Had a bit of a mishap with our old DVD player last week when I went to view my region 1 edition of Top Gun. Basically it appears that our old multi-region DVD player is no longer multi-region, no matter how many times I reset it. When this is the major reason for it being in the cabinet underneath the TV it somewhat defeats the purpose of keeping it.
The good news? A search at Amazon seems to indicate that multi-region DVD players are now pretty cheap. Certainly they're considerably cheaper than they were when we bought our one six years ago.
The lesson here is that technology always gets cheaper, and so it isn't worth stretching yourself to get it. In fact when I have saved for items I have found that my savings and a price dropping have met at a satisfactory middle ground. For instance the digital camera that I want to upgrade to is dropping significantly on some sites, so hopefully it might even be less than it currently is when I finally choose to buy it (here's hoping anyway).
Tuesday, 24 July 2007
Monday, 23 July 2007
New Office Accessory
Got this through in the post a few weeks ago, and realised that I hadn't posted a thing about it.
After receiving it I put it in a case, and then put it in front of my collection of baseballs (but behind pictures of my wife and daughter).
Bit different than just getting a t-shirt!
If any Ducks fans read this they should still be able to find plenty of these on eBay at reasonable prices with reasonable postage charges. This is the guy I got mine from.
After receiving it I put it in a case, and then put it in front of my collection of baseballs (but behind pictures of my wife and daughter).
Bit different than just getting a t-shirt!
If any Ducks fans read this they should still be able to find plenty of these on eBay at reasonable prices with reasonable postage charges. This is the guy I got mine from.
Friday, 20 July 2007
New blog logo
I was tidying up a few settings the other night when I noticed that you can now add an image to the header of your blog.
With that in mind I got to work on what you can see above you. I'm sure it will develop in time, but for the moment this will do the job.
With that in mind I got to work on what you can see above you. I'm sure it will develop in time, but for the moment this will do the job.
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
Property: Rent or Buy?
I've become quite a fan of the Get Rich Slowly blog recently. It's a pretty shrewd read and is far more personable (not to mention less repetitive) than The Motley Fool. It is a slight shame from my perspective that it is so American-centred (or should that be "centered"?), but some lessons are universal.
One such entry that was definitely for an American readership was the one on property renting/buying. While an interesting read it appeared that the American market is skewed towards renting, because it looks like renters don't pay property taxes. Over here renters still have to pay Council Tax themselves - there goes that advantage!
I'm pleased to have bought. Most of my friends have bought. The one friend I can think of who is still renting is paying a reasonable price, but I wouldn't say he is getting a lot for his money.
And yet there does seem to be a groundswell of people who think that owning is a peculiar British obsession. Never mind the fact that you're not held ransom to a landlord's whim to raise the rent (especially if you're on a fixed-rate mortgage), for me the big thing about getting a mortgage is the fact that one day that expense will stop. As a friend of mine said a long time ago, "Why pay someone else's mortgage when you can pay your own instead?" At the very worst I'll have my current mortgage paid off shortly after my 48th birthday (I want it to be paid off sooner).
Let's stop all the talk about houses as investments in opposition to shares. Houses are homes, and I'd sooner be owning mine and doing pretty much what I want with it.
There are downsides (that'll be the boiler again!) but on the whole I'm happy that I bought my home nine years ago. It isn't a decision I regret.
One such entry that was definitely for an American readership was the one on property renting/buying. While an interesting read it appeared that the American market is skewed towards renting, because it looks like renters don't pay property taxes. Over here renters still have to pay Council Tax themselves - there goes that advantage!
I'm pleased to have bought. Most of my friends have bought. The one friend I can think of who is still renting is paying a reasonable price, but I wouldn't say he is getting a lot for his money.
And yet there does seem to be a groundswell of people who think that owning is a peculiar British obsession. Never mind the fact that you're not held ransom to a landlord's whim to raise the rent (especially if you're on a fixed-rate mortgage), for me the big thing about getting a mortgage is the fact that one day that expense will stop. As a friend of mine said a long time ago, "Why pay someone else's mortgage when you can pay your own instead?" At the very worst I'll have my current mortgage paid off shortly after my 48th birthday (I want it to be paid off sooner).
Let's stop all the talk about houses as investments in opposition to shares. Houses are homes, and I'd sooner be owning mine and doing pretty much what I want with it.
There are downsides (that'll be the boiler again!) but on the whole I'm happy that I bought my home nine years ago. It isn't a decision I regret.
Friday, 13 July 2007
My other move
A little while ago you may remember that I posted about moving from Pegasus Mail to Thunderbird, and hinted that there was another move coming up.
This is the move: I'm moving from LiveJournal to Blogger.
The reasons for this are simple, and as follows:
1) Customisation.
Yes, you could pick your own colours with LiveJournal, but could you add in a Technorati badge, a link to add your blog to someone's My Yahoo! page? Nope. You can with Blogger. In fact you can add pretty much whatever you want to add. That's an enormous plus in my opinion.
2) All the pages look the same.
Go to an individual entry on my LiveJournal and you end up at a generic page. Here the themes carry over. That's a big difference in terms of identity and flavour.
3) There are more people here.
My friends Matt and Pamela have had blogs here for a while, and I'm sure I'll find other friends here soon. I already seem to have had more comments over here than I ever had on my LiveJournal.
I'm not saying that Blogger is perfect (feel free to ask me what I thought flagging a blog was about!), but it's a big improvement on LiveJournal, and it does what I need it to do along with most that I would like it to do.
I've moved a lot of my old posts already, as well as Furling everything else so should anything happen to it I have a backup. Farewell and thank you LiveJournal, hello Blogger!
This is the move: I'm moving from LiveJournal to Blogger.
The reasons for this are simple, and as follows:
1) Customisation.
Yes, you could pick your own colours with LiveJournal, but could you add in a Technorati badge, a link to add your blog to someone's My Yahoo! page? Nope. You can with Blogger. In fact you can add pretty much whatever you want to add. That's an enormous plus in my opinion.
2) All the pages look the same.
Go to an individual entry on my LiveJournal and you end up at a generic page. Here the themes carry over. That's a big difference in terms of identity and flavour.
3) There are more people here.
My friends Matt and Pamela have had blogs here for a while, and I'm sure I'll find other friends here soon. I already seem to have had more comments over here than I ever had on my LiveJournal.
I'm not saying that Blogger is perfect (feel free to ask me what I thought flagging a blog was about!), but it's a big improvement on LiveJournal, and it does what I need it to do along with most that I would like it to do.
I've moved a lot of my old posts already, as well as Furling everything else so should anything happen to it I have a backup. Farewell and thank you LiveJournal, hello Blogger!
Saturday, 23 June 2007
Thursday, 21 June 2007
My quick thoughts on Social Bookmarking
Thought I ought to post something as I've not posted anything yet this month, not good!
Anyway, I thought I would chip in on the topic of Social Bookmarking. The favourite of many (including .net magazine, who mention it at the expense of all others) is del.ico.us. Now del.ico.us isn't bad, and I like that you don't have to log in to see a lot of links, and I've found other handy links through the tagging system.
However there are annoyances, my main one being that you can't have (at least from what I've seen) a multi-word tag. Therefore items like Crystal Palace and Fantasy Baseball aren't ideal for del.icio.us.
My personal preference is for a site called Furl. Furl supports multi-word tagging, private bookmarks and also keeps a cached version of a page you save (which I really liked when ESPN used to make Bill Simmons' archive available only to site subscribers). Therefore it is ideal for individual articles, in case they should move or be deleted.
For some reason Furl doesn't seem to like IE6 (at least at work) but on the whole I prefer it, especially as I generally use Firefox.
So in summary, del.icio.us for main site links, Furl for individual articles.
del.icio.us
furl.net
My del.icio.us links
My Furl archive
Anyway, I thought I would chip in on the topic of Social Bookmarking. The favourite of many (including .net magazine, who mention it at the expense of all others) is del.ico.us. Now del.ico.us isn't bad, and I like that you don't have to log in to see a lot of links, and I've found other handy links through the tagging system.
However there are annoyances, my main one being that you can't have (at least from what I've seen) a multi-word tag. Therefore items like Crystal Palace and Fantasy Baseball aren't ideal for del.icio.us.
My personal preference is for a site called Furl. Furl supports multi-word tagging, private bookmarks and also keeps a cached version of a page you save (which I really liked when ESPN used to make Bill Simmons' archive available only to site subscribers). Therefore it is ideal for individual articles, in case they should move or be deleted.
For some reason Furl doesn't seem to like IE6 (at least at work) but on the whole I prefer it, especially as I generally use Firefox.
So in summary, del.icio.us for main site links, Furl for individual articles.
del.icio.us
furl.net
My del.icio.us links
My Furl archive
Wednesday, 30 May 2007
Must see TV, May 2007
I did a post like this last year, so thought it only right that I did another one this year. Like last year, PTI and Around the Horn go without saying (although I'll admit to podcasting and listening in the car most days).
The Apprentice, 9pm Wednesdays, BBC1
Another compelling series, featuring everything from the competant (Kristina), the nutty (Tre) and the downright nasty (Katie).
Dream Team, 8pm Sundays, Sky One
The final series in drawing to a close, and with a big assist from our Sky+ box I've managed to see every episode of this series.
Sadly the green arrow indicating the series link option is no longer against the next entry on our personal planner. That's because the next episode is the last one ever. On the heels of the best episode of the series to date that's pretty sad.
Lots of questions remain unanswered. Will Harchester win the Premiership? Will Jason and Katy get back together? Will anyone other than Amy discover that Danny is Dragonslayer, and what happens with the cans of petrol and the lighter that he's carrying?
Featured last year...
Prison Break is still a programme I watch out for. However I downloaded the first twelve episodes before they were shown here, until my dvd writing software decided it didn't like my new dual-layer dvd writer. I've got about five episodes on our Sky+ box but I know we've missed one somewhere, so I'll have to download them to see them all. It's better without ads anyway.
Wednesday, 9 May 2007
Moving to Thunderbird
Not posted anything significant for a while, so thought I would fill this with a tech post (of sorts, it's hardly detailed).
After years of using trusty Pegasus Mail, I'm in the process of switching to Mozilla Thunderbird. I've been using (and recommending) Mozilla's Firefox browser for ages, but now I'm going to be using their mail client as well.
The exporting of nearly nine year's worth of folders (I rarely delete e-mails from friends) is going to take some time, but I'll get there. The reasons I'm moving are:
1) Better support for multiple e-mail addresses. With Pegasus I'd be swapping over between mailboxes. No need with Thunderbird, which handles this pretty easily.
2) Better HTML support. While this was secure with Pegasus, it was pretty awkward, and e-mails didn't necessarily render particularly well. Thunderbird works well on incoming (if you choose) and outgoing messages.
That's really all the reasons I have, but they're pretty big reasons in terms of making my life easier. There are a few things I'd like to see in Thunderbird (multiple signatures, selective mail downloading) but I suspect I'll find those in due course in various extensions that are available. Plus I'm still getting used to using it!
There's another move I'm working on, but that can wait for another time.
After years of using trusty Pegasus Mail, I'm in the process of switching to Mozilla Thunderbird. I've been using (and recommending) Mozilla's Firefox browser for ages, but now I'm going to be using their mail client as well.
The exporting of nearly nine year's worth of folders (I rarely delete e-mails from friends) is going to take some time, but I'll get there. The reasons I'm moving are:
1) Better support for multiple e-mail addresses. With Pegasus I'd be swapping over between mailboxes. No need with Thunderbird, which handles this pretty easily.
2) Better HTML support. While this was secure with Pegasus, it was pretty awkward, and e-mails didn't necessarily render particularly well. Thunderbird works well on incoming (if you choose) and outgoing messages.
That's really all the reasons I have, but they're pretty big reasons in terms of making my life easier. There are a few things I'd like to see in Thunderbird (multiple signatures, selective mail downloading) but I suspect I'll find those in due course in various extensions that are available. Plus I'm still getting used to using it!
There's another move I'm working on, but that can wait for another time.
Friday, 4 May 2007
Another year older
Hit another birthday on Monday. Took the day off to spend it with my wife and daughter, which was great. Had dinner in Edinburgh at the Hard Rock Cafe which was amazing (I love the pulled pork sandwiches).
Glad to be done with 31 if I'm honest. I was thinking back over the year the day before and can't say it has been particularly glorious/momentous. Not much I can do about it now but hopefully can head in a different direction in the year to come.
The thing is that parenthood is pretty consuming. You need to remember that life goes on around it, and that there are other things you can do to make parenthood even more enjoyable.
(Hope that this has been vague enough to cover up any dissatisfaction about my career. Oops!)
Glad to be done with 31 if I'm honest. I was thinking back over the year the day before and can't say it has been particularly glorious/momentous. Not much I can do about it now but hopefully can head in a different direction in the year to come.
The thing is that parenthood is pretty consuming. You need to remember that life goes on around it, and that there are other things you can do to make parenthood even more enjoyable.
(Hope that this has been vague enough to cover up any dissatisfaction about my career. Oops!)
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