August Bank Holiday - Old Trafford

Hurah, First tickets of the new season are now mine....

I have four adults & 1 child ticket for ManU v Everton on August 30th - My Birthday... and Amanda is going with me for her first game.

Usual location, North Stand, 3rd tier... Lets just hope it's a good game

New Drive Delivered and Installed

My 250 GB drive arrived today, it took about 3 hours to move the data across from the current drive using Drive Image, but it was painless...

The new drive is quieter, faster and bigger, so a result al round then!

Adobe Premier Pro - Wow!

As you may be aware, I have been experimenting with video editing / dvd authoring software recently. I have purchased a copy of ULead VideoStudio 8 on the grounds that it produces good quality files, is relatively easy to use, and is very cheap. The DVD authoring, however, is a little restrictive. I have a trial version of ULead DVD Factory, that seems to give me most of what I want in a DVD authoring package, but I am having trouble getting that to run correctly.

I have now downloaded 30 day trial versions of Adobe Premier Pro & Encore.... Bloody expensive, but OH MY GOD! it should be compulsary for all software to be that good...! Simple effects that I manages in about 10 minutes in Video Studio took 10 seconds in Premier Pro, and it was so easy to use, if only it was £400 cheaper...

A short clip with a couple of effects in can be found here Slow motion confetti throing, Picture in Picture, colour balance corrected, brightness and contrast adjusted....

On the plus side, the main reason I want all this power is to help build a wedding video for Steve & Rebecca... I ahve some pretty cool ideas on what I want it to look like, and effects required etc... I just need to ensure that I have finished it inside 28 days

Football season is almost here

It seems only a short while since the end of the football season and Euro2004, but the 2004/5 Premier league season will soon be upon us. I have just applied for my first home game tickets of the season... Everton on August 30th - My Birthday...

I got to 3 games last season; Wolves, Birmingham & Southampton... Lets hope I manage at least that many again this time

New HDD on order

Now I have started to use Digital Video on the PC, I am finding a shortage of storage space an issue.. I currently have two 120 GB drives
Drive 1
C:\ (System) - 30 GB capacity, 15 GB free
W:\ (Backups) - 36 GB capacity, 5 GB free
V:\ (Video) - 45 GB Capacity, 6 GB free

Drive 2
D:\ (My data) - 40 GB Capacity, 30 GB free
M:\ (My Music) - 55 GB Capacity, 12 GB free
P:\ (My Pictures) - 20 GB Capactiy, 10 GB free

I have a total of 70 GB free, but spread out over 2 discs and even that only allows for about 3 hours worth of captured + finished video!

So I have just ordered a new drive (250Gb Hitachi Deskstar 7K250) and will replace Drive 1 as this is a) the slower of the two drives, and b) it is the easiest to remove from the case!
C:\ (System) - 40 GB
W:\ (Backups) - 40 GB
V:\ (Video) - 160 GB

That should allow for about 6 hours worth of captured fles (12 GB/hour), the finished .AVI files(12 GB/hour) and WMV files for the website (150 MB/hour)
and still leave plenty of room on the D:\ for working files used during burning.

The drive has cost £120 inc VAT, P&P from CCL Computers

3D Printers?

I know this original article is dated January, but I missed it at the time...

Basically, you have an "Inkjet Printer" that has special conducting and semiconducting polymers instead of ink, and build a 3d model of whatever you have designed. Ok that would be cool just by itself, but the latest twist is that you can 'print' the electronic circuitry inside the device as you build it...

MP3 Library for your HiFi?

For quite some time now, I have been loooking for a HiFi based MP3 player. What I actually mean by that is a HiFi separates style unit, with a good sized hard drive (80 to 160 GB), wireless network connectivity (ethernet connection would do - at a push), a decent quality audio decoder and encoder and standard phono stereo outputs. This would sit in my HiFi cabinet in the space currently used by my Cassette Deck.

So far, I have been completely frustrated in my search - lots of AV streaming boxes for connecting into TV etc, usually requiring your "server" pc to remain switched on...

Today, I thought I had found the answer to my problem - The Cyruslink. Given Cyrus's reputation, you just know it is going to be good quality (audio and build), the 160 or 250 GB drive is actually close to excessive (I currently have my entire MP3 collection stored in 45GB at 192 kbs), and the additional music zones are not currently on my list, but could be usefull with two kids in the house. You can even control it from your PDA!

So then, what's the problem - why is it not on order? - Simple £3000 for the 160 GB, £3500 for the 250 GB and and additional £200 for the PDA Remote Control software!!

What is an Agnostic?

I am not a religious person, but have never been sure if I was an agnostic or an atheist.. Today I read this page, and I am now convinced that agnostic is the correct description...

Latest XP SP2 installed

This time it's build RC2 Build 2162...

I will be glad when this thing is finally released, it takes a couple of hours to uninstall the previous version, and install the new one each time!

Personally, I have not had a problem with SP2 since about March!, and even then it was pretty trivial...

Schools Out

Not sure about the rest of the country, but our local schools have all finished for the summer holidays today.

The Plus Side : For the next two weeks, traffic into work and back will be almost non existant, and for the following four weeks about 50% of normal.

The Minus Side : Evry day I have off from work will be spent in the company of the wife and kids!!

The Megan went to the shop today...

Took the car in to Renault Birmingham this morning, and collected it back this afternoon... It needs a new door handle on the rear off-side door, but as it has to be painted to match the car it will be about two weeks...

I tried to enable RSS...

Following some instructions I barely understood, I allegedly enabled RSS feed on the blog.

Only one problem, when I connect my RSS feed reader to it - it was empty!

[Edit: Took about 20 minutes before the RSS reader picked it up, I forgot it was only set to refresh every 30 minutes]

Archos Battery - Part 3

My new 2800 mAh battery arrived yesterday, I charged it up for about 3 hours, but it only lasted for 7 hours under playback test...

I put it back on charge, and left it charging all day, and ran the test again... after 5 hours it was at 43% indicating a run time of about 8 hours!

Not too impressed so far. I will use it as normal for the next few days - allowing only small discharge amounts before topping back up. I will then test again, and see if the battery improves ater that.

Finally finished the painting in the Hall!!!

Started mid September 2003, took a short break from September 18th to July 8th... ! It is now complete Hurrah!

Now that's how warranty claims should work...

Had a little problem with the Megan yesterday, the rear - offside door would not open! It felt like a mechanical failure as there was no resistance on the door handle, unfortunately this door also has the child lock engeged : Not able to open it from inside either!

Took the door panel off this morning (after removing the rear seat, searching around for my Torx set etc) and found a small plastic clip had broken. Popped over to the dealers (Renault - Birmingham), explained what had broken - they pointed out that it was still under warranty - some 14 months after I brought it 2nd hand!! It's booked in for nextr Friday, and they will even supply a courtesy car for the day.

The broken part is about £1.50, the labour was estimated to be £150 + VAT

A "Natural" form of contraception

If you are considering becoming a parent, or are wondering if you did the right thing by not having children... let me ease your mind.

I have recently been forced to endure that most dreaded of parental responsibilities : The School Concert

Now, some of you - propably the ones without children in Primary Education - may not think that too bad, well watch the video of the concert online HERE... And that was one of the better ones I've been to!

If someone had showed me clips such as this when I was younger, I too may have remained a "non-parent"!

The Bike repair saga continues...

I went into the dealers yesterday, the downpipe has been delivered, the silencer is due "Any time now" (TM), and the disk is "On it's way".

ON the plus side, they have basically agreed to call me as soon as the exhaust is in stock, and I can have it fitted AND the bike serviced the NEXT DAY, with the use of a loan bike for the day.

Not the greatest news, but at least its getting better not worse!

Hillcrest School - Birmingham

It's that time in the life of a parent that you are really not looking forward too - choosing a senior school for your first born!

Amy is very keen to take the 11+ examinations and apply for King Edwards IV school (if successfull), but wisely she has agreed to keep her options open, and yesterday I took her to Hillcrest School.

Unike King Edwards (5 Ways), Hillcrest is a Girls only school. On this fact alone, I would prefer Hillcrest as I really believe that girls, more so than lads, will work harder in a unisex environment. There are two King Edwards Girls Schools, but they are more difficult to travel to.

Another consideration is that, well to be kind - Amy's work rate is steady, and I am a little concerned that the strong accademic push of a grammer school, may not suit her. Hillcrest seem to have achieved some good results without applying too much pressure to the pupils. They also have dance and drama activities, which her ladyship would love!

Archos Battery - Part 2

I was getting a little concerned over the length of time it was taking to recieve the battery I ordered on the 24th June (almost 2 weeks), so I checked on the website - the little bugger was stil in my shopping basket...!

Seems I followed the link off to PayPal, and forgot to click the final confirmation button. Ah well, it's ordered now.

New Video On-Line

http://mycameras.redbreva.co.uk/MusicLive2004-High.htm

Amy, as a member of the Howley Grange Choir, joined together with a number of other schools from around Dudley to perform a 30 minute piece called "Choosing Chums" at the Dudley Music Live festival yesterday. The stage was inside Dudley Castle, and it provides a magnificent backdrop.

The video was edited in Video Studio 8 - Trail Edition, I am really starting to get comfortable with that application, and I think I will be buying the full version very soon. I had chance to use "Adobe Encore" the other day to author a DVD - it is a truly spectacular piece of software, but price wise - well out of my league.

Two New Marks Spains - Part 2

I collected them this morning, and they look magnificent in the frames. They sit either side of "Black Dress", and compliment it very nicely.


best of all, as a valued customer, I got both pictures, in better than standard frames for £500 - a saving of almost £75

Video Editing Software

Up till now, I have been using Microsoft Movie maker 2, which came free with XP. Very easy to use, but the quality of the output is sadley lacking. after a little digging around, it was suggested that I try ULead VideoStudio 8, it's only £43, and you can download a 30 day demo.

I used it last night to produce a DVD, and I am very pleased with the quality of the finished article - All I need to do now is learn how to take better video!