Stage One Of Experiment: A New PC For Nath

Today I burnt the credit card and bought Nathan the gaming PC he wanted for Christmas. We went to PC World and chose a good spec'd PC. We needed at least 3GB RAM, 500GB+ of Hard Disk, a minimum of 512MB of on board video RAM on the video card. I knew this sort of PC was going to cost me more than 700 GBP. Which it did, we went for a HP Pavillion Elite PC. That came with 4GB RAM, 1TB of Hard Disk and 1024MB (which is a Gig) of on board video RAM. The only thing was that being an ex-display model (which meant was cheaper) there was no monitor. So we ended up getting a Samson 20" one.

This system should be good enough to allow Nathan to not worry about the hardware side of things when he wants to by a PC game. He normally plays the C&C games, or Star Wars ones in the same vein. He's also a big fan of the Battle For Middle Earth games, well you get the idea, basically the C&C style genre.

The PC also came with no speakers so I had to get some of them as well. So I went for a mid range set from Creative Labs (glad to see they are still going after all these years).

Other nice features of this new PC are that it comes with a Blu-ray player, has built in wifi, and the keyboard and mouse are wireless as well.

Next month I will be getting a web cam and setting Nathan up with Skype. Why? Well the intention wasn't just to buy a gaming PC but also something that Nathan could use to keep in contact with me after I move out.

While I think of it I will have to subscribe to a service like the Go To My PC so that I can do remote admin on Nath's pc after I move out. But I will investigate what options are out there in the next month.

Merry Christmas

I'd like to wish a Merry Christmas to all my friends and family, and to all the readers of this blog.

I hope that Santa has not disappointed with the presents that he has delivered during the night.

I'm off to watch some cool super high def movies (Iron Man and The Dark Knight)on my Blu-ray player also called a PS3. Yes some folks out there don't realise that the PS3 can play Blu-ray movies. I may also play a game or two of Bejewelled2 on the iPhone (kinda addicted to it at the moment).

Anyway have a great day, enjoy the Christmas lunch and don't forget the new Dr Who , and Wallace and Gromit this evening.

iPhone Boob App!

Just go here and view the movie of the iPhone app that you know you want but will never be approved. It made me laugh.

"Boob App on the iPhone is Obviously Called iBoobs, Obviously Not Approved"

Sky+ Idea

This blog posting came about as a result of a phone conversation I had with my friend Duncan yesterday.

Duncan and I were discussing pvr boxes, and the natural leader in the UK Sky and their Sky+ box.

One of the impressive features of the Sky+ box is the series link. Basically you select a program to record and then hit the series link button. Which when it records the program selected it will automatically set itself up to record the next program in the series. Which it will keep doing either until the series ends or you tell it not.

This is so handy because it means you don't have to remember to record the next program in the series. It's done for you.

However there is the problem of missing the start of a series when it returns. This can happen, especially if you do not visit a channel regularly except when you are watching a series. This happens to me a lot for E4 and Living. On E4 I watch Smallville, on Living Greys Anatomy and Criminal Minds. When I am following those series is the only time I go to those channels. So when a series comes to an end, I often miss when it starts up again. It has happened for Greys Anatomy season 4. I have missed most of it now.

So why can't Sky implement something like iTunes/RSS for following a series? With RSS I subscribe to a program when ever a new episode is released I never miss it. Doesn't matter how long the gap is between seasons, I get the new episode when ever it is available.

Surely it wouldn't be hard for Sky to produce similar functionality for tv programs on their planner.

They could have two feeds. One for new episodes and a second for repeats. That way I wouldn't miss an episode again. What a great selling point that would be to Joe Public.

You could argue that the tv channels wouldn't like it. But at the moment they have lost a viewer because I have stopped going to their channel and decided to either get the episodes on-line or hire/buy the dvd box set. At least with this "amazing" idea of mine they get to keep a viewer. Which after all is the important thing if they are selling advertising.

Wordpress Plugins That I Use

Over at my other blog (whitespider1066.com) I have just upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress which is 2.7. But that reminded me that I had promised myself that I would list the plugins I use on that blog. With whitespider1066.com being a self hosted Wordpress blog it means I have no restrictions on the plugins I can use. If I can download them and ftp them across then I can use them.

Anyway here is the current list of ones I use:

• Akismet - this is a default one and has to be switched on. It keeps the amount of spam that appears on the blog down to zero.
• Audio player - I installed this so that I could embed mp3 files into a posting. Only used so far to play the recordings of bats I did on a Bat Walk round Fleet Pond.
• Blog Metrics - if you remember an article I linked to in a previous posting on Blog Metrics. Well this plugin produces those figures.
• Contact Form II - I use this on my contact page to allow folks to send me an email if they wish.
• FeedBurner FeedSmith - I started using Feedburner to track the true number of RSS readers I have (Google Reader will give you a figure for the number in Google Reader you have), and this plugin helped move folks over.
• GeneralStats - another blog stats plugin.
• Global Translator - I added this to cater more for the international readers of my blog. Why shouldn't they be able to read it in their own language?
• Google Analytics For Wordpress - made integrating with Google Analytics so simple.
• My Link Order - allows you to set the order in which links and link categories will appear in the sidebar.
• ShareThis - not sure if anyone has ever used this. But it is there at the end of all posts just incase some-one wants to share the stuff I have written easily.
• Similar Posts - Currently I'm not using this. I may switch it back on. Will run a poll with my readers to see if they used it. No-one has complained since I stopped using it!
• StatPress - Real time blog stats. Very interesting to see what folks are currently looking at.
• Subscribe To Comments - a requested feature. Which I think folks do find very very useful.
• Wordpress Automatic Upgrade - a behind the scenes plugin that makes upgrades so so easy.
• Wordpress Mobile Edition - I must try this sometime. But it is there for folks if they are viewing the blog via a mobile device.
• WP-Polls - Embed polls in your blog. I've used this a few times. Great little plugin.

So for my fellow Wordpress users what plugins do you use? What have I missed out?

N97 - Too Little Too Late?

Last week before I became ill Nokia announced to the world the output from two years of hard work by their top brains. They called that hard work the N97.

For me the N97 is too little too late.  This phone should of been announced a year ago. Now it is only one of the supposedly "iPhone killers". But I'd say it is more aimed at the Google Android platform than the iPhone considering the form factor. It certainly looks more like a polished Google Android phone than an iPhone.

Nokia claimed 15 million N95 sold since 2005 making it the best selling smartphone in the market, which sounds impressive. But when you consider that the iPhone has sold over 10 million in two years, it shows Apple are on target to capturing that title.

But lets look at why I think Nokia won't knock Apple off it's perch with the N97.

With over 10,000 apps, and millions of downloads, the Apple App Store can be only considered as a resounding success. Not bad for a phone that has only had apps for a year, and the dev environment is only on the Mac (free). Nokia or any other mobile company has not even come close to achieving these sort of sales or even number of apps for their platforms.

Nokia need firstly to somehow get developers to develop for their platform in large numbers. Which frankly I think they will find hard to do. Nokia will be the third platform of choice. Firstly developers will develop for the iPhone, then the Blackberry, and/or  for the Android. After that they may choose the N97 or possible Windows Mobile.

The funny thing is that EPOC is a stable multi tasking OS that has been capable of this touch interface for years. EPOC doesn't care the interface is just an abstracted layer for it, sitting on top of the real clever bits. Shame it has taken Nokia this long to start thinking of interfaces properly. Nokia and Symbian should be ashamed how they have let EPOC become an also ran OS for mobiles. They squandered a massive lead. Originally EPOC had Palm and Windows Mobile to compete against. Arguably it was the best of the three. Palm has died off, Windows Mobile has grown but not improved much. EPOC hasn't gone on and done great things in the meantime either. The Blackberry OS and iPhone OS have come up from nowhere and become dominant with a third contender coming fast up the inside as well in the form of Google Android.

Phone updates. This is a biggie. Apple release an update everyone who has the phone gets the update, regardless of carrier. It means that the platform developers write for is consistent across the globe. Nokia and others (happens a lot with Windows Mobile phones as well) release updates but they can be region specific, rely on the carrier to pass on (who do not always pass these updates on). Frankly who wants to develop for such a patch work platform, look at the problems developers have with PC's. They don't want that hassle with mobiles as well.

Nokia need to make their dev tools available for free, not only on the PC but on the Mac and Linux as well. IIRC the Nokia/Symbian dev kit needed Microsoft dev kits to work. Which as we know costs. Which discourages that healthy development community.

Nokia are releasing the N97 in the first half of next year. Why not now? By the time they release the N97, Apple will be announcing and making available the next improved iPhone. Which will have cut and paste, a better camera etc etc. Apple have all this ready they just don't have to release it, as there is no pressure from the competition yet. Which must scare Nokia and the others so much.

Finally Nokia need a version of the App Store that is as easy to use, integrates with the phone just as easily. Without what apps they do have will not stand a chance. The App Store makes it so easy to buy apps, and cheap as well. I suspect that Apple have a really high user buy rate that others would just love to have.

Anyway this is why I think Nokia has made it just a little too late to make the N97 a success. What do you think?

Simpsons Mock Apple

Proving even I a recent Cult-of-Mac convert can laugh at himself, I found this posting from Engadget about the new Simpsons mocking Apple and it's clips very very very funny indeed.

The Simpsons Mock Apple