparison. I have to say the results were nothing like what I had expected.<br />
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I'd bought what I thought were expensive studio monitors, reviews had said these were a great choice. But the difference after calibration was like night and day! Colour reproduction was astounding, gone we're the heavily saturated colours which are frankly a marketing gimmick. Now when looking at a photo of a person, it actually looked like seeing them though a window. It's hard to describe it properly, but they looked lifelike and things seemed to have more depth. What I wanted we're matching displays, what I got was so much more!<br />
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I was so impressed that I would highly recommend you get your monitor calibrated too, even if you only have one screen. Having accurate colour reproduction will make it seem like you've invested in a new monitor! Now obviously results will vary, I got the excellent results I did because I invested in a quality display panel. If you try to calibrate a £150 display you shouldn't expect it to work miracles, but you will notice a marked improvement. Manufacturers like to set their displays to look good on a display stand, but not on your desk when you're editing your holiday snaps.<br />
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About a week or so after I'd been getting used to my new monitors, one of them just died. It came back to life, but from then on it had a habbit of just powering off at random intervals. Eventually one day it just wouldn't turn on at all, oh dear... Time to get in touch with the company who sold it to me and check out the 12 month warranty! An email to them resulted in a response within the hour apologising for the fault, they arranged for a replacment to be sent out that day and for me to return the defective monitor to them when the courier dropped off the new one. Amazing service! When buying reconditioned you're always taking a risk, that's reflected in the price you pay, but to have this level of after sale support was fantastic. As promised the replacment worked fine and I've never had a problem with them since.<br />
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I should probably tell you who this amazing retailer is, but part of me wants to keep it secret! If I tell you then you'll all buy cheap reconditioned items and leave nothing for me. But I will share it, the company is NRG:IT who can be fouud on-line at <a href="http://www.nrgit.biz/">http://www.nrgit.biz</a>, you should check them out!<br />
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Anyway, fast forwarding to a year later which is more or less now, I'd been seeing lots of talk about Eyefinity or triple monitor gaming. In the past my PC would never have been able to cope, but I purchased a new system towards the end of last year. An Intel core i7 beast with 12 Gb RAM and an AMD Radeon 7870 with a 256Gb SSD. While it's not bleeding edge, it's pretty far up there!<br />
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I decided my PC should be capable of producing enough pixels to give me a reasonable frame rate across three displays. Hence the temptation got the better of me and I was back in touch with NRG:IT for a third Dell U2410 so I had three identical displays. This was again ordered and delivered the next day, again it was in pristine "as new" condition, the only thing giving away the fact it wasn't new being the box it came in!<br />
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With three moniors the desk space required by all the stands is quite significant, so I also picked up a XFX triple monitor stand from Amazon too, which actually cost more than the monitor even though it's one of the cheapest triple monitor stands you can buy! Anyway, with everything finally assembled and calibrated I had my triple screen setup sorted.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFpBN4UzJeGscFs7FVADnJDjFwP0vkiXysVkcxJBauKZLf9JCuldo8s1qmfBNtl9l0p1bTt9qzY80b0zgPRNBIQbh5xa0QHAqmsMhIegXlbUbMydqxNNqijRIxz9_5eaOfW-HUrnC5g8s/s1600/triple+monitors.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFpBN4UzJeGscFs7FVADnJDjFwP0vkiXysVkcxJBauKZLf9JCuldo8s1qmfBNtl9l0p1bTt9qzY80b0zgPRNBIQbh5xa0QHAqmsMhIegXlbUbMydqxNNqijRIxz9_5eaOfW-HUrnC5g8s/s400/triple+monitors.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The above photo was actually taken before the newest screen (left) had been calibrated. You can see the difference in the colour reproduction, the centre and right monitors are the older ones which had already been matched. With everything setup it would have been rude not to try some games, which after all is the whole point!<br />
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First was Dirt 3, with this game the extra width really gives an enhanced sensation of speed as things fly past your peripheral vision in a blur. With so much width it's not really a case of seeing everything at once. It's more a sense of immersion where your entire peripheral vision is taken up with the displays. You would think, and most peoples first reaction is that the bezels would be intrusive and ruin the effect. However, it really isn't noticeable after a couple of minutes. Just make sure you configure the bezel correction in the video cards driver settings, this makes sure that things line up correctly in the games. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlhEZmsM74476LQGbMUQ7zgC0FcxiQ80fS-PQ7FgFQKLXagd2qZSuO_stPUXp52NO-Ud6MYdES7oW0FxYssyzDpkAkksRG3h9XkMZ0GedVBN7T3046RQLcO-m8QeK383kYkVqZNjEmpVs/s1600/IMG_0379.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlhEZmsM74476LQGbMUQ7zgC0FcxiQ80fS-PQ7FgFQKLXagd2qZSuO_stPUXp52NO-Ud6MYdES7oW0FxYssyzDpkAkksRG3h9XkMZ0GedVBN7T3046RQLcO-m8QeK383kYkVqZNjEmpVs/s400/IMG_0379.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dirt 3 Eyefinity</td></tr>
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With my current graphics card I'm able to run Dirt 3 at the highest quality setting and still get a steady 60+ FPS from it. Quite impressive! Other games I've tried include The Witcher 2, Half Life 2 and a few others:<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Witcher 2, struggles to get a good frame rate</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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With Half Life 2 being an older game I was able to get over 160FPS on my Eyefinity rig. However the Witcher 2 really suffered, I had to turn the settings right down to get 30FPS. Still playable but not as beautiful as it could be.<br />
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I hadn't really thought of using my third monitor outside of gaming. Sure my dual monitors always got a lot of use, but I didn't really see how I could utilise three screens at the same time. That didn't last long though, the first Formula 1 race of the season saw me setting up all the stats and data I could wish for!<br />
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As you can see, I have live timings, a driver tracker and the TV coverage all in view. It was fantastic to have all this information right in front of me and I can't wait for the next race.<br />
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In terms of productivity, I've even made use of all my screens during the recent revamp of the ugvm website. Below the live website can be seen on the left screen, my CSS editor is in the middle allowing me to make changes on one screen and see the results in the other. The third screen had my email, Twitter and web browser open. Quite a lot going on, but it's so much nicer having the space and not having to switch windows constantly.<br />
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So, three screens, it needs a lot of space and can cost a lot of money, but the difference is incredible. The down side is that my above average GPU can't really handle the pixel pushing required for three 24" displays in modern games. I'll probably upgrade it when the new range of AMD cards are launched later in the year. My current card only has 2Gb RAM and really it needs 3Gb or preferably more. I'm sure I can manage until then with lower quality settings or enjoying some games from my back catalogue until then. Check out my new gaming diary at <a href="http://lufferov-gaming.blogspot.co.uk/">http://lufferov-gaming.blogspot.co.uk</a> to hear about that.<br />
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If you can afford it, I can't recommend it highly enough, and you don't need the expensive monitors. You could get a set of three cheaper displays for the cost of one of mine. For example NRG:IT are selling some Dell 22" displays which are 1920x1080 for only £94 each. I'm sure the experience wouldn't be a great deal different, you just need to make sure your graphics card can take the strain!Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-90759784073375093272011-09-17T17:11:00.000+01:002011-09-17T17:24:38.540+01:00Windows 8 Preview First Impressions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I recently decided to trial the Windows 8 Developer Preview on my PC, the main reason for me wanting to do this was to see how the touch interface was going to work on tablets. I have an HP TouchSmart laptop which should have been perfect for experimenting with this. Unfortunately my efforts to install it to a Virtual Machine on my laptop didn't go too well.<br />
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Firstly I couldn't install the 64-bit version because my laptops CPU doesn't support hardware virtualisation, so I had to download the 32-bit version. This wouldn't install either for reasons I still don't understand, the Windows 8 installer just kept throwing error messages. My only option remaining is to set up a partition on my HDD and install it properly, but I'm not ready to do that just yet. Instead I decided to install it to my main desktop PC.<br />
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This was remarkably simple compared to the trials I'd been through on my laptop. The Virtual Machine was set-up in just a few seconds, I enabled the Hardware Virtualisation in my PCs BIOS and mounted the Windows 8 .iso into the virtual DVD drive. Booted it up, and the installer ran without a hitch, although it did take a while to complete.<br />
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So then, what are my thoughts? Well before going in I had reservations about the new Metro UI they have been showing off. My gut feeling was that it wasn't going to work on a desktop PC, having now used it, I can confirm my worst fears are well founded. The Metro UI feels like a badly tacked on interface that is restrictive, basic and unwieldly. It simply doesn't work well with a mouse and keyboard, the gestures are impossible to use and the UI feels very poorly thought out. There is no easy way to exit Metro apps and nothing about it seems at all intuitive. When I first picked up an iPhone, I pretty much knew exactly how to use it, the same was true for Android. However, I felt totally lost and confused inside the Metro apps, it's hard to explain it, but it all felt wrong.<br />
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One of the main problems I experienced with the Metro UI was the inability to perform touch gestures using the mouse and keyboard. I can see how in theory the Metro UI would be quite slick on a touchscreen, it just doesn't translate at all well to more traditional PC control methods. The problem with this is exacerbated by the forced use of the Metro UI as the Start menu.<br />
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Let's focus on that for just a moment, the Start menu is gone in Windows 8, you click on the Windows icon in the taskbar, it takes you into the Metro UI. From there you get the tile interface seen above, this is where you launch all your apps from. The problem with this is it's a mess, you can't get much on a screen because the tiles take up so much space and it's hard to find anything. Getting fast access to your programs is going to be a thing of the past!<br />
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The other problem is going to be with developer uptake, in order for a program to run in the new Metro UI it needs a totally new interface designed, but not just one! Traditionally a developer designs one interface for Windows and the OS deals with resizing the window to whatever the user desires. It can be any size too, unlike in Metro when you can only have two apps open side by side!<br />
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Now they need to design the traditional desktop UI, as well as a full screen Metro UI, a split screen Metro UI and the tile UI. It puts much more of an onus on the developer not only to design their applications, but also to test them too!<br />
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My prediction will be that classic Windows desktop applications, like Photoshop and office will continue to have only the desktop interface. The extra effort involved in creating all the interfaces will outweigh the benefits.<br />
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It seems that the plan is to get tablets running the same software as desktop PCs. The big problem with this is that tablets are not designed for productivity, they are designed for consumption and they are great at doing that. However, a tablet that can edit pictures in Photoshop or edit videos in Premiere is unlikely to be a realistic proposition. The CPU and graphic requirements these programs will demand is going to far outstrip tablet technology.<br />
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Microsoft have taken the wrong road, Apple and Google have both developed an OS that runs on phones and tablets. It's a tactic that works well and keeps the desktop OS separate in the case of MacOS and to a lesser extent ChromeOS.<br />
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This is what MS should have done, developed an improved Windows 7 for the desktop as Windows 8 and then developed Windows Phone 7 further to accommodate tablets.<br />
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I fear for the future of Windows now, unless MS decide to make the Metro UI totally optional so it can be disabled on a desktop, mouse & keyboard PC, I don't see any way that Windows 8 can be a success. Hopefully they'll come to this conclusion as well, and the sooner the better!Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-79864282164190551952011-08-20T12:28:00.003+01:002011-08-20T12:33:31.150+01:00Site connection issuesSo here's the thing, I have a website (http://www.techietalk.co.uk) and I have a user who regularly contributes news articles to it. However for the last week she has been unable connect, I've not seen anyone else reporting problems. It could just be a problem with her local machine, but she has tried in several browsers and done all the basic checks such as emptying page cache etc.
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<br />It's only my site that she is having a problem with, which is odd. Can anyone think of any reason why this person is getting blocked? She is seeing error messages like:
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<br />Opera: Connection closed by remote server.
<br />Chrome: No data received, the server closed the connection.
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<br />I've got her to connect to the site through http://www.hidemyass.com and through their proxy the site seems to load fine for her. I've just asked her to do a trace route to see if that gives any clues, but I've not had the results back yet. This one has me stumped, any suggestions?Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-55573536667730133422011-08-01T12:46:00.007+01:002011-08-01T23:23:10.334+01:00My thoughts on the BBC/Sky F1 deal<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnWNVfNcwMt31m0pACORcNNdcfaeAP__HmEDdsaPwVmurf0m96T9xvQO-o23ChU505lPn6Li3wwbFDJ3lERgVFdgDyV2ET9A3-FpEjcK4j1aMo5KX0-WUv6a-oVhUuGDbPSKow2S0db2I/s1600/cropped-bg1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 73px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnWNVfNcwMt31m0pACORcNNdcfaeAP__HmEDdsaPwVmurf0m96T9xvQO-o23ChU505lPn6Li3wwbFDJ3lERgVFdgDyV2ET9A3-FpEjcK4j1aMo5KX0-WUv6a-oVhUuGDbPSKow2S0db2I/s400/cropped-bg1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5635991450560909346" border="0" /></a><br />If you are an F1 fan then there was huge, earth shattering news at the weekend which you cannot have failed to miss. For those of you who aren't, a new TV deal has been agreed that will see coverage change dramatically from next year. The exact details of how it will all work are still unclear, but essentially Sky will broadcast all the races live. The BBC will show half the races in full and the other half as a highlights package.<br /><br />The areas which still remain unclear are whether the 10 races the BBC are showing will be live or deferred coverage. It is also unknown what the highlights package means and if in fact the 10 full races will actually be extended highlights as well.<br /><br />My initial reaction to the news was that of unmitigated anger that F1 could move to pay TV after years of being told that could never happen. In fact we were being told this could never happen by Bernie Ecclestone (the head of FOM and television rights holder) as recently as May!<br /><blockquote>"it isn't possible that F1 could go on to pay-TV, we wouldn't want to do that." - Bernie Ecclestone<br /></blockquote><br />The BBC have clearly been forced to make cutbacks and it seems that rather than drop F1 totally the BBC themselves have brought Sky in on the deal. After all, the BBC have the contract until 2013 so if they pulled out early they would have to pay huge penalty fees to FOM, clearly they were eager to find a solution to avoid that scenario. It would seem the proposal they came up with would leave the BBC paying roughly the same amount it would cost in cancellation fees but allow them to keep half the races. Seems like a good deal from their point of view! Let's have a quick look at the figures shall we?<br /><br />The BBC currently pays £31m per year for the television rights, under the new agreement they will be paying just £15m with Sky contributing £25m. So the BBC save around half their current spend and depending on the cancellation clauses may even be saving more money than if they'd dropped F1 entirely!<br /><br />So, why did the BBC turn to Sky for help rather than another terrestrial broadcaster? Simple really, ITV had already dropped F1 and have shown no interest in it since, however Channel 4 & Five have both been in talks with FOM to make an independent bid. They wouldn't be interested in a share with the BBC, they would just take the lot. Sky on the other hand aren't in a position to bid for F1 since there is a Concorde agreement in place which exists between all the teams and FOM that states<br /><blockquote><br />"the Commercial Rights Holder may not permit Formula 1 events to be shown only by pay television in a country with a significant audience if it would materially adversely affect audience reach in that country."</blockquote><br />As Sky are a Pay TV provider, they could never be granted the F1 rights while this clause existed, this is pretty much the best deal Sky could hope for in order to get their foot in the door. Of course, once they are in the pressure will then be on the teams to have that clause removed when the Concorde agreement is renewed next year, paving the way for F1 to move to Sky permanently from 2018 when the new deal expires... assuming the BBC don't drop out of this new deal early as well which wouldn't be surprising.<br /><br />So where does all this leave the fans? Well they are given a whole load of spin for the BBC, FOM and Sky, but we weren't born yesterday and being told things like:<br /><br /><blockquote>"we believe this new deal offers the best outcome for licence-fee payers." - Ben Gallop (Head of BBC F1)<br /><br />"It's good for Formula 1, for sure there are going to be a lot more people viewing, and a lot more opportunities for people to view, so from that point I'm very happy." Bernie Ecclestone (FOM)<br /><br />"(the deal) is rather good news and should be positively welcomed by fans." - Eric Boullier (Lotus Renault team principle)</blockquote><br /><br />So let's take a closer look at viewer numbers shall we? Currently the BBC F1 programme is among the highest rating shows they have, regularly topping the list of viewing figures, not just for BBC content, but for the whole of television! Currently over 6 million people regularly tune in to a race on Sunday. Sky on the other hand only have a total of 10 million subscribers, and that's everyone with a Sky box, not just those who have Sky Sports!<br /><br />I'd like to know how exactly the viewing figures are going to go up? Inevitably the BBC will lose a lot of casual F1 fans if it's not being shown regularly, there will also be a lot of die-hard fans who lose interest once they can't follow the full season live. With the cost of a Sky subscription they won't be winning many new customers either, a quick look at the costs involved:<br /><br />A Sky subscription with Sky Sports will cost £470 a year, if you add HD coverage to that which is free on the BBC it's another £120 a year. A total of £600! Now considering they are only broadcasting half the races exclusively live, that means they are asking an F1 fan without Sky to pay £60 PER RACE! Of course they will "enjoy" the rest of the channels and programming Sky offer, but they've lived without it in the past and would only be subscribing for coverage of the F1.<br /><br />To take to task the issue of viewing figures even further, since Sky took over the rights to Cricket, they have seen audience numbers fall through the floor. When Channel 4 was covering it the sport was watched and enjoyed by many hundreds of thousands, if not millions more viewers. This is exactly what we can expect to see happen with F1!<br /><br />The sponsors will also have to make some tough choices now, the calculations they make are simple. It's a very basic spend per head. You take the number of people viewing combined with the projected airtime you will get and divide it by the money you are willing to spend. Clearly with viewing figures going from several million to potentially just a few hundred thousand they will have to justify their expenditure which may prove very difficult indeed. F1 can expect to lose some of its sponsors altogether and others to reduce their spend dramatically.<br /><br />Of course the fans don't actually matter at the end of the day because it's the money that talks. We are often told how the fans are crucial to F1 and that they are the one who own the sport, blah, blah, blah.... But it doesn't mean anything. The only glimmer of hope for fans is that FOTA (Formula One Teams Association) decide they don't like the new deal because it will lose them too much money in sponsorship. However, that's unlikely to happen. No doubt that of the extra £9m that FOM are making from this new deal, a fair chunk of that (if not more) is going straight to the teams to keep them sweet. The general consensus so far seems to indicate that the teams don't care about the fans either as long as they have the money in the bank. So far nobody has made a stand for the fans of the sport, F1 has found itself on a slippery slope having reached a peak in the last couple of years on the BBC.<br /><br />I have to say I am utterly perplexed at how the BBC who are a public service broadcaster can simply offload one of its flagship titles in this fashion when they already own the exclusive rights for another 2 years! Losing something like football to Sky was a different scenario, since the contract had expired and they simply couldn't afford to outbid them. Here, the BBC have actively sought out and made a deal with Sky in order to shirk their responsibilities. It is truly disgraceful and all parties involved BBC, FOM, FIA and FOTA (excluding Sky, who have simply jumped at a business opportunity) should be utterly ashamed.<br /><br />It's made even worse given the current situation with Rupert Murdoch!<br /><br />I'll leave you with one final comment from Bernie Ecclestone himself that really sums up the whole situation:<br /><br /><blockquote>"Sky have been trying to buy the TV rights from us for a long time, but we won’t because they are not free-to-air broadcasters. With their viewing figures it would be almost impossible for teams to find sponsors. That would be suicidal.” - Bernie Ecclestone, May 2011</blockquote><br /><br />Quite right Bernie, R.I.P F1!Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-61397971847011630442011-07-14T15:58:00.005+01:002011-07-14T16:32:20.093+01:00Sky Go doesn't work on 64-bit computers?<div id="chatContentDiv"><p class="infoText">I recently experienced the "new and improved" Sky Go service, which has replaced Sky Player. I watched the A-Team film on it at the weekend which was a terrible experience. The film I mean Sky Go worked exactly the same as Sky Player did before it.</p><p class="infoText">However, today I tried to watch something else and it failed to work for me, spouting "Error c:1501" whenever I tried to start a stream. So I did what most people would do and checked the forums for advise, but I couldn't see anything that worked for me. Then a box popped up telling me I could chat to an advisor, so I did. Here follows the transcript of my conversation, what a complete waste of time it turned out to be!<br /></p><hr /><br /><p></p><p class="infoText"><span class="infoText"><img src="https://server.lon.liveperson.net/hcp/chatinfo/chatinfo.gif" alt="Chat Information" height="10" width="5" /></span>Welcome to Sky Live Chat Service. A Sky Advisor will be with you shortly.</p> <p class="infoText"><span class="infoText"><img src="https://server.lon.liveperson.net/hcp/chatinfo/chatinfo.gif" alt="Chat Information" height="10" width="5" /></span>You are now connected with Graeme.</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Hello, you're chatting with Graeme, a Sky advisor, may I take your name please?</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>James</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Hi James, how are you today?</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>I'm trying to use the new "improved" Sky player, but I keep getting "Error c:1501"</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Ok we will have to do some troubleshooting which will take some time, are you ok to do this?</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>yes</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Great!</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Have you downloaded the Sky Go desktop?</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>yes</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Please can you right click anywhere on your open ‘Sky Go’ desktop and select ‘Remove This Application’. After the Sky Go desktop has been removed, please close all open browser windows on your PC except for the one in which we are chatting.</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Please let me know when you have done this.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>okay, all done</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Excellent!</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>What operating system are you using?</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>Windows 7 64-bit</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Ok you will be unable to use the 64 bit windows 7 can you try another version please.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>how exactly would I do that?</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>Sky Player used to work for me</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Sky does not support 64 bit computers.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>yes it does!</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Not Sky Go.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>errr... yes.. you do. Unless you don't support any PC sold in the last 2 years!</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>We do not support this sorry.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>Or does the new Sky Go not support 64bit computers when Sky Player did? If so why?</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>Please check with your supervisor, you must be wrong. Sky Player worked!</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>I am not wrong James we do not support 64 bit computers with Sky Go.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>So how was I able to use Sky Player then<span class="visitorName"></span>?</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>This is a different platform and it does not support 64 bit computers.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>So your new and improved player doesn't support ANY PC sold in the last 2 or more years?!</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>We do not support 64 bit computers on Sky Go.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>Again, virtually every computer on sale today is 64-bit. So are you saying Sky Go does not support ANY new PC?</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>I am saying that Sky Go does not support 64 bit computers.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>Look, this is crazy. Sky Player worked fine on 64bit Windows 7. Do you mean it doesn't work in a 64 bit browser?</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Unfortunately we currently do not support 64 bit systems if you go to the Sky Help forum you can find additional information there.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>Sorry Graeme, you clearly don't know what you are talking about. Sky Player/Go does work on 64bit computers. I am using Firefox 5 which is a 32bit browser, do you actually understand the difference here?</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Unfortunately we cannot provide any support with this operating system currently, however I want to help you the best I can which is why I have directed you to the help forum as I am aware there is postings up there which will answer your questions. </p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>I've already checked the Forum, it didn't help. That's why I came to here. Can I please talk to someone who actually knows what a computer is, you obviously don't have the required knowledge or expertise to help me.</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>Our company considers that content and language to be inappropriate. If you continue to send improper messages, I will be forced to end our chat session.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>How was that inappropriate? Do you understand the difference between a 64-bit OS and a the 32-bit software it can run?</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>I am not here to tell you the difference between the software. I am here for support and I am currently unable to support you.</p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" class="visitorText"><span class="visitorName">You: </span>Which indicates to me that you don't have the required knowledge or expertise, which is why I have asked to talk to someone else. Seems perfectly reasonable to me!</p> <p style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);" class="operatorText"><span class="operatorName">Graeme: </span>If you wish to speak to someone else you can end the chat and speak to another advisor if you reconnect.</p> </div>Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-25677292654833162772011-04-18T15:20:00.004+01:002011-05-24T13:20:35.049+01:00iPad 2 Smart Cover<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lufferov/LufferSBlog?authkey=Gv1sRgCI2d0sCE5PPmAw#5596928306351956018"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjndAEkX7byo5DH9KBZSl4rCygxHeJ4qCrAlG_QPaTJP4PuB5WBN2pN36GUtumYEMiMBM9sGm962dbag_N41kK5l9ozdws1ba5iBRGYf4IJayw3BpHiHdhVwn_D2hvCO0x7UCcAJEKyIqE/s288/0.jpg" style="margin:5px" align="right" border="0" height="142" width="281" /></a>I was asked on Twitter to post my thoughts on the iPad 2 smart cover. I've been using it for a few days so think I'm in a position to give my opinion on it now.<br /><br />It's quite neat that's for sure, but it doesn't really offer much protection. Yes, it does cover the screen when it's not in use, but the back of the device is totally naked. I've already managed to pick up a few scratches on the back of my iPad. The touted screen cleaning abilities of the cover are a joke, just having a soft fabric laying on the screen can't clean it! What I have noticed though are marks on the screen where the hinges are. This means you end up with three distinct vertical lines down the screen, they can be easily wiped away, but it's still annoying when it happens.<br /><br />The different configurations of the cover are handy in certain circumstances. I've used it in both forms at various times. The upright stand is great for propping it up on the desk while watching a video or other times when you don't need to be "hands-on" with the device. The raised keyboard position is ideal for web browsing and typing blog posts like this one. I can type almost as quickly on this keyboard as I can on a real one. Having the slight angle means you can easily see the screen over your hands, and you aren't typing on a totally flat surface.<br /><br />The magnets that the cover uses to connect are quite clever, I think it must use a system of opposing magnets that force it to hook up in the correct location. It just seems to know where to go! Simply swing the cover towards the edge and it will snap on. When it's attached the magnets are strong enough that it can support the weight on the iPad dangling beneath, but not if you start jiggling it about too vigorously. It will soon lose its grip then!<br /><br />When the cover is used in one of its two setups, it's great. The problems only arise when you aren't. Holding it with the cover open can be annoying, it doesn't magnetise itself to the back as it does to the front, so it wants to constantly flap open. If you fold it into a triangle and hold on to that, it gives you something to grip, but it makes typing on the keyboard harder with your thumbs and it still wants to flap about too much.<br /><br />It's an expensive cover that doesn't really offer any real protection, but the stand system is useful. Is it worth the money? Probably not, it's expensive and I'm sure there will be other 3rd party solutions that will do a better job than this.<br /><br />EDIT: Updated with a video below to show the marks.<br /><br /><iframe title="Twitvid video player" class="twitvid-player" type="text/html" src="http://www.twitvid.com/embed.php?guid=MDKKQ&autoplay=0" frameborder="0" height="360" width="480"></iframe><br /><br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPadLufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-43353765337644344702011-04-18T11:29:00.002+01:002011-04-18T15:18:31.427+01:00Blogging from the iPad 2I just downloaded and installed a blogging app for my iPad called BlogPress. Seems quite good so far, this will be my first post using it so this is really just a test. Thought I'd write down a few of my thoughts on the iPad 2 while I am here. They probably won't be much different to any others you've already heard or read elsewhere though.<br /><br />First of all, the actual device is gorgeous, from the moment you first power it up the display pops out at you. The IPS panel gives stunning quality, even if it doesn't have the much touted "retina display" resolution. Text is clear and easy to read, viewing angles are brilliant. Although the screen goes a bit darker at extreme angles you can still see everything without trouble.<br /><br />The battery is good, even when the device was new and I played with it for almost a full day, the battery still had life in it by the end. I can imagine under more normal demands I could be going a full week without going near a power socket. Of course, I can only imagine that, because after almost a week, I'm still using it constantly, for almost everything. From email to twitter, web browsing, gaming, iPlayer viewing and now blogging. The iPad can do it all! In fact, maybe my current iPad usage is going to be normal from now on?<br /><br />Many of the apps designed for the iPad are a joy to use. The slick fluid interface of apps such as Twitter are quick to navigate and intuitive to use. The ones that aren't are fairly easy to avoid thanks to the app store reviews.<br /><br />The implementation of multi-tasking is very good, I was never sold on the fake pseudo version Apple devised. But having used it, in practise you'd never know any difference. You can switch between apps in an instant and pick up exactly where you left off. Certain processes can even continue running in the background when you switch, such as music and the ability for apps to send notifications when they aren't running helps with things like alarms, email and twitter. <br /><br />Of course it's not all good! There are a few niggles (some bigger than others) that are frustrating and others that are inexplicable. For example, the iPhone and iPod Touch both run the same iOS, yet the iPad lacks some of the core apps. The Clock, Calculator, Weather and Stocks apps are all missing in action. This seems utterly mad considering they must be there in the source code of iOS, but simply locked out on the iPad. Finding replacements for them on the app store is fairly simple, but the good ones have to be paid for which is annoying when the Apple versions were already excellent.<br /><br />The keyboard, whilst easy to type on, particularly in landscape mode also gives some minor annoyances. I'm now fairly accustomed to the Android keyboard used on my mobile phone. On that I can long press a key to get alternative characters, such as numbers and other commonly used symbols. On the iPad I have to switch to the numeric keyboard to access those keys. Worse still is that when you do so, the few symbols that are included on the main keyboard actually move to a different location!! Who the hell thought that was a good idea?<br /><br />Sticking with the keyboard for a moment many of the common symbols have been relegated to a third keyboard layout. The +,=,#,$,% are all three keyboards deep. But why can't they adopt the Android method and have all the numeric and common symbols on long presses, with other symbols just one keyboard change away. Or if not that, then make one of the two buttons that currently change it to the number keyboard change it to the symbol keyboard instead. That way it's not so much effort.<br /><br />The only other real annoyance I have with the iPad are the notifications. Now notifications are a great idea, they notify you of stuff which is great :-) The problem with notifications on the iPad and iOS in general is they are far too intrusive. When a notification appears on the iPad it opens a dialog box in the middle of the screen to inform you about whatever it may be. A new tweet directed at you, your turn in an on-line game, a calendar appointment and numerous other app specific things. This can be very inconvenient, especially if you are watching a video, or playing a different game. It will simply interrupt whatever you are doing until you dismiss the pop-up dialog. It gets very frustrating when you are as popular as me :-) I was watching something on the iPlayer last night and my video was being interrupted every 4 or 5 minutes with a notification of some sort.<br /><br />Why can't the OS just put a little icon in the status bar so I know something wants my attention but doesn't demand I deal with it at that very moment? Yes, I could turn off notifications, but that would be just as inconvenient as then I wouldn't be informed of anything.<br /><br />Hopefully iOS 5 will help address some of these issues, I don't know. But I'll be disappointed if they don't! Especially when far better solutions are already in use by Android. <br /><br />Well that was a much longer post than I'd intended it to be. Creating it on the iPad has been fairly easy. I haven't even mentioned the Smart Cover which I promised someone I'd write about. That will have to be another post because it's lunchtime now!<br /><br />- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad<br /><br />Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-70960997113826555252011-04-11T17:58:00.011+01:002011-04-11T18:34:32.623+01:00Getting mobile interwebs<img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 210px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz6LpDNsEUxXC0ZruOkE7eFoaDNfy5S4Y6Ja5-YDxpZdvOUMuXTCOiYqNPfA_7Y7BfBko6aj4utp1TOOndR3DTcEWEj5KSsSZLmQn7xW6V-1gyTcP6uKIYB5P4OActyrIAvSCrDThzITA/s320/3Store_MiFi_210x225_Largev2.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5594378153544429490" /><br /><br />I'm looking at options to get my internet fix on the move. I've got an iPad 32Gb wi-fi on its way to me right now, I also have a laptop which I cart around and have to find wifi hotspots to piggyback on. I want something that will put an end to the hunt and I've found some things I quite like the look of but I need to know if it will work.<br /><br />I could find a forum somewhere and post my questions there, but I know quite a lot of my tech-savvy friends read these posts, and I trust your advise more!<br /><br />So, I'm looking at the Three MiFi device and I'm currently confused by the two options. They are the:<br /><ul><br /> <li><a href="http://threestore.three.co.uk/payg/dealsummary.aspx?offercode=DSLPP527">MiFi Pay As you Go +3</a></li><br /> <li><a href="http://threestore.three.co.uk/dealsummary.aspx?offercode=1MB5GD014">MiFi (5GB)</a></li><br /></ul><br />The first one appears to me to be £71.99 for the MiFi device. As far as I can see, there is no data included, so I'd have to PAYG and "top up" with a 30-day data bundle before I can use it.<br /><br />On the other hand the <a href="http://threestore.three.co.uk/dealsummary.aspx?offercode=1MB5GD014">MiFi (5GB)</a> package is a "monthly" contract according to the site. It costs £39.99 for the MiFi device and a monthly fee of £15.99 for the 15GB of data.<br /><br />Now that second option sounds very expensive over time. However, looking at the site I can't see any minimum contract length detailed. So, my question is:<br /><br />Is there anything to stop me buying the <a href="http://threestore.three.co.uk/dealsummary.aspx?offercode=1MB5GD014">MiFi (5GB)</a> for £39.99 + £15.99 for the first month and then cancelling the monthly contract?<br /><br />This would cost me a total of £55.98 and give me 15GB of data to start me off! That's a saving of £16.01 over the PAYG option, plus the cost of whatever data plan I added. Then would I be able to just get top-ups instead once I have the MiFi device rather than paying the monthly contract?<br /><br />Or, even better, could I purchase a "<a href="http://threestore.three.co.uk/payg/dealsummary.aspx?offercode=DSLPP534">Tablet SIM Pay As You Go + 12</a>" for £51.49 which would give me 12Gb to use over 12 months for a single fee?<br /><br />I don't see anything obvious that would prevent this, the MiFi device and SIM cards are both on the Three network. Am I missing something obvious in all this?Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-13172487336052685312011-03-16T11:46:00.003+00:002011-03-16T12:49:14.816+00:00Revisiting the iPadSo a little over a year ago I posted my thoughts on the iPad, you can check the post by scrolling down two entries. It may have been over a year ago that I wrote it, but not much happens here :-)<br /><br />Anyway, basically I said I wasn't interested for several reasons. Some of those issues have been addressed with the iPad 2. They've added cameras for a start (see I told you they'd held them back on purpose) and multi-tasking is available now. Well okay, that was available with an iOS update on the original iPad too, but the new dual core A5 CPU should make it much better. Of course we have to be careful here, because it's not true multi-tasking, but it will do for now.<br /><br />They still haven't added the SIM card slot to every device and I still don't understand why they need to produce different models for that. They still haven't really adapted the iOS for a tablet either, though it's better than it was when the original iPad came out.<br /><br />I still feel it's overpriced, but then when you compare it to other tablets like the Xoom and Galaxy tab it doesn't look that bad after all so maybe for once I'm being a little harsh on Apple for that one?<br /><br />All this waffling is just a long winded way of me saying I'm going to buy an iPad 2. Now I know it's still not perfect, however I have several reasons for wanting one. I currently use an iPhone 3G for all my app store requirements, but I haven't used it as a phone for a long time. I've had my HTC Desire for a year or so now, there's a whole other post about that phone but for another time maybe...<br /><br />The iPhone 3G is showing its age now, new iOS releases aren't supporting it so slowly apps will no longer be available. It doesn't have multi-tasking which is getting really frustrating when I'm playing several games at the same time.<br /><br />I think the time is right to get myself an iPad now. The things missing are things that don't bother me so much. The poor cameras aren't an issue, they'll be fine for Facetime/Skype and that's all I'll need them for. I have a DSLR for real photos and my camera phone for when I want to take a quick snap. The new iPad 2 should fill my requirements quite nicely for now.Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-50905724393095327742010-03-14T16:19:00.004+00:002010-03-14T17:23:55.971+00:00New F1 season is dullIt was with much excitement that I awaited the return of the F1 season for 2010. It had so much promise with the most competitive field for years. Several teams all very close in term of performance including Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and Mercedes. <br /><br />Not only do we have so many top teams, there was also the prospect of seeing four world champions all on the track together (Button, Hamilton, Schumacher and Alonso). Never has an F1 season had so much to offer but as if that wasn't enough there was also the introduction of three new teams to the grid. The addition of Lotus, Virgin and Hispania meant we would have the largest field since 1995!<br /><br />Things were still looking good during qualifying with the new teams faring better than would be expected. There was also lots of competition at the top with Ferrari looking strong until the Red Bull of Vettel smashed their times. So with a great starting grid there was still everything to race for.<br /><br />It was when the actual race started that things went downhill. The first few corners had some incidents including the oil burning episode of Mark Webber that saw some turmoil left in his wake. There was also a move by Hamilton on Massa which he didn't manage to stick. But after that there was absolutely nothing to talk of.<br /><br />Sure after around 15-20 laps they came in to change tyres, but that barely affected the grid. Though the McLaren's of Hamilton and Button did both benefit by gaining a place. But after the pit stop nothing happened except for a couple of retirements from the new teams.<br /><br />Sadly for Vettel he suffered a mechanical failure with his exhaust which just meant he had to surrender his pole position and cling on to whatever points he could. This was the only small piece of drama in what was otherwise just a procession of cars pretty much from start to finish.<br /><br />The new rules have basically killed off any tactical manoeuvrability with fuel loads and pit stops. The tyres are too good and last too well negating the need to change them, other than the dictated requirement to use both types. I would think that a set of hard tyres could last the full race distance!<br /><br />Post race interviews were worrying too with drivers saying they weren't really pushed because they had to manage tyres. This is borne out by the lap times which didn't really drop below 2 minutes despite qualifying times being several seconds faster.<br /><br />We really don't want this situation at all, the drivers should be out there to race, not nurse their cars around the track!<br /><br />We need a change to the rules and fast. A minimum of two pit stops would be one way forward but is unlikely to get team approval now the season has started. They couldn't get agreement beforehand!<br /><br />Another option that wouldn't involve a rule change would be to stop the tyres lasting as long, it would have the same effect as mandating two stops but wouldn't require team approval. This would at least enable the drivers to race the cars to the limit without having to worry so much about tyre wear.<br /><br />If things stay as they are now you can expect every race this year to follow exactly the same pattern. The top teams will go into Q3 using the super soft for a fast lap time, then be forced to start the race on them. They will then pit at roughly quarter distance for the harder compound which will will then last them to the end of the race.... YAWN....<br /><br />Fans deserve better than this, it seems that every attempt to make the racing more exciting over the last 3-4 years has had the exact opposite effect!<br /><br />What is my ultimate solution? Well I have an idea and that's to stop meddling! Remove all the ridiculous rules and regulations (other than those for safety) becuase they just don't work. Set a sensible budget cap and just let the teams produce the best car/driver combination they can for the cash!<br /><br />Let them develop double/triple diffusers and extra down-force if they can, why not? Let them test mid season if their budget allows, it's up to them how they spend it up to the cap. Stop trying to micro-manage F1 and let the car designers and engineers do the best job they can!Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-78583210224521264282010-01-28T00:09:00.002+00:002010-01-28T00:51:56.861+00:00My thoughts on the Apple iPad<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.lostremote.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ipad.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 201px;" src="http://www.lostremote.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ipad.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />So tonight the internet went a bit crazy with the culmination of weeks, no months of hype! Apple finally unveiled its highly anticipated Tablet device they've name the iPad. I thought I'd share my initial thoughts and reaction to the device as undoubtedly the rest of the internet will.<br /><br /><br />I've never been a huge Apple fan, I have an iPhone 3G but it's the only device I own. If I wasn't able to jailbreak it then I wouldn't own that either. However, with all the hacks and modifications applied it becomes an unbeatable device. It shows what Apple could do if they really tried!<br /><br />With the announcement of the iPad it seems nothing has changed, it's a disappointing over priced half arsed attempt at a tablet. It seems obvious to me that Apple have deliberately crippled this device so they can easily improve it in future annual product update cycles.<br /><br />At the end of the day, the iPad is basically a big iPhone without the calling, SMS and camera functionality. The biggest surprise here has to be the lack of a camera, I mean seriously... cameras have been standard in devices for years. How can Apple think it acceptable to leave one out of this device and how much are you willing to wager that they'll add one to the next iPad? The iPad would have been ideal for making video Skype calls with its internet capabilities after all, to say nothing of the popularity with video blogs.<br /><br />It seems Apple have produced an awesome piece of hardware but just not bothered with the OS too. Why create a device with this much power and a screen this large and then slap the iPhone's OS on to it? This means no multi-tasking, but perhaps the biggest crime is NO FLASH support! In a machine this size web browsing is a big part of the experience. If you can't use Flash then it effectively renders the iPad useless. It's such a massive let down! Just look at the top of this post, don't you think it looks ridiculous with the small icons separated out across that massive screen? Apple haven't even tried to customise the firmware for this device!<br /><br />Then we come to the price, why do Apple think it is appropriate to charge an extra $130 to have a SIM slot added to your device? You can't even use it unless you pay a monthly subscription to a mobile data provider! The slot should be part of the standard hardware, I simply cannot believe that it isn't.<br /><br />The iPad has far too many things missing and adds nothing new to the current offering to make me even remotely interested. I'm not going to rule out ever owning one, in a year or so when they release an update that should have been what this is and the OS is improved and I can jailbreak it. Then I might be tempted. This reminds me very much of the original iPhone, a great idea but fatally flawed in its execution.<br /><br />I'll pass for now, come back when you've got it right Apple!Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-88304661794356165832009-11-28T17:42:00.019+00:002009-11-29T20:50:48.847+00:00More essential apps for a Jailbroken iPhoneBack in February I wrote a post about the iPhone jailbreak and the apps available from Cydia which is the equivalent of the app store for jailbreak programs. You can read it here if you've not seen it before <a href="http://lufferov.blogspot.com/2009/02/jailbroken-iphone-3g.html">Jailbroken iPhone 3G - essential apps</a>.<br /><br />Since then quite a lot has changed, the iPhone 3GS has been launched and with it an update of the iPhone OS to version 3.0. This introduced numerous new features that addressed some of the most compelling reasons to jailbreak. The new OS gave us copy and paste, MMS, Spotlight search, 3G tethering, better Bluetooth support, a voice memo app, push notifications and other smaller improvements.<br /><br />However, it didn't address all the issues and customisation still has to be the most compelling reason to jailbreak an iPhone. Fortunately it didn't take too long for people far more clever than I to figure out a new jailbreak for OS 3.0. The even better news is it's now even easier than before!<br /><br />If you haven't jailbroken your iPhone yet, there has never been a better time to do so! Head over to <a href="http://blackra1n.com/">Blackra1n</a> where you can download a small application that will run either on a Windows or Mac PC. When you run it you will need to connect your iPhone via its USB cord, then simply click the button. A few seconds later and you're all done! It really is that simple.<br /><br />The first thing you'll want to do is load the new iPhone App "<a href="http://blackra1n.com/">blackra1n</a>" which you'll see has appeared on your dashboard and install Cydia. This is your gateway to all sorts of cool new things you can do with your iPhone!<br /><br />Some of the previous essential apps are still just as essential as before. Mainly <a href="http://www.appleiphoneapps.com/2008/08/how-to-use-winterboard-summerboard-replacement-a-walkthrough/">WinterBoard</a>, <a href="http://www.efksoft.com/products/tonefxsforiphone/index.htm">ToneFXs</a>, <a href="http://www.installerapps.com/2008/02/04/bossprefs/">BossPrefs</a>, <a href="http://www.appleiphoneschool.com/2009/01/19/livetime-animated-clock-icon/">LiveClock</a>, <a href="http://www.appleiphoneschool.com/2009/01/27/weathericon-153-updating-weather-icon/">WeatherIcon</a>, <a href="http://www.appleiphoneschool.com/2009/01/18/lock-calendar-display-calendar-events-on-lock-screen/">LockCalendar</a> and <a href="http://www.installerapps.com/2008/09/12/cycorder/">Cycorder</a> (if you don't have an iPhone 3GS).<br /><br />Of course since February there have been a lot of new developments in Cydia too! The Cydia store is the main thing to know about. Previously 99% of apps in Cydia were free, only a small number required you to purchase a license from a website before it could be used properly. Now the developer of Cydia, <a href="http://www.saurik.com/">Saurik</a>, has integrated store functionality allowing other developers to charge for their apps.<br /><br />This is a great thing, it encourages some superb apps because there is a revenue stream available to them, it also opens up the door to people disillusioned with Apples App Store. For the end user you get an easy way to purchase and pay for these apps as well as an easy way to download them again in the future because it remembers your purchases!<br /><br />Right, so onto the main part of this post and the new "essential iPhone apps"! First on your list has to be AptBackup. This app will backup your jailbroken iPhone apps saving you a huge amount of time and hassle when you upgrade the iPhone firmware. You see when you apply a new firmware you lose your jailbreak and all the associated apps, you have to start again from scratch. With AptBackup you simply run the app before you upgrade your iPhone, this stores a list of all the apps you have installed. When you've finished upgrading the firmware and performed a new jailbreak simply go to Cydia and install AptBackup first. Then run this app and hit the restore button. The app will then download and install all your old jailbreak apps automatically. It will save you literally hours if you have a lot of apps installed!<br /><br /><centre><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://kelvinmedina.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/iphone-aptbackup.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></centre>It's important to note that AptBackup doesn't actually backup any files or programs. It just creates a list of apps that you have installed and will download and re-install them automatically. This is perfectly adequate for most situations though. Any customisation to settings you've made are normally remembered. There may be the odd exception, but considering the time it saves, you won't be complaining. You might also find that an old app will no longer function on the new firmware so it's a good idea to do your research first. It may be an idea to wait for apps to be updated so they are compatible, especially if like me you come to rely on them!<br /><br />My next recommendation is for <a href="http://www.efksoft.com/products/qtweeterforiphone/">qTweeter</a>, this allows you to send Twitter and Facebook messages from any application and at any time. You just have to use a gesture and swipe your finger down from the top of the screen. There's a video below so you can see how it works:<br /><br /><centre><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ihXluoBOtcQ&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ihXluoBOtcQ&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object></centre><br /><br />If you use <a href="http://www.installerapps.com/2008/02/04/bossprefs/">BossPrefs</a>, don't worry <a href="http://www.efksoft.com/products/qtweeterforiphone/">qTweeter</a> will still work happily. It will change the <a href="http://www.installerapps.com/2008/02/04/bossprefs/">BossPrefs</a> gesture to a horizontal swipe on the status bar!<br /><br />Moving on I've got a great little utility that will be a money saver for those on pay & go or with a limited SMS allowance. The iPhones SMS implementation has always annoyed me because I never now how many characters I've used! Step up <a href="http://www.appleiphoneschool.com/2009/09/30/sms-helper-sms-character-counter/">SMS Helper</a>, this awesome little utility integrates itself into the iPhones SMS app and will tell you how many characters you have remaining and when you run out tell you how many messages you're using. It does this in a cool way by animating the "Send" button. When you are typing it flips around to show the characters remaining, then when you stop it will flip back to a send button again. When you reach the end of the first message the button will turn Red giving you a clear visual indication that you're using more than one text. It's fantastic and even better totally free!<br /><br /><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 375px;" src="http://www.appstore.ca/wp-content/plugins/wp-o-matic/cache/4a3eb_img0606.png" border="0" alt="" />I haven't listed these apps in any order but if I had this next one would probably have to go at the top! It's called <a href="http://www.iphone3g-mods.com/2009/03/status-notifier-iphone-apps.html">SatusNotifier</a>, it integrates itself into the shell of your iPhone and uses the Statusbar at the top to place small icons next to the battery indicator. It will put up a little speech bubble when you have new SMS messages to read, an envelope if you've got unread email and a mute icon when you have your iPhone set to silent. There are more notifications available including missed calls, MMS, IM, Calendar and RSS. They can all be set individually if you have no use for a particular notification.<br /><br /><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 375px;" src="http://myiphoneanswers.com/files/statusnotifier012.jpg" border="0" alt="" />Another app for you here, this time it's just a cosmetic thing really. If you've taken the time to add photos to your contacts then you might be interested in installing <a href="http://cydia.saurik.com/info/cyntact/">Cyntact</a>. This is another app that integrates seamlessly with the iPhone OS and will place small thumbnail images of your contacts next to their names in the contacts list:<br /><br /><centre><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 375px;" src="http://www.simonblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/cyntact.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></centre>Hot on the heals of <a href="http://cydia.saurik.com/info/cyntact/">Cyntact</a> comes <a href="http://www.appleiphoneschool.com/2009/03/25/cydelete-delete-cydia-apps-off-springboard/">CyDelete</a>, this gives you an easy way to delete apps installed via Cydia. When you delete an app installed via the App Store you can do it by clicking on the 'x' when you hold your finger on an icon. Cydia apps don't do this by default, you have to remove them using the Cydia package manager. It's easy enough and in some cases where Cydia apps integrate into the iPhone OS there is no icon so you have to do it this way. However, for those that do place an icon on the dashboard CyDelete will allow you to remove them using the same method as those purchased in the App store!<br /><br /><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 375px;" src="http://www.simonblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/cydelete_confirm.jpg" border="0" alt="" /><br /><br />Here is another example of how jailbreaking your device can give you more freedom. Have you ever been annoyed that when you receive a text message you have to stop what you're doing and go to the SMS app? Even if you just wanted to send a quick reply? Well now you can forget all that frustration with QuickReply for SMS! I've included a video to show you how cool it is:<br /><br /><centre><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cfI5Yc941TM&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cfI5Yc941TM&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object></centre><br /><br />Just like <a href="http://www.efksoft.com/products/qtweeterforiphone/">qTweeter</a> above it will overlay the SMS functionality on your current app. You can compose a text and send a reply and return to what you were doing before. No need to shut down your browser or other app first! It makes so much sense to be able to do this and will save a lot of frustration.<br /><br />I have just one final recommendation for my essential jailbreak apps, it's only just been released but it is quite cool. The app in question is called SnapTap and it will give you a physical button to press when you take photos using the iPhone camera. Of course it can't actually add a button to the iPhone, but what it will do is change the function of the volume button when you are in the camera app. You'll never need to adjust the volume when using the camera so it makes perfect sense. With the SnapTap extension installed when you open the Camera you can use the volume up/down button to take the photo. It makes taking photos of yourself so much easier because you don't have to guess where the button is on the screen. It's also a lot more natural and allows you to hold the iPhone in a more traditional camera style to take pictures! It also works when using it for video to start/stop recording on the iPhone 3GS and is compatible with almost all the other apps that use the camera too. There's another short video below:<br /><br /><centre><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/q_3_DAqqMcM&hl=en_GB&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/q_3_DAqqMcM&hl=en_GB&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></centre><br /><br />So that's sums up my updated list, I'll probably have even more in a few months and will end up writing a Part III. Until then enjoy these apps, tell me what you think and if you've found any gems that I'm missing let me know!Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-54746107238225757802009-11-20T09:30:00.003+00:002009-11-20T09:35:31.836+00:00Shortest scam email ever?This was in my inbox this morning:<br /><br /><hr /><br />From: British Tobacco Office<br />Subject: Prize<br /><br />Message:<br /><br />send your details to claim one million pounds in the tobacco promo<br /><br /><hr /><br /><br />The scammer didn't even feel the need do disguise his email address so if you want to claim my prize feel free. His address is mrjohncarrick1@hawamail.com, of course you'll have to guess what details he wants but I guess bank account number etc.. so he can transfer funds, possibly a good idea to include your credit card number too just in case along with your address.<br /><p>Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-6751342326216706582009-09-25T20:39:00.004+01:002009-09-25T21:28:41.251+01:00Goodwood Revival 2009Last weekend I spent a fantastic day at the Goodwood revival. There was supposed to be four of us in total, but sadly two had to drop out. One because something else cropped up that he couldn't get out of, the other person was ill on the day so stayed at home in bed.<br /><br />That didn't stop the two of us left having one of the most fun days out I've had all year, and that is a year that includes the F1 GP at Silverstone!<br /><br />We arrived really early after being told you need to be there as soon as possible if you don't want to spend half your day sitting in traffic. The fact we didn't have to pick up the third person meant we also saved ourselves an extra 20 minutes on our journey time. I think we actually got into the circuit at about 8:30am so had plenty of time to explore before the first race at 10am.<br /><br />I always like to walk round a circuit to get a good idea of the track so that was the first thing we did. Even though it all opened up at 7:30am, it was still pretty deserted when we arrived so it was nice to be able to wonder around freely and easily. It probably took us about 45 minutes to complete a lap at a leisurely pace, just a tad slower than the 1m50secs the car were lapping in a bit later that day!<br /><br />While we were walking round lots of aircraft starting landing on the runway in the infield. Some amazing planes were showing up and as there is fairly open access every where we decided to take a trip into the infield for a closer look at some of the classic planes. We also found the Earls Court mock up with a fabulous car show inside the hanger.<br /><br />Seeing all that the infield had to offer meant we actually missed the first race at 10am and once we escaped we discovered just how busy the place had become! We didn't bother with stadium seating as they were quite expensive, but it was becoming evident how valuable they were. We started to make our way round the track again to find ourselves a suitable vantage point to view some on-track action. We ended up walking over half way around the circuit again before we decided to rest our legs for a while. It wasn't a great spot but we needed some recuperation time having walked non-stop from 8:30am until what was now gone 10:30am.<br /><br />One race later, from our less than ideal position and we felt it was time to set off again to find somewhere we could see a bit more of the racing. This done we settled in for an hour or so of spectating until we got hungry, time for lunch!<br /><br />Another trek to the nearest grandstand to find some food wagons, but massive queues everywhere. It was going to be busy regardless of where we went, so we just stood in line for about 20 minutes and ended up with a slightly pathetic burger for an extortionate price. Never mind though, nothing could compare to the £12 they were charging for the programmes!<br /><br />After lunch we experienced the worst renditions of "Happy Birthday" and "Rule Britannia" I've ever heard. It really was quite embarrassing, it was Sir Stirling Moss's 80th birthday over the weekend. I was great to pay tribute to him, but they seriously couldn't have found anyone with a worse voice to do the job! What was quite amusing was watching the faces of all the spectators, I wish I'd got that on film.<br /><br />Later in the afternoon one of the highlights of the day was seeing the Vulcan bomber doing a fly past, which you can see below. There really was nothing to spoil the superb day though, we spent over 12 hours at the track and loved every minute of it. If you've never been I really can't recommend it highly enough to you. There's something for everyone, whether it's the racing, aircraft, fairground, live music, dressing up, stunning scenery or the merchandise tents with all manner of period paraphernalia available to buy. They manage to cater to the whole family!<br /><br />I took my Toshiba Camileo P10 camera with me and took quite a lot of video during the day. Much of it is just cars flying past on the track, but after some editing I put together a 15 minute video. Considering the camera was less than £100 and produces HD footage, I'm quite happy with it. You can see it in two parts for yourself on YouTube, don't forget to hit the HD button though!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/B22BVDaJ1cs&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/B22BVDaJ1cs&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="340" width="560"></embed><a class="zckieauzhfpssltxmyof" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/B22BVDaJ1cs&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"></a></object><br /><br /><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2toIlcNUxCg&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2toIlcNUxCg&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="340" width="560"></embed><a class="zckieauzhfpssltxmyof" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/2toIlcNUxCg&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"></a></object><br /></div>Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-2303646159301373242009-09-07T16:35:00.003+01:002009-09-07T17:16:28.208+01:00Wii fit progressIt's been a week on my new "fitness" regime now... how's it going? Well I've been doing my bit every day for at least 30 mins. The good news is the 1lb it reported I'd lost after the first couple of days didn't come back again, the even better news is that I've lost a further 3lb during the week. So a total loss of 4lb!<br /><br />In fact it's all pretty positive really except for the realisation that to reach my ideal weight it's going to take me a very long time. I don't really want to lose the weight any faster than that, but I just don't know if I'll be able to keep it up for the amount of time needed!<br /><br />Still anything is better than nothing and as long as I don't put the weight back on again I'll stay relatively happy. I'll try and do at least one update a week here, it's just another motivating factor for me to keep going if I have to report back.Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-76574525683408888922009-09-01T15:22:00.003+01:002009-09-01T16:01:11.768+01:00Wii fit updateSo on Sunday I reported that I had picked up a copy of Wii Fit, mainly for the balance board. The game just comes with it really, but I need to get fit anyway so I decided to give it a go, despite me being convinced it's just a gimmick. See my previous post <a href="http://lufferov.blogspot.com/2009/08/getting-fit-with-wii-fit.html">"Getting fit with Wii Fit"</a> for more on that.<br /><br />Three days later and so far I've stuck to the commitment, I've done at least 30 mins a day, probably nearer to 45 actually. I figure if I do 30mins a day that's probably a reasonable workout for my fitness level. I'm actually quite impressed with its ability to engage your whole body in the training exercises. I've built up a good sweat when I've played it and while it's easy to cheat the system there's no point. You won't lose weight or build up muscle by just shaking the remote a bit. You have to engage with the game and actually work at it, it requires a level of dedication and a willingness to do things properly.<br /><br />I'm finding some of the exercises pretty tough, simply because my fitness level is about as low as it could possibly be. I can't physically do a push up for example so need to work on my upper body strength first, something that Wii Fit doesn't really address. So I've got some dumb bells and I'm doing some curls to work towards my goal of doing a push up :-)<br /><br />However, I certainly know it's working to some degree, I can feel my muscles ache where I'm actually pushing them. I'm trying hard not to over do it, I know that can be dangerous. But it's a fine line because if you don't push yourself then you won't accomplish anything.<br /><br />Wii Fit actually reported I'd lost 1lb today and my BMI dropped very slightly, I'm not sure how much to read into that though. It could be accounted for in so many ways, the only way I'll know for sure is if it stays like that tomorrow and continues to head down over the course of the next week or so. Basically, I'm not going to get too excited yet, and even if I have there are many, many more I need to shed yet!<br /><br />It's good to see the graph though, it's nice to see how you're improving but only if it's going down. I have a feeling if the line goes back up I'll lose interest pretty quickly!<br /><br />Having played it I am convinced it will help with my fitness though, especially if I do it every day. I'm certainly going to try, but it could take a very long time to get my body into shape. I don't want to go on any crash diets, they don't work, so I'm doing it the hard way. A sensible balanced diet and exercise!<br /><br />Stay tuned if you want to follow my progress!Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-69087405199091427602009-08-30T20:12:00.002+01:002009-08-30T20:33:04.111+01:00Getting fit with Wii FitIt was never my intention to buy this game, I always thought and still do think that the whole thing is a bit of a gimmick. But I wanted a balance board for a couple of other games and to be honest, it really wouldn't do me any harm to lose some weight. So if it did work then that would be a bonus.<br /><br />Initial set up was nice and easy and the end result was unsurprising. It lists me as being just inside the obese category which I already knew, just confirming (as if it needed) that I have to lose weight.<br /><br />I took part in a few of the activities and while they didn't seem too taxing at the time, I now realise that it actually has given me a bit of a workout. I can feel my muscles ache slightly, not in a "I can't move" way, but in an "enough to know I've done something active" way.<br /><br />I'm still not sold on the game being able to help me lose weight in any meaningful way, but I'll give it a chance and see if it makes a difference. It seems most of the activities revolve around you having to keep balance, which isn't surprising as you're using a balance board, but I don't see how maintaining your centre of gravity gets rid of fat!<br /><br />I'm also not sure what the point of setting targets is, I thought it would create a workout programme for me to help meet my goals. But I just seem to be left to do whatever I feel like, so I have no idea how much I should be aiming to do each day. The "personal trainer" is a waste of time too, apart from demonstrating each exercise they do nothing apart from spout really annoying and unhelpful comments.<br /><br />Still, let's give it a chance I'll try and play it every day for a fortnight and see if there's any improvement. Watch this space!Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-45869274527588281902009-08-25T15:39:00.011+01:002009-08-27T23:57:48.801+01:00Great hosting for Wordpress - WPWebHostThis is my first real post in quite a while, I seem to have been concentrating on my twitter account. I didn't think I'd get it at first, but I really enjoy this micro-blogging format. It's quick and easy and I don't have to think about it!<br /><br />Anyway, this post is a bit of a plug for a company I've been using for a few months to host my website. I can honestly say I've never used a hosting company as good as these guys!<br /><br />I can't remember how I actually found them now but I'm so glad I did. When I decided to switch my site to Wordpress from Drupal I was using a standard web hosting company. I had a problem with my Wordpress installation and they just said it's my problem to deal with, nothing wrong with their servers! After a bit of digging on the net I found that it was their service that was the problem, but there was nothing they would do to fix it. I could either put up with it or go elsewhere. That's when I hit on the <a href="http://wpwebhost.com/affiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=639&keyword=Blog&url=1" target="_blank">WPWebHost</a> guys!<br /><br />I must admit when I signed up I had no idea what I was letting myself in for, I'd not researched them or anything. It was most unlike me to act like that, I'm normally very thorough when it comes to this sort of thing. However, my site was starting to get more visitors and I needed to switch my provider quickly! As they were fairly cheap and gave a 100 day money back guarantee I figured there was nothing to lose, it couldn't get any worse.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://wpwebhost.com/affiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=639&keyword=Blog&url=1" target="_blank"><img src="http://wpwebhost.com/affiliate/banners/wpbanner300x250-45k.gif" border="0" height="250" width="300" /></a><br /></div><br />Once I'd signed up, their tech support simply couldn't have been any better. They offered to move my site for me from my current host to their service for free. After sending them my account details it was all done and ready to go within a couple of hours. All I had to do was update my domain registration to point to the sites new location. Super easy, amazingly efficient and a real breath of fresh air.<br /><br />What makes <a href="http://wpwebhost.com/affiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=639&keyword=Blog&url=1" target="_blank">WPWebHost</a> so great is that they have configured and tailored their servers for Wordpress hosting. It means that things just work on their packages and the benefits of that can't be under estimated!<br /><br />As always I have a had a few problems with my site, normally as a result of me doing something stupid. In every case whenever I've emailed their support, no matter what time of day I've got a response usually within an hour with the problem either fixed for me, or a solution.<br /><br />The thing that's worth noting here is that it doesn't matter what the issue is. They are happy to provide technical support for Wordpress itself, I've even had them troubleshooting a plug-in I was using.<br /><br />If you use Wordpress or you have a blog and you're thinking about taking it to the next level, or just considering using it for a project, I cannot recommend <a href="http://wpwebhost.com/affiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=639&keyword=Blog&url=1" target="_blank">WPWebHost</a> highly enough. Take a look at their Wordpress hosting packages and give it a try, if you don't like it you can always get your money back. I'm convinced that won't happen though, you can find a link to them at the top of this article!Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-35146815119779433552009-07-25T11:45:00.005+01:002009-07-25T15:41:23.425+01:00What’s on your iPhone?<span style="font-family:verdana;">A friend made a blog post with all the apps he has got installed on his iPhone which you can read here:</span><br /><br /><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://lofi-gaming.org.uk/blog/2009/07/25/whats-in-your-iphone/trackback/">What's in your iPhone</a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">So in reply to that blog, here is my response. This is what's on my iPhone:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Page 1</span><br /></span><br /><div style="text-align: center; font-family: verdana;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/luffer/3754794356/" title="page1 by Luffer, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3521/3754794356_11632af550.jpg" alt="page1" height="480" width="320" /></a><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">The first thing to notice is that my iPhone is jailbroken which means I can customise quite a bit on the phone. The most obvious thing is the wallpaper, having a custom wallpaper is normally only possible on the lock screen. Now whenever I see an iPhone with a black background I can't help but feel it looks boring.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Another thing you may have noticed is the reflective dock and the different image for the dock. Also the carrier logo (02) in the status bar at the top is the actual O2 logo rather than the dull O2-UK you would normally see.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Two of my app icons are also different if you look closely. The Clock app is actually showing the correct time and the Weather app has the current weather for my location displayed.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I think the only other thing worth mentioning here is the Cycorder app, this gives the iPhone 3G video capability. No need to upgrade to an iPhone 3GS for that!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Page 2</span></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/luffer/3753994423/" title="page2 by Luffer, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2624/3753994423_5af9834c6f_o.jpg" alt="page2" height="480" width="320" /></a><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Nothing much of note here, Tioti TV+ is great if you need remote record for your iPhone. Far better than the offering from Sky! Air Sharing is great for carrying documents around if you don't want to have the hassle of a USB stick.<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" ><br />Page 3</span></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/luffer/3754794430/" title="page3 by Luffer, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2618/3754794430_82f89e0962_o.jpg" alt="page3" height="480" width="320" /></a><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">It's the games page, PapiJump is a great little game that is simple yet addictive. Peggle and Flight Control are my favourite games. But probably my most heavily played title has to be B-gammon, I simply love Backgammon and play it as much as I possibly can. It's the only app that has been on my iPhone from the day I got it!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >Page 4</span></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/luffer/3753994479/" title="page4 by Luffer, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2459/3753994479_0b8448c4ae_o.jpg" alt="page4" height="480" width="320" /></a><br /></div><br />Another app page here, and of course some gratuitous cleavage as well. These tend to me my rarely used apps, though Tweetie should really be promoted! WunderRadio is great for listening to radio stations via the iPhone too.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:verdana;" >Page 5</span></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/luffer/3753994543/" title="page5 by Luffer, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3501/3753994543_bd49c8dccb_o.jpg" alt="page5" height="480" width="320" /></a><br /></div><br />This is the page where I keep my "work apps", so there's a weight converter a noise level meter a couple of gobo libraries. A lighting rig remote control (Luminair), a dip switch tool to save my brain working out the binary arithmetic and finally a gel swatch library.<br /><br />The more observant among you may have noticed there's a bit more cleavage here too!<br /><br /><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Page 6</span></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/luffer/3754794478/" title="page6 by Luffer, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2605/3754794478_b48672815e_o.jpg" alt="page6" height="480" width="320" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style=";font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">The final page of apps! This is my Jailbreak page, it has Cydia the package manager and installer. Winterboard which lets you customise the theme as I explained earlier and ToneFXs allowing me to have custom SMS alerts etc.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I also have StatusNotifier which puts little icons in the status bar when I have new mail, or my phone is on silent. There are other icons too, it's rather a handy app. Oh and of course more cleavage :-)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I love my Jailbroken iPhone, it gives me all the things Apple should have done!</span><br /><br /></div></div>Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-968497474429778693.post-42490727986679326982009-05-08T17:20:00.006+01:002009-05-08T18:20:33.369+01:00The car door sagaI have a lovely car, well I like it:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBEoBgw601cXq0xlZhU8AiUsR8OLpBoUXxWc0LcIKBSo0tmwolP0wiTafPNp0Gyp7HMLffGlzuBS09OrdOSG-sPekKn7P1DrtzoWFhIGiVT_kDhRjinFRAA7AFSjheisIFz3gJhu0hC28/s1600-h/94828_medium.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 301px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBEoBgw601cXq0xlZhU8AiUsR8OLpBoUXxWc0LcIKBSo0tmwolP0wiTafPNp0Gyp7HMLffGlzuBS09OrdOSG-sPekKn7P1DrtzoWFhIGiVT_kDhRjinFRAA7AFSjheisIFz3gJhu0hC28/s400/94828_medium.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333493837280874898" /></a><br />Recently the electric window broke in the passenger door, I did a bit of research and discovered that it was likely to be the window regulator. I had no idea what one of those is or what it does, but I have a good friend in the motor trade who sells car parts to garages. I explained to him what the problem was and he ordered me the part.<br /><br />I had to wait a couple of weeks for it to arrive as the supplier was out of stock. It arrived last week so at the weekend I went about replacing it. Having no idea what I was doing I searched the internet and found a fantastic tutorial on the Seat forums:<br /><br /><a href="http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1015107&postid=9506802">Replacing the front door window regulator</a><br /><br />Armed with this comprehensive guide I felt fairly confident and set aside a reasonable chunk of time (3 hours) to do the job. It all went surprisingly well and without too many dramas, though I did have a problem getting panel back on with the new metal guides attached because they were slightly longer than the old ones.<br /><br />However, almost exactly three hours after I started the job was done. I hit the button and to my joy the window went up and down again just as it should. I was enjoying the feeling of immense satisfaction at a job well done and also saving myself a few hundred quid by not getting a garage involved.<br /><br />Just then, total disaster struck! I closed the door...... Now normally this wouldn't be a problem, but for some reason I just could not open it again. I tried for the inside, the outside, tried locking and unlocking it. Nothing would let me open the door again!<br /><br />I eventually gave up and resigned myself to paying the dealer a fortune to put it right. So today I took a trip to my 'local' Seat dealer, some 20 odd miles away. To my amazement the service manager was extremely helpful, he told me exactly how I could fix the problem myself. I was expecting him to just book it in and quote me a three figure sum to do it for me. I left with the reassuring words of the service manager in my ears, "Any problems, just give me a call and if you want we will be happy to do it for you, but it's going to cost you!".<br /><br />So, armed with this fresh information and worried about the required cash needed to have it done, I was determined not to be beaten! As soon as I arrived home I removed the door panel as explained to me. Immediately I was able to open the door, hallelujah!<br /><br />I haven't been able to fix the problem totally though. It seems the metal rod that pokes up through the top of the door card and acts as the lock has been bent. This means when the door panel is fitted the lock can't move up and down. So it's stuck and won't allow the door to open.<br /><br />The service engineer said I could try to straighten it, but it would probably be easier to replace the whole rod. He will have to order the rod, so I've decided to at least try and straighten it. I'll give it a go tomorrow because it's getting cold outside now. I'll let you know how it all goes.Lufferovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06104816796255058204noreply@blogger.com0