Month: January 2009

3gig of mobile data, thanks Orange

HTC Touch HD

My bill came through from Orange just recently, I expected it to be very high because I had used it over Christmas and New Years pretty much non-stop while in Bristol. Most of the usage was using the phone as a modem for my laptop and of course microblogging from the phone its self. Anyway, bill came in at about 50 pounds which is quite a bit but not the amount I was expecting. What I found interesting was the Summary's for December.

Talk Summary: 80:08 (I get 100mins free)
Text Summary: 148 (I get 500 per month for free)
Data Summary: 2741.6411 (yes almost 3gig of mobile data)

Next month my 18 month contract comes to a end, and although I'd love to have the Android phone, I don't want to switch network to do so. Tmobile do have a simular data plan as Orange (I currently pay 6 pounds a month for unlimited evening and weekend data) but I think I have my head set on the rather big but futuristic HTC Touch HD. The only thing it doesn't support is a flash for the 5mpx camera and a large internal storage drive. But seriously thats being very picky.

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Xbox 360 AV woes

xbox 360 back

I bought a Xbox 360 on Friday night, it was my treat for being good and saving up over Christmas and New Years. Anyway, when I was in the shop in Leeds, they had one 2nd hand for 129 pounds with a 20gig hard drive and wireless controller. Now to be fair that was a hell of a lot cheaper that CEX's 130 pounds for the same without a harddrive of any kind. The only thing about the option was the lack of a HDMI port, it was strictly Component only. So I had to move up to the next option which was a brand new Xbox 360 with 60gig harddrive, wireless controller and HDMI. Looking back for the extra 30 pounds it was more a better deal that the 129 pound one. I didn't get any games because I knew the games I really wanted to play were online, namely RezHD and Geomentry Wars.

So why the need for HDMI, well on my current setup I have a Samsung LCD with lots of HDMI ports free and only one component input which is used by the old Xbox (which I still use for a backup when the Linux PC box does odd things – if you like XBMC avoid upgrading up to ubuntu 8.10). So using the HDMI is good but the dolby digital audio which is passed over the HDMI cable isn't then passed through the TV's optical output. So now I got digital stereo sound instead of the full dolby digital surround. The AV cable that comes with the Xbox 360 does have a optical out but of course, Microsoft decided to put the HDMI cable slot directly under the AV slot which means you can plug both in at the same time! No I just learned I will need to buy another AV cable for the ability to listen to dolby digital surround and watch using the HDMI cable.

I hope this might be the last thing I'll need to buy for the Xbox 360 for a while, as I'm saving for a replacement home cinema amp. A new amp would also solve all my component and HDMI audio problems. Currently my Sherwood Newcastle R725 receiver only supports analogue composite for all video switching. Yep not even S-video input is supported because its pretty much 12 plus years old. The only reason I still use it is because it a great power amp (100watts per channel) when plugged into the Technics SH-AC500D DD/DTS Decoder. Unfortually even the pre-amp/decoder's digital inputs were all used up before the Xbox 360 was bought. Time to buy a new cinema amp me thinks.

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Werewolf night: The Manchester chapter starts up

Playing Werewolf

So I'm officially starting up the Manchester Chapter of the Werewolf gamers fans. Not much more to say except all the details are on Upcoming.org.

If you don't know what Werewolf the game is… Think of it as a Social Game of Deception, Paranoia, and Mob Rule.

Its a social mind game for 8-25 players, in which a vengeful group of villagers must figure out who among them is secretly a werewolf (before it’s too late…) Each “night” the werewolves eat a villager, and each “day” the surviving villagers attempt to rid the town of werewolves by lynching one of their own.

Werewolf is a game that takes place in a small village which is haunted by werewolves. Each player is secretly assigned a role – Werewolf, Villager, or Seer (a special Villager). There is also a Moderator player who controls the flow of the game. The game alternates between night and day phases. At night, the Werewolves secretly choose a Villager to kill. Also, the Seer (if still alive) asks whether another player is a Werewolf or not. During the day, the Villager who was killed is revealed and is out of the game. The remaining Villagers then vote on the player they suspect is a Werewolf. That player reveals his/her role and is out of the game. Werewolves win when there are an equal number of Villagers and Werewolves. Villagers win when they have killed all Werewolves.

If you want to know more check out these rules here.

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Lessig vs Colbert the remixes

Thanks to Glyn for notifying me about Lawerence Lessig on the Colbert Report. As usual Steven Colbert takes the comical opposite view to pick some fun at his guest. What's so interesting about this time is, Colbert tells the audience not to remix (also the name of Lessig's new book) any of his works including the show there on now.

“Never. ever. ever. take anything of mine and remix it! For instance, I will be very angry if anyone takes this interview right here and remixes it with some great dance beat, and it starts showing up in clubs across America.”

Obviously the opposite has happened (and Steven knew this was going to happen of course) and now there's all types of audio and video remixes of that segment. I wouldn't be surprised if it started showing up all over the west world Steven. (which would be great advertising for not only lessig's new book but also the colbert report of course)

Remix COLBERT/lessig project, has really blown up and now there's a contest here and video remixes appear on youtube. I was even tempted to do my own remix, but its late now and I got a lot on tomorrow. So maybe over the next few days I'll drop a remix track.

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The panic attack at midnight mix

So my first recorded mix of 2009 and its a festival of hard beats and bleepy sounds. I would normally call it progressive trance but I'm fed up with the confusion between that and progressive, Which seems to be some kind of rock genre. So now I'm calling it Tech Trance. Anyway, whats important is the mix is pretty fast pace due to the introduction of a Rave classic (Put the bassdrum on by the ascendant masters) at the start which I also had to slow down by 10%. There's a bunch of new tunes which I've never played before in this mix including the show stopper Panic attack by Simon Patterson.

The Panic attack at midnight mix is available for download as a Mpeg3 too and is licensed under a creative commons nc-nd licence, obviously the tunes themselves are all rights reserved copyright. Enjoy!

  1. Put the bassdrum on – the ascendant masters
  2. a new dawn (virtual vault mix) – Steve Forte Rio
  3. smack – simon patterson
  4. shnorkel – Miki Litvak & Ido Ophir
  5. Rheninkraf – Oliver Klien
  6. Panic attack – simon patterson
  7. Pegasus (megaminds mix) – Mauro Picotto
  8. Body of conflict (cosmic gate mix) – Cosmic Gate
  9. Kink – Trentemøller
  10. Grasshopper (dance version) – Sander Van Doorn
  11. Coincidance (Trentemøller Remix) – Mathias Schaffhäuser
  12. first strike (signum signal 2004 remake) – Signum
  13. Interstate Emperors – Jeffed
  14. Kalopsia (Monogato's Filth Remix) – The Blizzard
  15. Lyra (leon boiler mix) – Leon Bolier Pres. Precursor
  16. The last pluck – Marcos Schossow
  17. strip search – simon patterson
  18. massive motion – M.I.K.E

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Playstation 3 or Xbox 360?

Current generation of consoles

I can't decide. They both have there advantages and disadvantages but I'm hoping the people out there will be able to help me.

So quickly a couple of things. Blu-Ray is a non-starter for me, I'm not interested and so being able to play back a HD disc source is not going to score the PS3 any points. The high price of the PS3 is off putting due in part to that Blu-Ray drive which I'm not going to use. I also don't need a media player replacement, I already have a Ubuntu box running XBMC and Boxee for Standard and High Def content across my network. Plus I have a Xbox which runs a older XBMC (need to upgrade it really) for backup even. I know I can stream stuff to the PS3 using Universial plug n play which is nicely built into my NAS box. The xbox 360 seems to require other less standard software to do anything with media.

Home on the PS3 also looks silly but so does the new dashboard on the Xbox 360. The PS3's online play is also very dubbious compared to Xbox Live but its free and seems to work ok with Little Big Planet.

On the game front, Little Big Planet and Wipeout HD are killer reasons to own a PS3 while on the Xbox 360 I'm loving Geometry Wars and Burn Out Paradise. I also hear Rez HD is on the Xbox 360 for a cheap download, and I got to say I like the idea of little mini-games like Geometry Wars which you can have a blast at for a while then put down again. I think the last game I completed was Max Payne on the PC.

I don't really get the difference between the Xbox 360 Arcade and Xbox 360 Premium, it seems once you buy a couple of games you might as well have bought a Premium package. The PS3 comes in many flavors, but the cheapest I've seen one for is 179 pounds for the 40gig version. HDMI is all good for me, which they both support now. I think the fact the PS3 seems to play/run unsigned code seems like a good thing to me. Yellow dog linux is running on it no problem while on the Xbox 360 it seems almost impossible to run anything on it besides signed code (hackers have been trying for years). But then again that was before the XNA team showed off Kodu which really interests me. But then again some people are saying Little Big Planet has that end covered off on the PS3. I'm not so sure.

I think this will come down to economics, if I buy a Xbox 360 on ebay, I might be able to get one for less that 100 pounds and that means more for my home cinema upgrade which needs to happen sometime this year. I was also considering if I was to get a Xbox 360 and PS2 that might be a good compromise.

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The Palm Pre

Palm Pre

So Palm unveiled the saver of the company, the Palm Pre. I have to say I quite like the pebble look of it, seems it would be nice to hold for long periods (something I got to say the ipod touch isn't good at). Its also got all the tech you need inside such as Wifi, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS, some sort of 3g (Comes with EVDO, but 3G/HSDPA is planned for Europe in the future). The screen is a little disappointing after looking at the specs of the HTC Touch HD (3.1-inch 320 x 480 instead of the HTC's 3.8-inch 480 X 800 screen). The Operating system seems to be jazzed up to be something between the Android and iphone UI, so pretty with tons of transparency, etc but real multitasking like Windows mobile and Android.

One thing which wonders me is how close in design the Palm Pre is to the HTC Touch Dual.

HTC Touch Dual

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My New Year Resolutions 2009

So I've already done a review of 2008 and I see everyone's doing there resolutions, so its time for my 2009 resolutions.

  1. Go skiing on real snow

    Yeah believe it or not I can Ski, I learned over a summer holiday on a scheme called Splash in Bristol. Now to be fair that was like 12 years ago but I think I can still do it. But I've yet to try it on real snow, only dry slope. People tell me its easier on Snow, so I should be skiing down the black run before you know it.

  2. Work and execute a Alternative Reality Game

    I'm still a fan of these things, and want to build upon what we already had last year but maybe change some of the goals to something much more local and spreadable.

  3. Build up a better routine
    So as most of you know, I'm a night person. I tend to ponder, read and write at night and don't feel the effects of being tired till very late. So because of that I'm going to bed at times when people are starting to wake up. This isn't right and I'm now vowing to go to bed before 2am every night and get up before 10:30am every day. This means I should build up a good routine and people can start to expect to see me more often. I think its also about layering the routines on slowly one by one instead of making sweeping changes.
  4. Work smarter, with less pace and less stress
    This is important because although the easy thing to say is I want to spereate my work and play life, I think thats frankly bull (as Nicky says its all very grey) and I enjoy doing what I do at work. So I want to find a way to do much less of the boring stuff in my own time. This is also a extension of Use the technologies around me better, because I want to start paying for more services which save me time or do good things for me. Currently I pay for Plaxo, Basecamp, Flickr and a few others. On the pace side I want to slow down less urgent stuff like replying to emails.
  5. Go out more and be live more heathly
    So this time its not just about Comedy clubs but also about going out clubbing. My experience at Gatecrasher on new years eve reminded me how much I love Trance music. Man you can't beat that combination of rhythm, 4 on 4 beats and melodies. So I've decided I should try going to more, even if it means going alone (but if anyone wants to come along, give me shout).
    I'm also living more heathly, since I've moved to Manchester. Not only am I walking everywhere but I've never had takeaway delivered to my flat. If I don't feel like cooking, I'll go out to a restaurant instead and even after clubbing or a night on the town my flat is close enough to go home and cook up something quickly. I'm also playing Volleyball regularlly and hope to pick up Basketball again soon. So its all go on that front already.
  6. Be more daring with matters of the heart
    I'm a confident guy but don't take enough risks, so thats going to change this year. Don't worry I'll be a perfect Gentleman. Sometimes…
  7. Start organising Werewolf and Werewolf+ nights in the North
    Yep this one is simple but also it would nice to develop Werewolf+ as I'm coining it as. I got talking to Cristiano about my thoughts for extended Werewolf rules and between us we came up with something quite interesting but we never quite wrote it down or tried it out. So this year, I think we should actually develop it, write it up and let it spread.
  8. Build a web application
    So theres a couple of small scale web 2.0 applications which I'd like to build, this was why I was trying to learn Python and even Air. But I've decided its not about the language. I think some of my realtime web mashups can be done using my existing knowledge in XSL. Plus I've been looking at Cocoon 2.2 and 3.0, its seems you can build very powerful apps which are deployed without the usual cocoon madness. Aka I can create little webapps using nothing more that XSL and XML.
  9. Blog every film I watch
    I watch and own a ton of films, but I watch them like I chew bubble gum. So I'm going to try blogging each one even if that means mentioning them on a Microblogging service. I'll try and tag them with hashes or the like, so maybe I can later pull all my reviews together or see all the movies I've watched over the course of a month or year.
  10. Read more
    So I bought a ipod touch for reading ebooks and RSS. And to be fair I'm reading a ton more RSS thanks to the ipod and Newsgator. Hopefully the ebooks won't be far behind, but I do need to find a good source for the latest stuff like the new Thomas Friedman book. I was going to suggest I read before bedtime but that never works. So when ever I got a spare moment, out pops the ipod and off I go reading, neato.
  11. More Trance music
    I love trance music, I really love it. So it comes as no surprise that I'm thinking not only should I be out clubbing more but I should be listening and mixing more.
    I've recently found that almost every trance dj have there own podcasts, which is usually a mix. So its like getting a mix tape every week from the best djs in the world. For example here's Gareth Emery's , Armin Van Buuren's (currently number one dj in the world by the way) and Tiestos podcasts. I'm also thinking I could get back into djing live now I got the Pacemaker. So I'm hoping to play live in front of a clubbing crowd by the end of 2009. In the meanwhile I'm also looking into djing at smaller parties, festivals and online radio. I mean the pacemaker gives me huge flexiblity, I could dj out of a moving car if I wanted to.
  12. Lots more graphics
    Believe it or not, I use to be a designer or am a designer. I find diagrams and visuals useful to understand and to communicate. I don't know why I've taken to writing a lot more over the last decade. Maybe its just the medium or something. Anyway, I'm going to do a lot more work in one of my fav open source app – Inkscape. And I've recently started playing with POV Ray again. POV Ray or Persistence of Vision Raytracer is a amazing piece of software. It uses text files to create scenes that are Raytraced not Rendered. (Theres a very important difference between the two). The best thing about Povray is that it runs on every system and I can render scenes of higher that HD rez in seconds on my 2ghz laptop (unfortually it still only supports single processors right now).

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The Pacemaker v2 is coming soon

I could have put money on my prediction. I knew the 120gig Hard drive of the Pacemaker version 1 was too big. Currently I have 17gig of tunes on it and another 14 gig of tunes backed up in a different location on the same device. Don't get me wrong, we're still talking about 1500+ songs with a average length of 6mins each. Anyway, it still looks like the same device but they have redone the UI of the device [theres a short video from CES 09] to make it more quickly usable for new users. Auto beat match is like a major no no in the world of the dj. Version 1 had a BPM counter but it wasn't automatic. It seems one of the major changes is the automatic application of this feature. I don't quite know how pro-amateurs and pros will take the pacemaker v2 because the 1st version did come scrutiny for making mixing skill-less but they quickly found out it didn't. Either way, I'm hoping the UI changes will be a firmware update for the V1 Pacemakers. I checked for a Firmware today but nothing, however the forums seem to be on fire with the news.

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