So after 5 days of use of BT Vision, I can summerise my initial experience as a pretty good one. I’ve been able to watch, record, replay and view “on-demand” TV successfully experiencing few issues. The graphical user interface is pleasing to the eye, stable, fast and intuitive. Overall, the initial user experience has been higher than I had previously expected and I’m looking forward to BT providing more on-demand content to satisfy the £14 subscription per month.
I’ll also put some pictures and videos up to let you see it in work very soon…
So it was about 2 months ago my 6 year old Fujitsu-Siemens S6120 came to a stand still. After 2 power module failures (about 2 years ago) and this time a hard drive death, I decided it was enough. I am going to do away with Windows. Luckily, I saved all my important data onto an external hard drive and was in position to start off fresh with a new hard drive! Well… it wasn’t brand new. I stole it out of my old Dell Inspiron 5000 which had a measly 20Gb of space. But this was a temporary measure (I’m saving the pennys to get a 24″ iMac at the end of month!) and thought that it would keep me ticking overfor a few months and all my improtant data is kept seperately anyway. I took the jump with no previous Linux experience and successfully installed Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn). I was lucky that all my hardware was compatible and no extra drivers were required. I was able to connect to my wireless network instantly which was the amazing thing!
Nowadays, I don’t really many dedicated applications on my laptop anymore. The majority of “stuff” I do now is on the internet. All I need now is a decent Internet Browser and Messaging Client. Both of these exist for Linux… Firefox and GAIM (now known as Pidgin) I’ve been able to do the majority of my home activities (Facebook, Blogging, Drupal and Portal). There are obviously the usual wish lists that could make the whole user experience much better:
A good free image editor (I don’t like GIMP, need something like Paint.net)
Better support for Printers
Better support for executable file locations/shortcuts and being able to uninstall programs easily
Apart from that, my experience with Ubuntu has been excellent and it’s a worthy contender against Windows. My girlfriend (who uses a MacBook) and my housemate who doesn’t really use a computer both found it very easy to use and almost couldn’t find any difference when they were surfing the interent! If you don’t have much money and building a PC from scratch then this is the best way forward. The minimum spec requirements to install Ubuntu are very low and my 20Gb hardrive is not even a quarter full yet! There is so much community support out there (see the Ubuntu Forums) to help you if you encounter any stumbling block. I think the motto for Linux is “Where there is a will…”
Now I’m waiting for updated release, Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) and very excited. One key feature that will be included will be Compiz Fusion which is an eye candy module for Ubuntu making the user experience much more fulfilling (similar to a Mac experience). e.g. animated images, real time play back of material when objects are resized and moved.
Click on the “countdown” image above to get the latest version of Ubuntu now!
OK, so I didn’t keep to my promise about posting once per week. Naughty Sil! But I’m here and I’m posting now.
I’m here to talk about BT Vision… I recently moved into my old school mates house and now that he’s back from his travels we decided to go down the risky route of ordering a TV service which wasn’t satellite or cable! Here are some of the key reasons why we ordered BT Vision:
Free V Box (i.e. the set top box which has a built in Tivo like device worth £199)
Free Installation (worth £60)
We already had BT Broadband which was one of the pre-requisites for getting BT Vision
It’s pretty cheap (TV Value pack £14 + Football for £10 per month)
I know they’re not revolutionary reasons but seeing that we both like to be on the knife edge of technology, we bit the bullet and ordered the service. I’ll post regular updates (hence the Part 1) on our experience with BT Vision through the coming months.
After seeing some of Hayley’s photos she had taken on her travels, it inspired me to snap more shots too. But the camera I currently have is a point and shoot digital compact (Panasonic DMC-FX1) and it doesn’t provide the wide range of features and manual settings that I wanted. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to use my compact when I go on night’s out and when I don’t want to lug around a cumbersome piece of kit. So I ask Alex to get me a Digital SLR for my birthday. So which one to choose? I decided to go mainstream and let the two dominant manufacturers (Canon and Nikon) battle it out.
I had a budget and with added bonus of being able to get it tax free from the airport, I was able to decide between the Canon 400D and Nikon D80. After many hours of research on the internet (manly on DPPreview.com), I decided to go for Nikon D80 (with the 135mm lens kit) for the following reasons:
I had an old Nikon Film SLR (F-601) and have a couple of lenses which wouldn’t be compatible with the Canon
The D40 or D40x doesn’t support the auto focus functionality on the Nikon AF lenses
The D80 is a semi-professional camera which will allow me to progress to a sufficient standard without have to compromise in getting a higher spec camera in the near future. Hopefully the D80 will last at least 5 years (The F-601 lasted 12 years and still works!)
The support (from the company and the user community) seemed to be vast and friendly!
So I’ve had it now for just over 3 weeks and what do I think? Well I’m really surprised with the results. The quality of output is very impressive. I admit that I am no camera buff having has no photography lessons (I’ve just been reading books and getting tips from the internet) but I have been able to produce some stunning photos if I don’t say so myself. I’ve been round a few areas of London after work and taken a variety of moods and settings. Please click below to see some of examples.
I would love to get some of comments on the photos I’ve taken so far and any future photo’s will show up on my Flickr Sidebar Widget (see top right). If I take any special one’s that I particularly like, I’ll make sure you’ll see them in a dedicated post. I’m hoping to take a Photography course later this year to fine tune my skills and also to build up more confidence in taking photos consisting people too. I’m loving it at the moment! Not only because I want to take photos but it have given me the opportunity to discover parts of London that I would never have come across. It’s given me a new perspective on this diverse city. Let’s hope I can represent it in my shots!
The small number of you that read this blog may be wondering why many more people are not visiting my site. Although I doubt many people do read this, I feel the urge to keep my blog going. Again, there has been a massive stint where I not put one update in the last 4 months. Why don’t you just pack it in Sil? It’s just not worth it. I’m going to put more discipline in and aim for a target of at least 5 posts per month. That’s just over one a week. I don’t see it as much of a problem for the first few months but let see what happens… See you after the next post
After months of speculation, Abercrombie and Fitch will be opening their first store outside the US this year! The International Flag Ship Store will be located in London, UK and will open on 22nd March 2007. The store will live on Savile Row which runs parallel to Regent Street.
Confirmed sources include details on their own website and advertisement (started on the weekend of 10 March 2007) on London’s Red Buses.
The only question now is how much they will be charging for their items/goods. I wouldn’t be suprise if their clothes were to retail at £ = $. i.e. a $70 shirt in a US store will be £70 in the UK store. Though, it will probably more likely to be 150% increase on US prices. i.e. $70 shirt in a US store will be appro £50 or £60. The annoying thing is that people are prepared to buy their clothes at these stupid prices because Londoners are used to paying a high rate for premium products!
I probably won’t buy too many items from the UK A&F store as they now have an online ordering service which ships to many international locations. Therefore you’ll pay the US prices and only £20 - £40 for the shipping. Obviously you’re liable for import duties and taxes but all this taken into account it should be at least 20% cheaper than if you bought in the UK! But at least you can now try on the items before buying them online.
The other alternative is to ask someone very nicely to buy some A&F stuff when they head over to the States!
OK, so you’ve seen over the past year I’ve made little or no effort to keep my blog up to date. There are a number of reasons for this…
I can’t be bothered
“Social Networking” sites
I do have a real life to persue and I just don’t have the time to replicate it all in the virtual world
I want to talk more about item 2 as I think this is the key item which is having most impact on my blogging days…
With the introduction of “Social Networking” sites (I hate that word…) it makes communicating with people easy and seamless. The main things I use my blog for are to put some of my random thoughts and to share photos friends and family. Generally, people/readers are lazy. Unless you consistently have interesting topics/photos they won’t make an effort to visit your Blog. Also from a Blogger’s perspective, it does take a large amount of time and effort to provide new content and maintain a fresh Blog.
Facebook and MySpace allows you to replicate similar Blogging site functionality but with additional features allowing you to connect and communicate with groups of people. Ingenious, as it removes the onus on the reader to make the effort to recieve the latest information. It will be delivered to them automatically but the readers also have the choice to disable these updates if they wish. As a technology paradox, it’s a very similar concept between “Traditional Email” and “Push Email” while your are travelling. As a social paradox, it’s the equivalent of your friends/family in Celebrity News Magazine like OK! or Hello. The majoritiy of people like gossip, especially on people who you know…
When Push Email was introduced, it was RIM that changed the face of email on the go. Over the next few months, Facebook will do the same for personal blogging by allow people to share:
Photos
Events/Invites
Groups
Messages/Comments
So I think within the next year, my blog may come to a steady halt and I’ll have to think some other sneaky scheme to use my personal url…
Ok, latest crack is that Will is still in bed, not packed and the taxi is waiting outside…
99.9% chance that Will will not be travelling with us. Very Sad. We tried our best. I dragged him out but he resisted. I did the serious friend approach but slept straight it. Will, if you reading this, I’m really sorry but you brought it on yourself….
OK, so you’re working on Friday and looking forward to the weekend when an email is sent to you about ski trips… £120 per person to Val D Half Board… not bad. I go and sent it to the B-Unit crew and the next thing that happens is bang!… You’re on a Snowboard Trip!
So we’re not going for the whole week. Instead we decided to take a couple of days off work and comeback early. Take a hit on supplying our own flight back and boom you have a mini break out in Bellecote (La Plagne). Amazing. I’m so excited! It’s 1.52am on the Saturday and we’ve book our Taxi to go out at 3am. Flight’s at 6.30am. We’ll be on the slopes in less that 12 hours! Unbelievable! Farewell to you all for a few days and will up date you all on how it all went and how my new kit panned out.
So all my bags are packed and I’m ready to go but where to? The week before Christmas was the time I was meant to be losing my virginity to the new kit I’d invested in this year. However, the abnormal weather over the Alps has prevented me from doing this. Please snow! Rather than tell you about how my holiday went and all the tricks I pulled, I’m going to give you a low down on the kit I have got so far:
Snowboard: 06/07 Burton Custom 158 (Black Top Edition)
Bindings: 06/07 Burton Missions (Black and Bronze)
I’ll put down a proper review when I have used it properly. Currently, it’s tucked nicely to sleep in my board bag. We’re hoping for a group trip in late Feb so bring on that dump of snow!
