For a while now, I've been struggling with Windows XP MCE... in particular I couldn't watch a handful of channels (including Channel 4 and E4 which I watch a lot!).
After copious Internet scouring, I came to the conclusion that it was something to do with the dual Black Gold Digital TV Tuners that I use. I think it was a recent MS update that mangled it.
Anyway, I eventually found an update to the drivers... from v5.11 to v5.17 (although I had to get the updated drivers from the Evesham website rather than GDI's). After much wire fiddling, re-scanning, registry hacking (deleting the bit to do with the tuners) and more re-scanning, it all now works.
It was a little late to record the new series of Lost, although I've managed to watch all the episodes so not too much 'lost' but better late than never I suppose.
I can now thoroughly recommend these cards again - the picture quality is great! MCE is now great again! I can now automagically sync the recorded programmes with my Creative Zen Portable Media Center! 'YAY' all round!!!
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter Multiplayer
Right... I just got off my first go on the Internet multiplayer game of Ghost Recon. It's pretty good, even if I'm not!
Most people appear to play on the 'Domination' style of game. This involves wandering around the map to out-number the opponents in different zones. As a bonus, you re-spawn when you (inevitably in my case) get killed.
I think that I will be enjoying the nultiplayer for some time ;-)
Yesterday, I was playing the multiplayer on my brother's XBOX360. Although the games have the same title, they are quite different. The attitude of the XBOX Live players is different too, taking a less strategic approach to gaming. Just an observation - not a bad thing because sometimes people sniping you from on top of some remote building just pisses you off!
Most people appear to play on the 'Domination' style of game. This involves wandering around the map to out-number the opponents in different zones. As a bonus, you re-spawn when you (inevitably in my case) get killed.
I think that I will be enjoying the nultiplayer for some time ;-)
Yesterday, I was playing the multiplayer on my brother's XBOX360. Although the games have the same title, they are quite different. The attitude of the XBOX Live players is different too, taking a less strategic approach to gaming. Just an observation - not a bad thing because sometimes people sniping you from on top of some remote building just pisses you off!
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
MMC In Vista
I was having a quick look at the MMC in Vista earlier and it came to my attention that EVERYTHING is done using a MMC of one form or another. This could prove promising for further customisation and locking down systems at a later date. Even your standard folder explorer is a MMC! I think that the MMC writers at MS were probably the second highest earnest after the Wizard writers ;-)
Along with this new MMC-centred view, a load of new and glammed-up MMC snapins have been added. Performance Monitor and Task Manager have been combined to form the shiny new Performance Diagnostics - by far and away my favourite new MMC. This also includes clever graphs about reliability and all sorts. Well worth a look... even if it doesn't help to explain the constant hard disk reading and the 68% memory usage when idle!
I have yet to check out the new GPMC and other gubbins (such as the printer stuff) - I need to be connected to a domain for these features but they should be good if the local tools are anything to go off.
Maybe I'll get chance soon ;-)
Along with this new MMC-centred view, a load of new and glammed-up MMC snapins have been added. Performance Monitor and Task Manager have been combined to form the shiny new Performance Diagnostics - by far and away my favourite new MMC. This also includes clever graphs about reliability and all sorts. Well worth a look... even if it doesn't help to explain the constant hard disk reading and the 68% memory usage when idle!
I have yet to check out the new GPMC and other gubbins (such as the printer stuff) - I need to be connected to a domain for these features but they should be good if the local tools are anything to go off.
Maybe I'll get chance soon ;-)
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
I'm not a big gamer but, since I acquired my new machine, I have been eager to see what the stupidly big graphics card can do. I decided to buy the latest in the Ghost Recon range of games and try my hand at killing some rebels.
I installed the game and though... why not try it at full res with all the trimmings? I do have a Pentium-D 3GHz with 2GB RAM along with the nVidia GeForce 7800GTX (256MB) after all. It didn't like this and locked up on me :-( So since then I have been playing it at a lowly 1024x768 without issue ;-)
I must admit, a lot of thought has gone into the game graphics and it looks really good. The controls took a little getting used to and I don't think I've ever played a game like this before where you can't jump. I do like the way you control your team members though and they generally do what you ask of them - only occasionally getting in your way and they usually stand where they tell them too.
I'm still rubbish at playing these games so I haven't attmpted the multiplayer yet - a little more practice first methinks. When I do, I'm sure it will be good and I'll update all you keen blog watchers ;-)
I installed the game and though... why not try it at full res with all the trimmings? I do have a Pentium-D 3GHz with 2GB RAM along with the nVidia GeForce 7800GTX (256MB) after all. It didn't like this and locked up on me :-( So since then I have been playing it at a lowly 1024x768 without issue ;-)
I must admit, a lot of thought has gone into the game graphics and it looks really good. The controls took a little getting used to and I don't think I've ever played a game like this before where you can't jump. I do like the way you control your team members though and they generally do what you ask of them - only occasionally getting in your way and they usually stand where they tell them too.
I'm still rubbish at playing these games so I haven't attmpted the multiplayer yet - a little more practice first methinks. When I do, I'm sure it will be good and I'll update all you keen blog watchers ;-)
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
More on the woes of wireless in Vista
OK... so I managed to blag a different NIC off a teacher - a Liksys WPC54G Wireless-G adapter which uses a Broadcom 802.11g chipset. Again, I could not connect to the AP successfully - no matter what combination of encryption I tried.
This led me to have the genius idea to upgrade the firmware in the AP. I flashed the AP (not by revealing myself to it!) and I found that I could connect if I set the AP to use no security. Things were looking up... or at least they were until I re-enabled the encryption and it all went tits up again.
So, at the moment, I must conclude the wireless still sucks in Vista and I will be continuing to use a wired connection... an unsecured network is not an option in this area!
On the plus side, the paging problem doesn't seem as bad as it was and I know that TFTPD32 runs in Vista! ;-)
Stay tuned for more!
This led me to have the genius idea to upgrade the firmware in the AP. I flashed the AP (not by revealing myself to it!) and I found that I could connect if I set the AP to use no security. Things were looking up... or at least they were until I re-enabled the encryption and it all went tits up again.
So, at the moment, I must conclude the wireless still sucks in Vista and I will be continuing to use a wired connection... an unsecured network is not an option in this area!
On the plus side, the paging problem doesn't seem as bad as it was and I know that TFTPD32 runs in Vista! ;-)
Stay tuned for more!
Sunday, May 14, 2006
More on Vista
I've been playing with Vista a little more today. Today's topics will be the 'Windows Sidebar' and WiFi.
The Sidebar is not automatically enabled in build 5381 so I had to have a hunt through the annoying wizardy-things. I eventually found it lurking in the depths of the Control Panel. Anyway I enabled it and immediately decided that suing the 'always on top' option was out of the question on a 4:3 screen. Secondly, I'm left thinking, "what is the point?"
There is a big analogue clock which looks very pretty but you may as well use the (easier to read) digital clock in the taskbar. An RSS reader could be handy, except you only get two lines of each feed item and the text is tiny too. A PostIt Note-type pad could prove handy for jotting things down and there is a CPU/memory usage 'gadget' that showed me how hard my machine is working just typing this!
Onto the disaster that is wireless networking. Until I have a different NIC available, I cannot promise that part of the problems aren't due to the D-Link DWL-G650+ cardbus adapter that I am trying to use. My AP is a 3COM 8250 which has had no problems with MacOS X, Windows XP or Windows Mobile.
After trying every type of encrypted and unencrypted connection, I couldn't get a connection between the laptop and network. When a connection was made, no IP address could be gathered. Most bizzarre!
As an aside, something else that I have noticed, is that the laptop is CONSTANTLY reading from the hard disk. This certainly does not bode well and I'm not even sure why it is happening - it's not as if it needs to be paging!
More to come soon ;-)
The Sidebar is not automatically enabled in build 5381 so I had to have a hunt through the annoying wizardy-things. I eventually found it lurking in the depths of the Control Panel. Anyway I enabled it and immediately decided that suing the 'always on top' option was out of the question on a 4:3 screen. Secondly, I'm left thinking, "what is the point?"
There is a big analogue clock which looks very pretty but you may as well use the (easier to read) digital clock in the taskbar. An RSS reader could be handy, except you only get two lines of each feed item and the text is tiny too. A PostIt Note-type pad could prove handy for jotting things down and there is a CPU/memory usage 'gadget' that showed me how hard my machine is working just typing this!
Onto the disaster that is wireless networking. Until I have a different NIC available, I cannot promise that part of the problems aren't due to the D-Link DWL-G650+ cardbus adapter that I am trying to use. My AP is a 3COM 8250 which has had no problems with MacOS X, Windows XP or Windows Mobile.
After trying every type of encrypted and unencrypted connection, I couldn't get a connection between the laptop and network. When a connection was made, no IP address could be gathered. Most bizzarre!
As an aside, something else that I have noticed, is that the laptop is CONSTANTLY reading from the hard disk. This certainly does not bode well and I'm not even sure why it is happening - it's not as if it needs to be paging!
More to come soon ;-)
Saturday, May 13, 2006
A few pictures from today
I took a few pictures around the house today.
I began with the pond. I was looking for frogs and newts but they had decided to hide so I had to settle for the fish. The first one is some odd fish and there appears to be lots of them. I haven't got a clue what they are.
There are also some goldfish.
I then decided that it was about time to take a couple of pics of the new lambs. These Hebredian sheep rarely have more than one lamb at once and are supposedly bad parents. You can imagine our surprise to find twins. Pretty cute eh?
Finally, I checked out Tom's chicks. These were a little more tricky to get a decent picture of, due to the chicken wire, but I managed to get a couple of half-decent ones.
I began with the pond. I was looking for frogs and newts but they had decided to hide so I had to settle for the fish. The first one is some odd fish and there appears to be lots of them. I haven't got a clue what they are.
There are also some goldfish.
I then decided that it was about time to take a couple of pics of the new lambs. These Hebredian sheep rarely have more than one lamb at once and are supposedly bad parents. You can imagine our surprise to find twins. Pretty cute eh?
Finally, I checked out Tom's chicks. These were a little more tricky to get a decent picture of, due to the chicken wire, but I managed to get a couple of half-decent ones.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
The Vista trial begins!
Firstly, a big thanks to Nick Umney of Microsoft UK for kindly getting me an invite onto the Windows Vista Beta 2 program.
I downloaded the DVD ISO of the x86 version of Vista (Build 5381) last night... it only took three and a half hours on my cable connection! I then installed it on a HP nc8000 laptop this morning.
The install was very easy, asking only for a couple of details and then going off and doing its stuff. After about 1 hour I had a laptop running Vista! I then just had to tweak the display settings because they were in 8bit mode for some bizzarre reason and install a driver for the cardbus.
So after a day of on and off usage, I've not found Vista to be nippy by any means but it's not as slow as I thought it may have been. I've also noticed that the MS 'Wizard Designers' have been earning their money. EVERYTHING has a wizard and it is VERY annoying. You also have to confirm stuff all the time - "Do you want to do this?" "Are you sure you want to do this?"
I'll update the blog more as I get increasingly pissed off or find nifty little features. I'll also mention how to make WiFi work when I figure it out properly - it hates me at the moment!
I downloaded the DVD ISO of the x86 version of Vista (Build 5381) last night... it only took three and a half hours on my cable connection! I then installed it on a HP nc8000 laptop this morning.
The install was very easy, asking only for a couple of details and then going off and doing its stuff. After about 1 hour I had a laptop running Vista! I then just had to tweak the display settings because they were in 8bit mode for some bizzarre reason and install a driver for the cardbus.
So after a day of on and off usage, I've not found Vista to be nippy by any means but it's not as slow as I thought it may have been. I've also noticed that the MS 'Wizard Designers' have been earning their money. EVERYTHING has a wizard and it is VERY annoying. You also have to confirm stuff all the time - "Do you want to do this?" "Are you sure you want to do this?"
I'll update the blog more as I get increasingly pissed off or find nifty little features. I'll also mention how to make WiFi work when I figure it out properly - it hates me at the moment!
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Rebbit!
I've been meaning to post this pic for a while. I was really impressed by it!
The image has not been editted in any way. All I have done is 'processed' the RAW image into a JPEG and shrunk it down to display on the web.
I hope you like it ;-)
Friday, May 05, 2006
The Towers of London Gig - Tuesday 02/05/06
Last Tuesday I went to see The Towers of London at 53 Degrees in Preston with Pete.
We started off the evening in Greyfriars with a few pints of reasonably priced beer and a reasonably priced meal. This was then followed by another reasonably priced beer in The Ship.
When we arrived at 53 Degrees, the first support had almost finished... the music from these guys (Gundown Sunday) was rather good although the female singer wasn't all that great. The second support (Hooker) was much better with their punky, rocky, style.
Following Hooker was the main act. The Towers of London permormed admirably and a great time was had by all.
As for the venue itself, upstairs in 53 Degrees, it was pretty good. There wasn't too many people there and the smallish room meant the atmosphere was good... we were also able to stand right up front to see all the action ;-)
There's was also a handy chap in the gents, dispensing soap and handing out towels... quite odd really. He also had a large selection of cheap fragrances and gave me a couple of lolly pops to take away with me :-D
We started off the evening in Greyfriars with a few pints of reasonably priced beer and a reasonably priced meal. This was then followed by another reasonably priced beer in The Ship.
When we arrived at 53 Degrees, the first support had almost finished... the music from these guys (Gundown Sunday) was rather good although the female singer wasn't all that great. The second support (Hooker) was much better with their punky, rocky, style.
Following Hooker was the main act. The Towers of London permormed admirably and a great time was had by all.
As for the venue itself, upstairs in 53 Degrees, it was pretty good. There wasn't too many people there and the smallish room meant the atmosphere was good... we were also able to stand right up front to see all the action ;-)
There's was also a handy chap in the gents, dispensing soap and handing out towels... quite odd really. He also had a large selection of cheap fragrances and gave me a couple of lolly pops to take away with me :-D
Monday, May 01, 2006
Bank holiday weekend...
So it's nearly 3 o'clock in the afternoon on Bank Holiday Monday. It's great not having to work, although waking up to discover that you broke the boiler the previous day when you touched it causing the control panel to drop off and the bleed valve for the heating circuit to empty water everywhere outside! After downloading the installation instructions and discovering how to refill the heating system up to the requisite temperature for the thing to work again, I was able to have a shower!
I've been on my third walk in three days. Each one was just around the block (approx. 70mins) taking in the sites of the prom and coming back past the golf course. Today, I may have even got some good pics of waves crashing against the sea wall... I'll check those out in a minute (see below for one of the better shots from today). Even though I wasn't down by the water I still got a little wet from the spray!
Other than my walks, it's been pretty quiet. I've now got a fully functional Zen Portable Media Center which is working great. I'm starting to get into podcasts and I think that they could be useful for keeping abreast of new technology. There's also the commandn.tv video podcast with the very hot presenter ;-)
My parents have gone away again... Switzerland this time... so we'll see what state the house is in when I pop back there tomorrow. I will be in Preston to watch The Towers of London at 53 Degrees with Pete. Should be good!
I've been on my third walk in three days. Each one was just around the block (approx. 70mins) taking in the sites of the prom and coming back past the golf course. Today, I may have even got some good pics of waves crashing against the sea wall... I'll check those out in a minute (see below for one of the better shots from today). Even though I wasn't down by the water I still got a little wet from the spray!
Other than my walks, it's been pretty quiet. I've now got a fully functional Zen Portable Media Center which is working great. I'm starting to get into podcasts and I think that they could be useful for keeping abreast of new technology. There's also the commandn.tv video podcast with the very hot presenter ;-)
My parents have gone away again... Switzerland this time... so we'll see what state the house is in when I pop back there tomorrow. I will be in Preston to watch The Towers of London at 53 Degrees with Pete. Should be good!
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