Welcome to the Wii

So yet again, im such a technology trend setter (following hot on the heals of my first ever iPod purchase), I finally got a Wii last night.

This was very much a family purchase as my wife and kids got to try one at the weekend, and it was highly enjoyable!  So what if it doesnt do  1080p , BluRay, or lots of the other “Features” that are touted in the other next-gen consoles…. but I have to admit playing it has been real FUN.  I am truely a convert…  However the geek hacker in me wonders what weird and wonderful things I wish I could use it for…. I like to integrate and alter….  Im going to try and be good with this purchase and not be silly, its for the family after all.

Goodbye Vista, Hello Mac – Part 2

So the saving continues.  I know a mac isn’t cheap, it isn’t perfect but whenever my doubt about buying it creeps up on me, I go and fire up my wifes laptop…and 5 minutes later im happy to be making my move.  My XP box still works fine, but my upgrade path has a little apple in it for sure   About the only thing worrying me now is that Microsoft flightsim is the only game/simulation I play, can I do without???    Xplane never really hooked me last time I tried it…

Ive already signed up as an Apple developer…  I am a bit concerned that Java 6 isnt yet supported, but im hoping that good sense will prevail at Apple and by the time I get my Mac it wont be an issue.

Freetrack continued

So today I finally found the box I had stashed the LEDs and stuff I had bought, hmmmm no excuses I must continue it now.

Doesn’t everyone run a server at home?

Sometimes I loose track of how much of a geek I am…  I just take for granted my 1TB+ server running mythtv and serving up ipod converted videos,  also hosting Jinzora for music access in the house, a couple of VMware images for other services etc.  But then I start talking to someone on my commute and they laugh nervously or ask  “whats a server” and I realize, i’m a bit of a geek!!
Please tell me im not alone!

iPod bugs getting less – but still annoying!

So I finally got a chance to play around with my iPod classic with the latest firmware (1.0.3). Seems that some bugs fixed and some remain. Finally it would seem that the photo views work correctly so I can now select my photos to view. However the biggest remaining bug for me is that coverflow still messes up if you select an album that has same name as another album, the iPod plays tracks from all the same named albums. Not good! So one minute i’m listening to track 1 of Aftergrlow by Crowded House, when track one finishes it move to track 1 of Afterglow by Sarah McLaughlan…. not what I wanted!

Goodbye Vista, Hello Mac

Well by trade and by choice i’ve been a Linux user/hacker etc, since early 1996 (starting with Lasermoon FT, then quickly finding slackware, then redhat, Suse, Gentoo, Ubuntu). BUT, even today I still dont really gel with Linux on the desktop. For a server I think of nothing else…but even im willing to admit that for desktop Windows XP has been easy enough and well supported enough to be my desktop OS of choice.

But no more, I recently made the BIG mistake of buying my wife an HP laptop with Vista installed. The machine had a dual core AMD cpu, 1GB of ram….and it runs Vista like a Pig. So one 2GB upgrade later and it still runs vista like a Pig, my wife is about ready to throw the machine out of the window. So I started consider alternatives…. one “hackintosh” install later on my PC and I started to become hooked. Mac OSX is the future for me…. So now im saving for my 24″ iMac. The beauty for me is that command line my life i so much like working with Linux… for my wife its an OS that doesn’t cause her to want to damage the computer! Yes, it cost… is it perfect, no…. but damn, life is too short to continue down the path of Windows XP.

Freetrack and FS2004

So ive been a microsoft flight simulator addict for a few years now, its really the only game/simluation I play. Well a while back I found out about a product called track IR, seemed cool, but the price tag seemed a little crazy! But I loved the idea of my head movement controlling the onscreen view. So recently I discover an awesome freeware solution called freetrack. It requires the development of a small 3 LED display that you need to mount on a baseball hat or headset. But the pricetag is perfect. So I hope to make up one of these to test it out. I might need to practise my soldering, but it shouldnt be too bad.

what this space for photos and review to see how it goes.

Why isnt my PSP more use?

OK, so the PSP is in theory an amazing little device,  widescreen, wifi enabled blah blah blah, ive had mine since they were first released….. but…. I just cant figure it was the cool device I hoped for….  I bought a 512MB card,  and I know I could waste a load of money on a larger card now…but all in all the PSP is just not the cool device it should be.  I think m problem is that im not that into games, and its not the all kicking multimedia device I ever hoped.

XBMC – best thing since sliced bread.

If you have a few buck burning a hole in your back pocket and want a great set-top box for playback of audio and video then look no further than an Original Xbox. These can be bought pretty cheaply now that the fanboys are all moving to next gen consoles. I have a couple of them (both with the DVD remote add-on). It takes a bit of hacking but usually a friend of a friend of friend knows someone who can help you hack these things. I figured it myself reading Wikis and then managing to purchase an original Mech Assault game….

anyway after the hack unlocked my Xbox, I upgraded the drive to a 120GB unit, and installed XBMC (Xbox Media Center). This is an amazing solutiuon and really turns the Xbox into a settop powerhouse. I am now able to stream my DVD collection (converted to Xvid format) all stored on my server downstairs… my MP3 collection can be streamed. I can stream youtube videos, stream my mythTV recordings etc… its amazing.

Perhaps the only downer is that it doesnt have the horsepower to playback HD recordings, but with component cables I have XBMC running in 1080i on my TV and all Video and DVD playback upsamples just fine

If you have an Xbox, and a mind to hacking it… do it today!!

Im so “with it”

So I finally bought an iPod… oh yeah im such a technology leader! and last week I posted my first ever Youtube video…. cutting edge stuff eh!     My first ever youtube vid