Category: Blog

No Room

I’ve been dithering for months now on how to sort out my storage ‘issues’. Thats digital storage I should add. Should be easy. Done it before – remove the current hard disks and replace with bigger ones. Pretty cheap, straightforward and after a wee bit of hassle I’ll have a massive amount of storage space.

However on so many fronts it doesn’t work for me. I want to access the data on the drives from any device. Xbox, 360, PSP or laptop. I also want it to be independant of a PC. My current desktop PC is so noisy and has too much oomph for just simple storage. I’m also going to replace the dekstop this year, probably for a laptop so any investment in the desktop now would be a waste (hasn’t stopped me before). The reason for the laptop is that I never use the desktop for games and I would gain from the extra portability.

I’d been swaying towards getting a NAS device so that my data is available on a network for any device to connect to and use but I just can’t find one that meets all my needs or that I’m comfortable that it’s a reliable solution. The 360 wouldn’t see that data either as it’s on a NAS device – it needs a bit of pc software to see media shares and to see video it needs Media Centre. Bah.

So – I’m plumping for a temporary solution. I’ll dig out the old desktop PC which is a lot quieter than the current one and either set it up as a normal PC with network shares or as a NAS device using NASLite. At least that way I’ll have more disk available and I’ll be able to stream on the Xbox. Long term solution is still a grey area. Might wait for more details on the PS3 and also make a decision on laptop first. Also need to factor in a proper long term backup strategy for all this data – it’s getting quite sizeable. As well as every new home having a solar panel it needs a server too, not as standard but definetly as an optional extra. I’m sure there’s a business opportunity there for someone with bigger balls than me.

Anyway – I’ll report back on data dilema’s once I get round to doing something. Hopefully some helpful geek will post up some other options.

Playstation Network?

Semi-interesting article discussing potential Xbox Live killer from Sony. It plods through the potential weapons that Sony has at it’s disposal if it builds it’s own internet service for the PS3.

Sony needs to do this. Despite the lead MS has had on a developing a gaming service it has only just brought out the marketplace functionality which when used is clunky and not thought out properly. PS3 will sell more than the 360 and hence a network service that connects Sony’s platform – video, music, photo’s and games would be adopted by a lot more people than Xbox Live. I guess the key is at what price and when? The hardware is all still rumours and it could be this time next year before us in the UK get to play with the new toys.

MS also need a challenger in this field. Many games still only support 8 players as they use peer to peer hosting. Increased broadband speeds haven’t seen the jump in the number of users that can be hosted but that’s more to do with latency (ping times) being the key to a good host – not 10Meg download & 500k upload speeds. Server based hosting (even paid) is required so we can see the numbers that PC games can support on consoles. Sony having a similar service would also see a lot more development from Japan where originality can be found more often than the sequel fueled USA & European markets. MS also dropped their XSN sports network which had so much potential. It sorted out leagues and scoring and meant that joining online tournaments was easy and the admin work zero for all competitors. Sony would win a lot of friends if this type of functionality was added to Pro Evo 6 for example.

So many hardware vendors are chasing the all in one media player but very few have come near or have the infrastructure to do it. I would have said Sony a year ago wouldn’t stand a chance as they still didn’t support mp3 playback on their devices. They’ve changed a lot though in a short time. Looking at all the different parts of the puzzle surely a unifying network/service on the PS3 would deliver PS3 users a killer app without even buying a game. I can dream…especially as I’ve got all the other Sony hardware to make up the jigsaw.

30 Boxes

The latest Web 2.0 app to gain oooh’s and aahh’s is 30boxes.com, an online calendar app. It’s just launched an open beta (Is there ANY web app that actually launched as a beta and has publicly said it’s out of that phase. I’m looking at you Google & Flickr.) Functionality is rich in some respects in that it’s purely web based but light in others. For example it can pick up any rss feed – Flickr, your website feed etc and link the images and posts to the day they were published. Equally it has strong support for import and export of data and also tagging support.

But why can’t the tags and hence the appointment be coloured? No pda support? Do I really want to share my calendar with everyone? Good for a small workgroup or business but not too practical for me to be sharing my calendar with everyone else although I don’t have to share – it’s just a much lauded feature of this app that I won’t use.

Still – early days and it is a beta so I’m hoping there is much to come including a bigger server as it’s currently swamped. I love little touches like entering appointments in english and it works out when the appointment is. Neat.

Scotland 20 – 16 France

Yes it was at home, yes the French had injuries but did anyone really expect Scotland to not only win but play so well at the same time. I’m not a rugby fan but there’s something about the Six Nations that captivates me and a whole host of other sport but non-rugby supporters.

The true test is not next week against the Welsh but two weeks today against England who looked awesome on Saturday. However let’s enjoy this win while we can – it was fantastic

Site Tweaks

Finally got round to doing some small tweaks to tidy the site up. Sidebar is a lot less cluttered with links now moved to a page all of their own. Speaking of pages I’ve finally got an About page sorted that holds info about me (doh) and also last tracks heard, a currently list, gamercard and some site stats.

Flickr gallery can also be accessed through Gallery page which gives me a couple of options when wanting to view photo’s. Much tidier. Now back to real life tidying – this room’s a mess.

Yorkhill needs help

I was reading in the Evening Times that some lowlife had stolen Playstations from a children’s ward at Yorkhill Hospital. Bastards. What next. One of my friends nephews is critically ill in Yorkhill at the moment and it really hits home what a service they provide when someone close to you is affected.

My PS2 has now found a new home and hopefully it will be getting used by one of those kids in the next few days. If you can help then contact the Yorkhill Children’s Foundation.

HMS Daring Launch

HMS Daring Launch
Today saw the launch of HMS Daring from the Scotstoun yard in Glasgow. This meant a half day for me (as I work there) and a chance to see the largest ever ship launched from Scotstoun. So me and my camera went to Braehead to hopefully get a good view of the launch.

Thankfully everything went smoothly. Looking at the official video on type45.com there seems to have been some delay before she finally slipped into the river. The main challenge was launching a 154m ship into a river who’s width is just over 165m at that point. A combination of pointing down river and also drag chains to stop and pull her round did the job – it was great to see and a proud moment for all of us who have been involved in her design and build. Video and picture links below.

My Flickr album of the launch
BBC News article which has video’s of the build up and launch
Type45.com for info on the ship and a launch video
Scotland Today which announced a successful launch an hour and a half before it took place – pre launch video too

 

IE7 Beta 2

The IE7 Beta 2 Preview is now available to the masses – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/IE/ie7/ie7betaredirect.mspx. While many of the new features have been available for the last 2 or 3 years in Firefox or Opera it’s good to see the Windows O/S default browser catching up and becoming a much better tool for the average user who would never think of changing from IE.

So – whats new? The list below are the main features (links to Flickr piccies where possible)

  • Tabbed browsing is the biggie. Browse the web in a much more efficient manner. Easy to open new tabs and there’s a nice Quicktabs button that shows all tabs as small screens allowing you to easily pick the one you want.
  • Rendering – much improved. Support for png’s and better css standardisation. My site is looking pretty OK considering it’s IE. Binary Bonsai which has always struggled in IE is looking not too shabby. Pity MSN UK’s website looks shabby – a bit embarrassing.
  • Phishing filter. Will highlight a dubious website and also allows you to check against a list of known phishing sites. Should improve security alongside a pop-up blocker and also a nice tool for checking which add-ons are currently running in IE. This will make it easier for users to remove spurious search toolbars that they have installed over the years.
  • RSS support. Using the now adopted RSS standard icon you can add feeds to IE and then check via a feed view. Great to have this as built into IE instead of having to add a separate program although it’s fairly light on features.
  • Search engine selection. You can now add various search engines – Google, Yahoo, AOL as well as Amazon, EBay and others. Nothing special but good to see Microsoft opening out their software away from MSN defaults.
  • Cleaner interface. Makes for a bigger browsing window.

These features alone should have been added to IE a long time ago. It’s only thanks to the in-roads that Firefox has made that has forced Microsoft to release an updated browser. Thank heavens for competition especially as it’s the majority of users not in the ‘know’ that will benefit most from the final IE7 release.