Monthly Archive for August, 2009

Windows XP? DVB-T? I have a solution!

Published on 30 August, 2009. View Comments Tags: Computers, DVBT, DVBT2, Freeview, Harsh, HD, Operating System, OS, OTA, Over the Air, Television, TV, Windows, XP.

Windows XP, and DVB-T. Two things that have been hanging around for a bit too long.

So, first up, Windows XP. Microsoft have been trying to get consumers and businesses to switch to Windows Vista and Windows 7, but they’ve been unable to get people to fully switch over. So, here’s an idea. Roll out a critical update that displays advertising and banners all over the operating system that pretty much says “Get Windows 7 now”, and then just completely drop support for the OS entirely. Don’t issue any patches, don’t offer support, just forget about it. Oh, and while that’s happening, do the same with Internet Explorer 6. And IE7 too, while we’re at it.

Next up, DVB-T. The UK uses DVB-T for the whole Freeview system (free-to-air digital TV), and has done since it was invented. The problem is, DVB-T is MPEG2, and it’s not very efficient. While DVB-T can cope with MPEG2 HDTV (Australia, for example, broadcasts SD and 720p/1080i HD channels over DVB-T), it only works when you have a small amount of channels, due to limited bandwidth. In this case (as far as I know), Australia only has about 15 channels in total, five of which are HD. The UK, on the other hand, has about 60 or so SD channels, all of which use DVB-T / MPEG2 – hence why there aren’t any HD channels available yet, because there’s no room.

However, the plan for launching over-the-air HDTV in the UK is to switch over to DVB-T2, which uses MPEG4 – meaning that, eventually, all the SD and HD channels can be broadcast using this system, and they’ll all be able to fit, as there’s plenty of bandwidth. The problem is this:

6A.2 However, viewers would need to buy new receiving equipment to access any services using the new standards. With 25m DTT set-top boxes or integrated digital televisions already installed, there needs to be a compelling consumer proposition to drive take-up of the new equipment – and migration of the platform over time to the more efficient standards.

Source: Five’s Response to Ofcom’s Second Invitation to Apply for DTT Multiplex B Capacity (PDF file).

So basically, the entire UK has DVB-T set top boxes, all of which would need to be replaced with DVB-T2 set top boxes to receive HD and (maybe) SD channels in the future. Again, I propose taking the same approach. Just cut off the analogue and DVB-T signals completely, and simply stick to DVB-T2. Considering a Freeview (DVB-T) box can be picked up for as little as £15 now, I’m sure DVB-T2 boxes can be made fairly cheaply, so it shouldn’t be that hard to switch over at all.

Oh sure, both solutions are pretty harsh, but come on. It’s almost 2010, and we’re talking about technology that’s over 8 years old (for Windows XP) and 12 years old (DVB-T). “Phasing them out” isn’t really going to work, considering how hard Microsoft have been trying to do it with XP.

IP.Board 3

Published on 22 August, 2009. View Comments Tags: Application, forum, invision power board, ipb, ipboard, ips, Software, web2.0, Website.

IP.Board is an amazing piece of software. I’ve used it ever since version 2.1 back in 2005, and it powers the forum I run – thewinforums.com. IPS just last month released version 3 of this powerful package, which brings a whole host of new features. Some useful, some not so much. I’m not going to go into detail about it, as I’ll probably end up explaining it for two hours, so instead, I’m going to do the usual internet thing, and complain about it. There aren’t all that many things that I don’t like (that I’ve found, so far), so this should be a pretty short post.
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Your Location on Twitter

Published on 22 August, 2009. Closed Tags: gps, Location, Location Services, Social Networking, Stalking, Tweet, Twitter.

http://blog.twitter.com/2009/08/location-location-location.html

Brilliant idea, in my opinion. This should turn Twitter into an even better service. The only problem is, I can see services such as Brightkite being made extinct after this. Still, they might be able to work out a way to make it even better. Who knows. Anyway, I think this is a very useful and worthwhile feature to Twitter and I look forward to trying it out. Once it’s live, I’m pretty sure I’ll be dropping Brightkite for good. Sorry guys.

I’m 18! Woohoo!

Published on 21 August, 2009. View Comments Tags: 18, Adult, Birthday, Celebration, London, Presents.

I turned 18 yesterday!

So now I can legally drink, gamble, and watch 18 rated films. Yay!

Didn’t really have a very exciting day though. Mainly sat around and did nothing.

I got a few presents – Richard Hammond’s book entitled “As You Do”, some bike gloves (warm ones too, for winter – my current ones are designed to keep your hands cool, which in this country in the middle of December isn’t fun ), a mug that says “World’s Best 18 Year Old” on it, a BluRay Disc (Top Gear Polar Special – thanks to Mark from TWF for getting me that by the way!), and, from a couple of weeks ago, the 20″ Samsung monitor that I got from @serenium (which was an early birthday present). Plus, today I’m going to go and get Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and, maybe, Crank 2 on BluRay.

I was originally going to go to London for my birthday with my parents, but two weeks ago, on the 10th, my dad managed to break his left leg so we’re not able to go anywhere until it’s fixed, and of course we had to cancel all the plans for London. Oh well.

Win a copy of Snow Leopard!

Published on 12 August, 2009. View Comments Tags: Apple, Free, Giveaway, Mac, OS X, osxgiveaway, Snow Leopard, Twitter, Upgrade.

Squarespace did it, Moonfruit did it, and now I’m doing it. For fun. And also as a bit of an experiment. I wouldn’t consider myself huge on Twitter (despite me owning this), so I’d like to see what kind of impact a giveaway from a person with just 325 followers would have on Twitter in general. It probably won’t be much of an impact like Squarespace or Moonfruit’s ones were, but I can try anyway. Oh, and lastly, because this is being funded out of my own pocket and because I’m not a rich corporation with lots of spare cash, I’m only giving away one copy, and I’m only giving away one copy of the upgrade version, not the full version. But of course, if you’re willing to offer a sponsorship deal, feel free to ask.

So, onto the details/rules:

You need an Intel Mac that 1) is running Leopard now, and 2) can run Snow Leopard (duh ).
To enter, simply add the hashtag #osxgiveaway to any tweet you make. There’s no limit, so feel free to enter as much as you like!
You can enter anywhere from now until 12pm (midday) GMT+0, on the day of Snow Leopard’s UK release – 28th August 2009.
You do not need to follow me on Twitter to be eligible to enter.
Entry is open to residents of these countries only: Apple – Choose your country or region.
Depending on whether or not I’m able to purchase Snow Leopard from your country’s store, I may have to purchase a copy from the UK Apple Store and ship the box via the postal service to you, so please bare this in mind.
Because Snow Leopard is stupidly overpriced in the UK (and if you win, and you’re in the UK), I’ll contribute £20 toward it, and you can contribute £5. Fair deal I’d say.
Once Snow Leopard is released, I will place the order and get it shipped to you within two weeks of Snow Leopard’s public release. I will, of course, keep you updated via email, @ replies, or Direct Messages on Twitter.
If you win and you already have a copy of Snow Leopard, and you don’t need another (c’mon, be nice!), let me know and I’ll pick another winner.

To link to this post, here’s a nice short tweet-sized URL: http://bit.ly/osxgiveaway
If you want to follow me on Twitter, I’m @williamtm

And that’s about it. Good luck, tell your friends, and get tweeting!

Update: The competition is now closed, and the winner is @djchrisallen! Congrats.

Nokia N97 vs the iPhone

Published on 11 August, 2009. View Comments Tags: Free, Mobile, N97, Nokia, phone, trial, WOM World.

As I said in my previous post, I managed to score a free N97 for a few weeks. So, here we go, a short review.

In terms of the phone overall, it feels solid. However, it’s thick. It’s almost twice as thick as the iPhone, which that alone really puts me off it. While both phones are the same weight, the iPhone feels a lot smaller, despite actually being wider then the N97. Both phones have WiFi, A-GPS, Bluetooth, HSDPA, and 32GB of internal memory (well, I have a 16GB iPhone 3G S, but it does come in a 32GB model). However, the N97 is a bit better in terms of features – it has an FM radio (doesn’t bother me, I rarely listen to the radio anyway, and if I do, it’s usually Capital FM, which is only on DAB where I live), and an FM transmitter, which is sortof useful – you can play your music from the N97 on any car stereo for example. However, I’ve never ever had one of these work well for me. Finally, it has a pretty good physical keyboard. It takes a bit of getting used to though, as the spacebar is a pretty small key on the right.

Now, onto the software. The iPhone OS is, quite honestly, my favourite mobile OS around. It’s well thought out, it rarely crashes, and it looks fantastic. If I was forced to choose another OS, it would probably be a tie between Windows Mobile, and Android. The N97, on the other hand…well, it’s hard to explain. On one hand, it has some great points – it looks pretty good out of the box, it’s skinnable, it can run background apps (ahem), and it’s very open – you can run whatever you want on it (ahem), you can change settings without needing hacks (ahem), and so on, but that’s where the positive points end.
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Nokia N97

Published on 6 August, 2009. View Comments Tags: Free, Mobile, N97, Nokia, phone, trial, WOM World.

As ~~soom~~ some people may have noticed on my Twitter / Facebook stream, I have an N97. Why? Well, 9 days ago, a random person sent me an email asking if I wanted to try out the N97. At first, I though “haha, scam”, but then as I read it, I noticed it was actually real. The place that sent it to me is WOM World, which is a Nokia-sponsored company.

Anyway, so, I have the N97 to try out for two weeks, and in the end, I (think) I’m supposed to basically compare it to the iPhone (since I ramble on about that so much), via various methods, such as blog posts, twitter comments, etc.

So, that’s why I have an N97. And, no, I’m not replacing my iPhone for two reasons. 1) I have a 24 month contract with O2, and 2) the N97 itself is a brick. It’s almost twice as thick as the iPhone, and it’s heavy, which, quite honestly, I hate. Anyway, I’ll post a more in depth look at it in the next week or so.