With my August overtime I went out and bought the first part of my planned AV setup at home. I decided to start with the TV and plumped in the end for the LG (model 32LG2100) pictured below.
I also splashed out on a new wireless keyboard with which to control my linux media centre. I am a massive fan of linux as an OS for media centre PCs and currently run Ubuntu. After spending a day or two configuring all the codecs, permissions and general set up I have barely had to touch anything beyond the GUI except when trying to go wireless. I have never had any success getting any peripheral to operate wirelessly on Ubuntu. This includes WiFi cards, keyboards, mice and bluetooth. I always run into compatibility issues or it simply doesn’t work as required. You can imagine my surprise then when the KeySonic keyboard (picture below) worked out the box as intended. The only issue arising was dus to some local interference but fiddling with my WiFI channels fixed that in a flash.
Next on the list is a DVD/Bluray player and the PS3 is still edging it over an Xbox/dedicated blurayer combo at the moment. Will keep you updated.
I have just ordered my first ever laptop 
I decided that with the huge increase in travelling and commuting I am going to have to do with the AHS in the new year that I needed a way of ensuring that I wasn’t wasting the 5 hour round trip train journey from Leeds to King’s Cross (and then back of course).
I went for an ultra-mobile netbook as I felt the power/mobility compromise was the best available. I don’t need a full-specced laptop for emails, document editing and generally staying up to date online so the long battery life and portability of these little machines made sense. I settled on an EeePC 901 after spending a lot of time reading up on the subject. Its 8 hour battery life on light/moderate use is one of the longest on the market (even on moderate/heavy use it holds out for over 5 hours and will easily last for the length of a director’s edition of one of the LOTR DVDs). It also got rave reviews on everything except the keyboard (which wouldn’t matter to me as I don’t touch type at the best of times). I decided on sacrificing the larger hard drive and opted for the Windows XP version as I felt it gave me the most flexibility. I considered getting the linux version (with its 20GB drive) and putting XP on it anyway, but decided that now I have a public image to attend to that using a fully licensed version would be prudent 
On several occasions today I have been very close to picking up my linux machine and throwing it out the window, quite literally!
I have been trying to install and run MySQL and Apache so I can put together my CR11 database coursework. MySQL was no real effort, just sudo apt-get it and wa-hey away you go – pretty self explanatory and a rather robust piece of software, not that I am overly qualified to make that sort of statement, lol.
Apache on the other hand has really done my nut in. Firstly, it took all day to install and run properly after hours of fiddling with apr’s. Secondly, I don’t seem to be able to link Apache with the files I am using to write the program, either tells me I don’t have permission or that it can’t find the files! Any help on this apsect much appreciated. At the moment I am tempted to give up and head into DEC-10 to do my coursework, but after shelling out on a machine that’s supposed to do it at home I don’t really want to take that step.
Last night my hard drive failed. The second hard drive in six months to roll over. Well technically this is the same drive that rolled over last time, so really I should have expected it. The first time round the Windows installation was affected by a damagaed disk surface – or so I thought, but after a re-install and a few weeks of messing about I managed to recover the disk. This time it is a total failure, so a new hard drive is currently winging its way from Ebuyer (many thanks to my sponsor, Liz ).
Unfortunately, the hard drive that failed was my windows install drive and I don’t want to install windows on my second hard drive. So until the new disk arrives I am stuck using my linux box for everything. Now I like linux – it is easy to use and definitely the most intuitive system I have come across (I use Ubuntu 7.04 (for desktop) at the moment) but it does have several drawbacks. First the chess game AI is far too difficult. I am a good chess player and struggle to beat the computer on Easy and Medium. The other fault is its incompatibility with modern games. It is a bind to install them and then it’s a lottery as to whether they will even run. This wouldn’t normally be a problem for me as I tend to only use my linux machine for programming and other work related things. However, in the current situation it is annoying – especially as our internet keeps going down!
Anyway, my new disk should be here today so hopefully I will be back up and running by tonight.
Well, again – apologies for the length of time between posts. I really have no excuse this time apart from laziness and the fact I have had about a million things on my mind recently.
I wish I could write about whats been going on in my world on here, but I feel that the details and in fact the vaguaries of it all are not suitable for public dissemination as yet. As soon as I think the world at large has the need to know, I will share everything.
A few things I can update on are CompSoc, A-Soc, my new tech set up (work in progress) and a few bits of gossip and general gubbins.
Firstly, CompSoc – well things have been relatively quiet recently as we have been focussing on the administrative side of things. Something we found necessary following our President’s (Sam Oakley) house getting broken into and all their laptops getting stolen, including all the data on our members. Note for future reference: do not store all your important data on one system, always have a copy or back up on a different system. We are starting to fill up the calendar with events now (if you are really interested then check out the events listings on the web page). I am glad I got involved in CompSoc, the committee are a joy to work with in the main and I really enjoy the technical side of things too.
A-Soc is not going amazingly well – if you read Chris Worfolk’s blog posts here and here then you get an idea on what’s the matter. Our London trip is going to plan at the moment – really got things sorted now, everything is booked and all we need now is to fill up the last few places and we are set. If any of you readers are interested in coming then it is £55 for members and £65 for non-members (membership fee is a fiver so do the math…) and that gets you transport and accommodation inclusive of breakfasts. Visit our web site for more information and to sign up.
I have just bought an old School of Computing PC and am preparing to set it up as a linux machine to run alongside my windows machine. I managed to get hold of it really cheaply and it came with monitor (17inch flat screen) and peripherals. I am currently using the monitor as part of a dual monitor system – see pics, along with my new Logitech G11 Keyboard. I am hoping to supplement this set up with a KVM switch so I can use monitor, keyboard and mouse with both boxes and also a new mouse.
Liz and I are going really strong too, in fact I think our relationship is starting to mature into soemthign really special. We have had our ups and downs – especially over the last fortnight or so – but we have emerged stronger and better prepared for a future than we were! All in all, I think we are destined for something special here – watch this space!
Well I am nearing the end of my Fresher’s week as part of the Department of Joint Honours Science. I think i will classify the week as a success. I have met some new people, i have attended all the appropriate lectures, labs and meetings and am now all set for the start proper of my new degree programme. I am particularly looking forward to my computing modules as I feel that these will be the testing yet enjoyable challenge that I require to thrive. I am enjoying getting into linux and exploring all the nooks and crannies within it. The induction programme being run by the SoC has been helpful if somewhat tedious as it focussed on writing a quick HTML file and learning some of the basics of the command line terminal – something I consider myself a fairly confident user of. I am by no means an expert – Kieran will shoot me down for saying anything remotely like that, but I can manage, run, create and delete files and directories etc and write fairly strict html as long as it’s not too flashy. It is the programming side of the course that I am most apprehensive about, but I feel that the challenge is something I need. Roll on Java!
CompSoc and A-Soc Fresher events are getting into full swing and I am really starting to get my teeth into the roles. I am looking forward to the next few weeks despite the fact that the workload is daunting to say the least.
Seeing as I am getting four brand new housemates from the 1st July and I am moving rooms I now have the perfect excuse for thinking up some new toys, gadgets, space savers etc for next academic year.
We have big plans for a home network, 3.5 of us will be computing students next year, so I am acquiring a new computer so that I can a) have a linux machine that I can practice on and b) there is going to be some spare space for extra hard drives and other network paraphenalia. To this end I need to put together a list of stuff for my new computer – I have a case, PSU, fan, motherboard and a hodge podge of hard drives, optical drives and other bits and bats. The computer I have acquired was originally an AMD 688Mhz, with 20Gb hard drive, 128MB RAM, I seem to remember my brother putting a 64MB nVidia graphics card in there and on board sound. There is a prob a network card in it. I was planning on putting one or two new, larger hard drives in there, but apart from that I don’t know where to start to get it up to some sort of spec. I basically need it for running linux and as a storage system. Any ideas or suggestions welcome.
There is also a new stereo system, a new television, possibly Sky TV and i am definitely looking at some kind of back-up storage system. I don’t know whether a couple of large external hard drives are the way forward, or just use DVD’s – again advice would be useful.
I am also seriously looking into a new laptop, as portable as possible but with adequate specs so that I can use it for a variety of things like media, uni work and the odd bit of WoW/mobile blogging.
I am currently sat in DEC10, one of the computing laboratories, in the School of Computing. Michelle, Sarann and Matt are supposed to be working and I am supposed to be researching linux so that I can install it on my new desktop – which should be in Leeds on Tuesday! Instead, we are messing on Facebook and generally bitching about members of RockSoc.
It is cool being able to blog remotely, ie from somewhere other than my bedroom, I might have to buy a laptop just so I can do “field-blogging”.
Today has been a glorious day! Bright sunshine all day but with a hint of chill on the air. Pretty much my ideal day seeing as I burn in winter and hate being hot.
I really have not achieved as much as I would have liked today though. I have tidied out my car and am on my way to give it a good old clean on the outside. That is about it, I had hoped to get some general tidying and sorting done today too, but the hoover still has no bag, so I can’t finish anything off.
I hope the next week is as nice as I have a few little bits and bats planned.
I have also decided that I need to start learning to use linux properly as it cannot be as bad as I remember it. Plus, with me starting some computing modules in September which are all programming modules I will have to use it so might as well acclimatise.
