Going Green (er) - PC wise that is, but take care!

I’ve been running an Intel P4 Shuttle and it’s served me well. But mind full of it’s fairly hefty power consumption (around 140W in idle) and being a bit noisey as it’s got 5 fans. I’ve decided to treat myself to something a little more energy friendly and up to date. Any way after a bit of luck on ebay? I’ve picked up an ASUS  P5B-MX micro ATX motherboard and Intel E2160 cpu. With some extra new bits I’ve assembled  a dual core machine that idles at about 60W, it’s quieter too. In my haste to put this all together I’ve bought a nice In Win media centre PC case.

bt 553 case

Here’s the warning though. I need a couple of PCI cards, one for a couple of extra usb ports the other for a sound card (as there seems to be a fault with the on board) solution. (The latter is the only component without warranty! ) Trawling around for low profile PCI cards I’m staggered to find that (a) there’s hardly any choice and (b) the few options are very expensive. Dare I say I assumed there would be plenty, but I’m wrong :-(  So unless you desperately need a low profile case or money is no object I’d say avoid. Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.

As to choice of O/S I’ve stuck with XP Pro for now, the main reason being I’ve a modest on board graphics card. Probably not good enough to do Vista justice.

 

Reciva - The ‘IP’ behind Logik IR100 Internet Radio

Just had some brilliant help from the www.reciva.com .  They got my out of warranty Logik IR100 radio working again in spite of the fact that they don’t deal directly with the hardware. Now all I’ve got to do is get Virgin to sort my broadband out and I’ll able to listen to Dinner Jazz Excursion (http://www.dinnerjazzexcursion.com/ ) without dropout

Thanks once again to the kind folk at Reciva.

 

Internet Radio - What’s all the fuss about?

I’ve mentioned Internet Radio to a few people recently and been greeted with an element of uncertainty and ignorance to some extent. What’s it’s all about and why should I bother I hear you asking? Well for a start there are literally thousands of stations covering all genre’s. You can listen in almost any language and any category form jazz to … well anything really. What do you need? Well you can buy a dedicated radio like the Logik unit I’ve reviewed on my blog. Or you can use a PC with a piece of software such as MediaMonkey. http://www.mediamonkey.com/download/ Other things you’ll need are a broadband connection and a wireless access point/router if your using a radio such as the logik or equivalent. You’ll also need to check your download limits as all the time your listening you will be using your broadband download quota.  The best stations broadcast? at 128Kb/s or above which is similar to DAB. Here’s a good site to view the technical details and find links to other internet radio manufacturures. Happy listening

http://digitalradiotech.co.uk/broadband_internet_radio.htm

 

Digital Photography - on a budget?

Just bought myself a new 5 mega pixel , 3 x optical zoom Vivitar 5388 on ebay for under £40. New and with 1G SD card , batteries and case. Pictures aren’t bad at all. OK it’s got a plastic body not metal like some of the other more expensive models. It’s a bit slower to focus too. But as a backup or beach camera it’s fantastic value.

Here’s a sample image:

:

 

Free prints ! plus some recommendations

Came up this week with a colleague on a train journey. Where do I get my digital prints processed? Well I’ve used a few different companies. For best quality albeit the highest price I’ve used Photobox.

http://www.photobox.co.uk/

They’ve an offer for new members that gives you free prints as samples. You have to pay postage though which is only fair I guess.

Next in quality terms I’d recommend Bonusprint. That’s the online service not the high street shops. The latter are OK if there still around but it’s not the same.http://www.bonusprint.com/

Last I’d say Jessops. Ok , but the not quite as good as the others. Still for convenience you can walk in and get prints at a reasonable price by the next or even the same day. There’s one on every high st so it seems.

I’ve given up printing my own as the ink costs are high and the results never as good as the professional machines. Happy Printing.

 

Up amongst the Tree Tops!

I must say I hate heights , but I’ve tried to conquer my fears and visited the new tree top walk at Kew Gardens. It only openened last weekend so one of the first. It’s some 60 feet, (18m) above the ground so you don’t really wan’t to fall. It wobbles a tiny bit and the gang way has holes so you can sort of see down. Still it seems reasonably secure A few pics. from my Panasonic TZ1. See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/main.jhtml?xml=/gardening/2008/05/23/garden-kew-walkway123.xml

 

Have we lost track of our senses?

Just picked up this Sony Mini disk recorder at a local boot sale.  Must say I’ve never owned one until now. Wow the sound , it’s fantastic compared to the mp3’s I tend to listen to on the move. A learned colleague points out the ATRAC represents a 5 to 1 compression ratio as opposed to 12 to 1 on mp3. I guess it’s opened my ears to what’s possible in a portable music player. Of course it’s all a bit clunky by modern standards. I need to check out a high capacity portable disk player and some flac recordings. Role on the lottery winnings Still these mini disk player/recorders can be picked up cheap on dare I say ebay and the like. Check it out!

 

Boris Johnson - New Mayor of London

At last an excuse to publish a couple of my photos of Boris He visited Kingston some months ago. I just happened to have my Panasonic TZ1 with me!

 

Reciva - The ‘IP’ behind the Logik IR100 Internet Radio

Just had some brilliant help from the folks Reciva. Their the people that designed the core internet radio used within the product.  They assisted me in getting my out of warranty Logik IR100 radio working again in spite of the fact that they don’t deal directly with the hardware. Now all I’ve got to do is get Virgin to sort my broadband out and I’ll able to listen to Dinner Jazz Excursion without dropout!

Thanks once again to Reciva (www.reciva.com)

 

Internet Radio - Trials and Tribulations

Since buying an Internet Radio (see earlier post) I’ve noted very erratic behavior. Basically I’ve had the radio dropping out in mid flight especially during the evenings. Not 100% sure if this is an internet/broadband connection or a wi-fi problem with/to my router. The radio is wi-fi only and doesn’t by default support a wired connection. Still some of the blogs explain how to get round this and I’ve ordered a suitable (hopefully) usb to RJ-45 adapter. In order to eliminate the source of the problem I’ve also invested $18 on Dan Elwell’s Broadband Speed Test program. http://www.broadbandspeedtest.net/ Looks like this should give me some authoritative reports. Happy testing